Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

As we continue this week to celebrate the centenary of the death of Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, one of Slovakia’s greatest literary figures, today we focus on his so-called ‘Bloody Sonnets’ – a series of short but passionate anti-war poems written in 1914 during the early months of the First World War, but which were impossible to publish as long as the war lasted. Jonathan speaks with John Minahane, whose English translation of the Bloody Sonnets was published in 2018, about this remarkable work by one of Slovakia’s most renowned figures.