The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch has numerous peculiarities to challenge the translator. The author’s vocabulary veers frequently from vulgar to sublime, his thematic material runs from the gutter to high philosophy and (ir)religious parody, and both his spelling and punctuation literally defy convention. I have attempted to preserve as much of the flavor of Klíma’s writing as possible, leaving foreign words and phrases in their original languages, translating even his favorite adjectives consistently as often as possible, and respecting the author’s syntactical idiosyncrasies. If Ladislav Klíma’s prose challenges and offends as readily in English as it does in the original Czech, then this translation will have hit the mark, and hopefully the novel will give readers food for thought as well as a good laugh.
Carleton Bulkin
June 2000