Tomáš Míka joined translators from Belgium, China and France in January 2015 for a Schwob residency organised by Wales Literature Exchange focused on translating modern literary classics.

I started to translate R. S. Thomas’s poems at the suggestion of Sioned Puw Rowlands who knew I had translated works by John Bunyan and James Hogg. On reading poems by R.S. Thomas, I found a similar combination of religious topics treated with great originality, although a very different one from both that of Bunyan and that of Hogg. For example, The Musician where Christ’s suffering on the cross is likened to the passion of a violinist playing in concert, or several poems in which he demonstrates profound interest in science and effort to reconcile religious faith with scientific discoveries.

I like R.S. Thomas’s terse style of writing, his unsentimental, analytical observations of nature and people which, strangely enough, can at times produce a strong emotional effect in such deeply moving poems as those on the death of his wife.

During my Schwob residency, I read as much of R. S. Thomas’s poetry as possible and managed to complete translations of several of them. I visited his former home at Sarn Rhiw and consider myself lucky to have had the excellent opportunity to speak with the French translator of R. S. Thomas, Marie-Thérèse Castay, who knew the poet personally.

Very revealing to me was an informal lecture on Welsh literature, including passages dedicated specifically to R. S. Thomas, by Tony Brown, Professor of English at Bangor University. I enjoyed several opportunities to speak to writers, poets and literary magazine editors living in Wales thus forming, through dialogue, a better idea of the length and breadth of Welsh literature, culture and people.

My stay in Wales was an eye-opening experience in many ways. The very fact that Welsh is the first language of a large number of people in Wales was very new to me. It was only after I arrived in Wales that I realised that, in addition to literature written by Welsh authors in English some of which I knew, there is a large body of literature written in Welsh.

And last but not least: I absolutely loved the Welsh countryside, the sea, the natural landscape! It was a wonderful stay and I enjoyed every bit of it!