Yet There is Music

The poems collected in this book, "Yet There is Music", are the entirety of Holan's lyrics from the period of 1939-1948. These poems were only published in book form well after that time, because of Holan's poetry being listed in the communist index of forbidden books. For Holan, the lyrics were always a realm of questioning the sense of human existence and the mystery of human existence in the world. His consciousness of the instability of the godless world, the impossibility of anchoring human existence, the ambiguity and delusiveness of all phenomena that surround humans, all led Holan to state: "we come from ruins, with love besmeared ..." His poetry reveals the drama of a poet led by a time of crises and wars into the abyss of human existence: "the picture that is not an abyss here / can't be a sign." The dread of the void, however, is accompanied, even if only slightly, by a faith in discovering a purposeful life. There are verses in which Holan uses the image of light appearing in the midst of shadows, as if the way towards a fuller, deeper, more complete humanity was not lost forever: "O life - yes, you! Still only you. / You, in a friendly conversation and a kindly shaken hand, / you, in the deeds of good will because of heart's hope ... "