Radovan Jursa: … that he is mortal

Born in 1970 in Frýdek-Místek. He studied at the Faculty of Medicine of Palacký University in Olomouc. He works as a cardiac surgeon at the University Hospital in Ostrava. He is the author of the poetry collections Koncept transparence (The Concept of Transparency, 2025; Magnesia Litera for Poetry, 2026), Mezzovoce (2019), Mezi žebry déšť (Rain Between the Ribs, 2012), and Pianissimo (1999). “The simplest thing is probably just to say love,” he said for the website Ostravan.cz. “It seems to me that in literature love is increasingly questioned from within the individual, that it is threatened at the level of one’s relationship to oneself, or to another person. That’s fine, but at the same time I live in a world that constantly reminds me that love is not only subject to inner conflicts, but above all to external forces. Put very simply: I can lose another person not only because I am struggling within myself, but also because they are mortal.”

foto © Marek Malůšek