BREZINA, OTOKAR

BREZINA, OTOKAR. - Pseudonym of Václav Jebarý. Czech poet, b. near Tábor in 1868, d. at Jaroměřice in 1929.

He wrote: “The Mysterious Distances” (Tajemné dálky), “Dawn in the West” (Svítání na západě), “The Winds from the Poles” (Větrý od pólů), “The Builders of the Temple” (Stavitelé chrámu), “The Hands” (Ruce), “Music of the Springs” (Hudba pramenů).

B. turns his gaze toward mystical distances. Painfully realizing that his soul is not satisfied,

that it weeps in uncertainty and full of doubts, in his own torment he turns his gaze in search of the sufferings of his fellow men; thus he finds an anchor of solidarity and raises his hands, supported by an infinite number of human beings, toward the Eternal and the Infinite, finally finding the peace that he could not find in his isolation. His poetry, according to approximate and rather debatable formulas, has been described as metaphysical and symbolist. He is, without doubt, the greatest mystical poet of modern Czech literature.

BIBL.: E. Saudek, Pod oblobou O. Bréziny (Beneath the Horizon of O. B.), Prague 1928; M. Dvořák, Tradice dílo O. Bréziny (The Tradition of O. B.’s Work), ibid. 1928; E. Chalupný, Studie o O. Bréziny a jiných syvých českého umění a filosofie (Study on O. B. and Other Figures of Czech Art and Philosophy), ibid. 1912; F. X. Šalda, in Dule a dílo (The Soul and the Work), Prague 1922; special issue of the Rivista di lett. slave, edited by E. Lo Gatto, Rome 1930. Miroslav Štumpf
Cite this article

“BREZINA, OTOKAR.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 74. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/brezina-otokar.