LES SOURCES DE FRANCOUZSKÁ POEZIE NOVÉ DOBY DE KAREL ČAPEK

The core of Karel Čapek's translations – a set of translations of modern French poets – is linked to the time of the First World War. According to Čapek's note accompanying the first edition of this set – Francouzská poezie nové doby (Praha, František Borový 1920) – "this handful of translations of French poetry comes mainly from 1916". It can therefore be said that the chapter of Čapek's creative biography dedicated to translation is limited to this year alone. Čapek would translate only sporadically thereafter. Nevertheless, the short period of his activity as a translator was of fundamental importance for Czech culture: Čapek presented in his anthology a number of key texts of European modernism and, at the same time, brought profound innovations to the practice of Czech translation, the influence of which is still with us today. This article examines the anthology's sources and inspirations.