Nezval began studying law in Brno, then transferred to Charles University in Prague, but did not complete his studies at the Faculty of Philosophy there either. As early as 1922 he joined the left-wing literary association Devětsil, where he was involved in the emergence of a new lyrical movement called Poetism. The manifesto of Poetism, which regarded life as a single poem, was set out in Nezval's text Papoušek na motocyklu (The Parrot on the Motorcycle). In another poetic work Podivuhodný kouzelník (The Wonderful Magician), written in 1922, the magician – who is Nezval's poetic self-portrait – seeks to teach people to perceive the beauty of the world. In 1926 he published a poetic Abeceda (Alphabet), for which he collaborated with the dancer Milča Majerová, who used her body to imitate the shape of individual letters; the resulting photographs were combined with Nezval's verses and Karel Teige’s radical typography to create visual poetry. In 1924 Nezval joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and gradually became the political initiator of the Czech avant-garde movement. He wrote with ease, had a great feeling for language as well as the necessary personal charisma, and he was not lacking in organisational skills. Furthermore, he was able to accurately grasp the spirit of the times and help it find poetic expression, whether in the form of Poetism or Surrealism in the interwar period, the hunger for the beauty of the Czech language during the Second World War, or later through Socialist Realism and the Stalinist personality cult in the 1950s. For a time he worked as a dramatist at the Osvobozené divadlo (Liberated Theatre), where he was close to the actors, writers, and playwrights Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich. His travels to France, Italy, and Greece, and especially to the Soviet Union, made a strong impression on him. For example, he met the spiritual father of the French Surrealists, André Breton, under whose influence he founded the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia in 1934. His best-known Surrealist collections include Žena v množném čísle (Woman in the Plural) (1936), Praha s prsty deště (Prague with Fingers of Rain) (1936) and Absolutní hrobař (The Absolute Gravedigger) (1937). As early as 1938, he unsuccessfully tried to dissolve the group due to ideological differences with other members over the Stalinist practices of Soviet cultural policy. After the Second World War, and especially after the Communist coup of February 1948, he was extremely active in the Communist Party, which earned him various official honours and awards, including the Gold Medal of the World Peace Council and the title of National Artist. Vítězslav Nezval's boundless imagination and brilliant use of language, his knowledge of modern trends in poetry and his ability to collaborate with leading artistic personalities secured him a prominent role in the turbulent periods of the 1920s and 1950s. František Skála has repeatedly described himself as a closet Surrealist: “I even think that contemporary Czech surrealists could say from a distance that they could accept this Skála. Precisely because of his imagination. But I don't like the ideology that was present in the Surrealism of the interwar era.”
Parrot on a Motorcycle – On Poetic Craft
It is necessary to speak without hesitation.
Fruitless, I was waiting in vain for the arrival of the clairvoyant typist, when fever escaped from the medical encyclopedia, it reached fireworks and is dancing. My charming little cousin, my radioactive dove, bon vent, bonne mer! The one who came from the unexpected quietness of a hospital or from the boulevards of the last century and leaned an ear to my head will hear the ringing of thirty little alarm clocks.
The neurotic health of the 20th century is a prerequisite of modern poetry, enabling fast association and free ideas.
I am enthusiastic about my manner.
Poets of the past indulged in philosophy. Thought.
Its unexpected ascent. Deduction, induction, elaborate on a subject, conclusion. Dressing logic of concepts into celebration robe. Oh, what a work! – Mildewed unpleasantness of offices. Thinkers!
Old way of creating: inorganic, subordinate to ideology, plot and logic.
I am in constant contact with my digestion. All senses are at work. 36 antennae an instinct perpetually flowing. They all collide into the only point on the chessboard. Entirety of trembling and its darts – Behold, sensibility.
New way: organic and physiological growth of the form from images and their reproductive laws.
Behold, it is you, who are creating me! Hearing me as I am brought to eternal sleep. Continual roaring promenade. Obnoxious uproars, which are killing me. It is necessary to look up at a flying airplane and to hear the song of a lark. The state of sensitivity in delirium.
Auditory types of artists fall down with the cure of romantic contemplation.
Behold, it is you! Eyes with which I am awoken to life. It is necessary to see electric flowers and smell the aroma of the revolting crowd. Magic mirrors, eyes, spectrum of primeval forest and fat verses at the corner. Behold, it is you! Blue colours of smocks, these vertical skies, cockade of carriage drivers. And constant presence in my gardens and vineyards, my birds! Unforgettable fairy tales.
Superiority of an image born from modern metropolitan realities increases visual ability of today’s artists.
There are no concepts for me. Away with plot! All that I used to see in a few fragments of seconds. I carry you without philosophical connection. It’s you, who are creating me. Behold, it’s me. Collection of ideas, these parrots with magical names.
Concept and plot are derived correlates of philosophical epochs. Logical and ideological scholasticism.
Image, primary and physiological correlation.
Constant penetration. Always a different mixture. Law of association, not differing in strength from the one which manipulates my thirst and may passions.
The laws of this poetry completely vital, like the law of a dream.
It is necessary to constantly obey this law. Laziness, hydra, that desire to be eternally satisfied! It is necessary to constantly experiment.
Poetic intelligence resides in the drowning out of gained intelligence.
Magician, who always chose the only one from an infinity of possibilities. Elements in constant whirl! Behold, some of the hooks:
Idea: The shape focused in the mirror. Fiery parrot or Japanese lantern, Curtain falls! The shape focused in the mirror.
Association: An alchemist quicker than radio waves. It is entirely natural like blood exchange. Sparks jumping from star to star. This special kind of thinking, when we sail the river, Acheron, pulled by magnetic mountains, opening up their scenic views. To ride on the carousel through a cave with darkness between glassy oases, between bouquets of light and water-hurlers.
Primary association, generally valid, valid as mediation. Mediating the state of open hypnosis between poet and reader.
Secondary association, dependent on individual memory.
Rhythm: force that breaks the continual pulse. Gaps in logic. There is no smoothness. There is sparkling. Ideas thrown away and cast away, hummingbirds in certain light. Advice signals.
Rhyme: to connect distant wastelands, times, breeds and castes with harmony of word. Create miraculous friendships.
Necessity of imaginative quality of rhyming words.
Assonance: Swift, elegant, irresistible. It is unstable and magical like a harbour before departure, love of those who briefly glanced at one another and made love. Entertaining misalliance.
A child they call: Coquette.
Assonance allows a large number of associations, not burdened with acoustic bonds so legitimate as a rhyme.
Metaphor: gallant exalted playboy.
Metaphor, the tool of poetic transformation.
Art: Art of directing and aiming these runners. The art of acrobatics. Behold, maximum performance, it is game.
Labour: it proceeded. Ask the dancers and fire-eaters. Ask the parrot riding a motorcycle.
Absolute mastering of form and construction. Creation of complexion.
Muse: That which sets the tone of aroma.
Muse.
Axiom of this way, completely physiological process. Satisfying poetic instinct.
Integral expediency.
Art: big brave lovers, audacious and beautiful, walking through a den of masturbators.
Wings.
The poem: miraculous bird, a parrot on a motorcycle. Ridiculous, sly and miraculous. Object like a soap, a mother-of-pearl knife or an airplane.
Distinctive real objects in the world of ideas and their forms, independent from the world of phenomena.
Some pleasures: shouting colours, carousel, illustrations of saints in lace, harmonica, players from Jenofefa, people with aprons, planets, brandy, the country, fairy tales and their association.
The material from which his poetic superstructure grows.
Some pleasures: Blush, shop windows, parks, promenade, barrel organ, cafés, humour, ties, artificial flowers and their associations.
Love to the Muse.
Inventiveness.
New blends: History and fables, mingled with folktales from the music hall. Miraculous crossbreeding.
Emotion: maximum emotions in a second. Not a description. Summary idea: Reflector, which has an influence. A strike during sleep, which awakes a dream. A march like a dream. From effect to detail. Luminous point, which set the surface whirling.
Psychoanalysts will likely discover the real sense of this poetry.
Purpose: Emotion.
On the day of the last judgement I will have to throw in front of the creator’s face, instead of a cynical corpse, in this sorrowful conflagration of love, 2 or 3 poems. I enhanced the world by 2 or 3 new parrots.
You, Douanier Rousseau:
“With tiny alms, so low a price,
he opened the gates of paradise.”
(Translated into English by Jennifer Rogers)