Translation of Iranian Migrant Women’s Poetry into Czech

The book “Before the End of Eternity” is the title of an anthology of poetry by Iranian women, recently published in the Czech Republic by the PEN Club (Czech PEN) in collaboration with Radek Hasalík—a poet and member of the club—who also translated the poems into Czech. The book has been published in 500 copies.

This collection includes poems by Shima Kalbasi, Sheyda Mohamadi, Roya Hakakian, Sholeh Wolpé, Bita Malakuti, Mana Aghaee, Mahbubeh Shadzi, Shirin Razavian, and Ladan Salami—presented in three languages: Czech, English, and in some cases, Persian.

Radek Hasalík, who also has two of his own poems included in the anthology (in Czech), has previously translated and published poems by several Iranian poets in other collections. These include works by Sepideh Jodeyri, Rosa Jamali, Fatemeh Ekhtesari, Mehdi Mousavi, and Leili Khodai.

In this new anthology, he focuses on migration literature and has selected female poets who live outside of Iran. The book is 135 pages long.