Králiky vidia ružové. Svět věcí a zvířat Jozefa Mihalkoviče
Rabbits see pink. Jozef Mihalkovič’s world of things and animals

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on one of the groups of core motifs in Jozef Mihalkovič’s (b. 1935) poetry. Animals and life in the countryside in general play an important role in Mihalkovič’s verse and the poet often uses these in contrast to the world of buildings and new settlements. However, the countryside is not portrayed in an idyllic light here. On the contrary: Mihalkovič’s texts can be viewed as gripping environmental poetry. At the same time, the poet’s melancholy and nostalgia are acknowledgements of respect for nature and it is through empathy and sympathy that his early poetry resonates with his attitude towards nature. Intellectually, however, Mihalkovič tries to transfer the qualities of animals to situations that are highly unpoetic and concrete. In this way, he succeeds in creating novel connections and unexpected encounters which are frequently highly interesting. This, however, changes during the 1980s when only memories remain and pragmatic and “unpoetic” poetry in which animals are often replaced by things emerges.

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