lyrical reflections, with occasional submerged notes of political protest. He became a legendary poet-recluse. He had a daughter, Kateřina, born in 1949 in his bad years and in addition to the social problems she suffered from Down syndrome. He wrote a poem called Bajaja for her, which with Jaroslav Seifert's Maminka, is one of the cornerstone of Czech children's poetry. The book was illustrated by Jiří Trnka. When his daughter died in 1977, Holan lost his will to live and ceased writing. He died in a flat in Prague's riverfront Kampa district in 1980 and was buried in Olšany Cemetery. Work Poetry First poems Blouznivý vějíř (1926) Triumf smrti (1930, 1936, 1948) Experimental lyricism in the 1930s Vanutí (1932) Oblouk (1934) Kameni, přicházíš… (1937) Political poems Září (1938) Odpověď Francii (written 1938, released 1945) Sen (1939) Záhřmotí (1940) První testament (1940) Zpěv tříkrálový Chór Poems celebrating Liberation Dík Sovětskému svazu (1945) Panychida (1945) Tobě (1947) Rudoarmějci (1947) Lyrical poems after WWII Bolest Strach Toskána (1963) Mozartiana (1963) Noc s Hamletem (1964) Noc s Ofélií (1970) Bajaja (1955) Bez názvu (1963) Na postupu (1964) Na sotnách (1967) Asklépiovi kohouta (1970) Předposlední (1982) Sbohem? (1982) Epic poetry Terezka Planetová (1943) Cesta mraku (1945) Příběhy (1963) Prose Kolury Lemuria Hadry, kosti, kůže Torzo As a translator Holan translated poems from French, German, Russian, Polish and other languages. Among the poets whose works he translated are Rainer Maria Rilke, Mikhail Lermontov, Charles Vildrac, Charles Baudelaire, Jean de La Fontaine, Pierre de Ronsard, Nikolaus Lenau, Adam Mickiewicz or Juliusz Słowacki. References External links Holan's biography (source for this article) 9 poems in English Persian translation of A Night with Hamlet A website dedicated to Holan's poetry in Persian 1905 births 1980 deaths Writers from Prague Czechoslovak poets Czech Roman Catholics Czechoslovak writers Czech Communist poets Czechoslovak translators Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk