In March we commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Karel Kryl, in April the eightieth anniversary of his birth. Is he still an author who has something to say? What is left of Karel Kryl and his legend? This was discussed in Salon Echa by journalist and the poet’s good friend Marta Bystrová, journalist and author of the book Krylov interview A halfling Miloš Čermák, historian and journalist Martin Groman, literary scholar Jiří Zizler and theater actor, musician and lawyer Adam Rut. And since commemorating the singer-songwriter’s anniversary without his songs would not be respectful, we started with a song.
(Adam Rut plays the song Hle jak se prou at the beginning)
In March we commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Karel Kryl, in April the eightieth anniversary of his birth. Is he still an author who has something to say? Photo: Profimedia.cz
What was the relationship between Kryl and Václav Havel? There is a lot of tradition about this, it is commonly said that Kryl went to apply for civil service and Havel told him: Karl, sing. And that it offended him.
Bystrova: I think the relationship was cautious. I know that Václav Havel highly valued what Kryl should do in the civil service. But since he didn’t come up with anything, and since he was a kumster himself and felt the power of Krylo as an artist reaching out to people, I think he decided that was more important. On the other hand, Kryl criticized him. Like he criticized everyone, which we didn’t want to hear. We didn’t want him to spoil our illusion that everything would finally be better now. Havel’s circle was understandably sensitive to criticism. But Kryl did not criticize out of ill will, he felt it that way.
Zizler: Kryl had excellent prerequisites for politics. He was educated, he was an excellent orator, he knew how to formulate, he knew language, he had a clean slate. But few could imagine him in that role. And that was perhaps the meaning of Havel’s statement, because even he could not imagine him as a politician.
Groman: We haven’t said it here yet, but Kryl had a lot of experience in the West. He was oppositional because he knew that there should be opposition. He understood that people here felt that they had exchanged evil for good, but they did not understand that democracy was more complicated. While Kryl knew. But I am not sure if he would be capable of political compromise in politics. He would rather end up like most idealists.
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