Seifert, Jaroslav << ZY fuhrt, YAH roh slahf >> (1901-1986), a Czech poet, won the 1984 Nobel Prize for literature. He was the first Czech writer to receive the award. Seifert wrote more than 30 volumes of poetry, but few were translated during his lifetime and he was little known outside his homeland until he won the Nobel Prize.
Many of Seifert’s poems protest political oppression and advocate freedom of expression, making him a national hero in his homeland. His works often celebrate the cultural heritage of the Czech Republic and his native city of Prague. Seifert’s work is noted for its conversational style and for its frequent humor.
Seifert was born on Sept. 23, 1901, in Prague. He worked as a journalist and as a translator of French and Russian manuscripts. Many of his early poems reflect his Communist beliefs. However, he broke with Communism in 1929. In Put Out the Lights (1938), Seifert wrote about the Munich Agreement that gave Germany part of Czechoslovakia. The Prague Column (1977) is a long poem that uses a Prague monument as a symbol for 300 years of often-troubled Czech history. Seifert’s other collections include The Nightingale Sings Badly (1926), Dressed in Light (1940), The Casting of Bells (1967), and An Umbrella from Piccadilly (1979). He died on Jan. 10, 1986.
