Svejk Batman to the Chaplain

 

   ‘Do you know why we´re taking you to the chaplain?’

   ‘For confession’, said Svejk nonchalantly. ‘Tomorrow they´re going to hang me. This is what they always do on these occasions and they call it spiritual consolation.’

The Good Soldier Svejk

 

When I was very young I saw a television series that narrated the bizarre adventures of this soldier. I was thrilled. I, who by then had already left Borstal and was facing the adult world as an adult, was like a French bean pod about to burst. All I had was doubt, insecurity and sarcasm when I thought about things as serious as war.

Since then, the good-natured Czech became my hero because he represented how absurd an armed conflict can be. At once absurd and tragic.

Finding and obtaining —legally or not— the book on which the TV show was based took me years and years until a few days ago, completely by chance — believe me — I got my hands on it.

I am not exaggerating when I say that it has taken more than thirty years, and I may even be underestimating that, to find this little treasure. Maybe later I will be encouraged to tell how this discovery came about.

Fromm y Borstal

LDR

 

The Good Soldier Svejk AND HIS FORTUNES IN THE WORLD WAR.- Jaroslav Hasek.- Penguin Books, London, 1973 (Translation from the Czech by Cecil Parrot with the original illustrations by Josef Lada)