7 August 1921, Prague – 22 August 2014, Prague
Writer, author of experimental texts and radio plays, translator
Bohumila Tauferová, née Grögerová, grew up in the family of a soldier of the Czechoslovak legions in Russia, a military lawyer, and head of the judicial department at the Ministry of National Defence, later general prosecutor of the Czechoslovak Army. During her childhood, she lived with her parents in Prague, Olomouc (from 1923), Brno (1926–1929), and again in Prague. After graduating from Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk Girls’ Realschule (1932–1940) and a one-year school for secretaries in 1942, she joined the Sociální pomoc (Social Aid) society as a foreign-language secretary. From May 1945, she worked in the press department of the Ministry of National Defence; she also studied Czech and Russian at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University for two terms. In 1951, she worked at the publishing house Naše vojsko, first as a publicity clerk, and after completing a library course as a foreign-language documentary clerk. In 1972, she left for the Centre for Scientific, Technical and Economic Information for political reasons. She lived in Prague–Veleslavín. Both her daughters are translators.
Bohumila Grögerová began to publish her texts and especially translations from German literature more consistently in 1956. Together with Josef Hiršal, she prepared a programme of experimental poetry from all over the world for the Viola club in Prague, where she also presented her own texts (Bestiarium, 1966). Between 1964 and 1974, she took part in exhibitions of visual poetry in Britain, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia (Obraz a písmo / Image and Writing, 1966). Together with Josef Hiršal, she wrote the radio play Lunovis aneb Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém / Moon Swing or Song to the Moon (a montage of the world press reactions to the landing of man on the Moon, Cologne 1971, Czech Radio 1993); together, they also prepared the literary and musical programme of Czech and world nonsense poetry entitled Nic miloval Nicku / Nothing Loved Zero (2004). Independently, Grögerová wrote the radio plays Zweiäugiges Wortspiel (Saarbrücken 1972), 6 Briefe aus der fiktiven Korrespondenz mit Friederike Mayröcker (Berlín 1990), Už jenom dýchat... aneb Dum spero, spiro / Just Breathe… or Dum spero, spiro (1991), and several “miniplays”, short untitled radio sketches. Her collections of poems inspired the radio series Rukopis / Manuscript (2009) a Dva zelené tóny / Two Green Tones (2013). In 2009, the book interview Klikyháky paměti / Memory Squiggles inspired a five-part radio programme. Czech Television filmed interviews with Bohumila Grögerová for the series Ještě jsem tady / I Am Still Here (directed by Zdeněk Tyc, 2009) and Česko jedna báseň / Poetic Czechia (directed by Martin Langer, 2011). In 2013, Hana Nováková made a documentary film entitled Vidím tě ve slovech, která nevidím / I Can See You in Words I Cannot See, which inspired the 2021 exhibition SETINY / HUNDREDTHS. Her and Josef Hiršal’s prose poems Mlýn / The Mill (1981), Kolotoč / Carousel (1983), Preludium (1985) and Let let / The Flight of Years (1987–1988) were published in the samizdat editions Petlice and Krameriova expedice. She also contributed to the samizdat anthologies K 75. narozeninám prof. Dr. Václava Černého / To Dr Václav Černý’s 75th Birthday (1980, eds. Karel Pecka, Antonín Bělohoubek), Na střepech volnosti / On the Shards of Freedom (1987, ed. Zdeněk Hrubý [=Jaromír Hořec]) and Sborník k nedožitým pětašedesátinám Vladimíra Janouška / Almanac on the Occasion of the Late Vladimír Janoušek’s 65th Birthday. She also translated and edited poetry by Friederike Mayröcker and Erich Arendt (with Josef Hiršal) under the name of Bohumila Geussová. She was awarded the Tom Stoppard Prize (1986), the Josef Jungmann Prize (1993, 2000), the PEN Club Lifetime Achievement Award (2009), and the Magnesia Litera Prize for Rukopis / The Manuscript (2009). In In 2010, the radio documentary Spřízněni tvorbou / Bound by Creation was made about the relationship between Bohumila Grögerová, Josef Hiršal and Austrian poets Ernst Jandl and Friederike Mayröcker.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1958 Ch. Morgenstern: Šibeniční písně (Gallow Songs) / translation, with J. Hiršal
1959 E. A. Poe: Zrádné srdce. Básně a povídky (The Tell-Tale Heart. Poems and Short Stories) / translation, with J. Schwarz
1962 O podivné záhadě na poštovním úřadě (A Strange Mystery at the Post Office) / with J. Hiršal
1963 H. M. Enzensberger: Zpěv z potopy / translation, with J. Hiršal
1963 E. Ionesco: Nenajatý vrah (The Unhired Killer) / translation, with J. Hiršal
1965 Co se slovy všechno poví (What Words Say) / with J. Hiršal
1965 H. Heissenbüttel: Texty (Texts) / translation, with J. Hiršal
1968 H. Heissenbüttel: Prohlášení nosorožce (Explanation of the Rhinoceros) / translation, with J. Hiršal
1965 Ch. Morgenstern: Beránek měsíc (The Moon Sheep) / translation, with J. Hiršal
1967 J. Bobrowski: Znamení popela (Sign of the Ashes) / translation, with J. Hiršal, B.G. neuvedena
1967 M. Bense: Teorie textů (Theory of Texts) / translation, with J. Hiršal
1967 Magnetická pole (Magnetic Fields) / translation / with other authors
1967 Slovo, písmo, akce, hlas. K estetice kultury technického věku (Word, Writing, Action, Voice. On The Aesthetics Of Culture in the Technical Age) / with J. Hiršal
1967 Experimentální poezie (Experimental Poetry) / with J. Hiršal
1968 JOB BOJ / with J. Hiršal
1972 Zweiäugiges Wortspiel
1981 Mlýn (The Mill) / with J. Hiršal
1981 H. Arendt: Nad popel a čas (Above Ashes and Time) / translation, under the name of B. Geussová
1983 Kolotoč (Carousel) / with J. Hiršal
1984 F. Mayröckerová: Kočkodan samota / translation, under the name of B. Geussová
1985 Preludium / with J. Hiršal
1987–1988 Let let (Flight of Years) / with J. Hiršal
1989 E. Jandl: Mletpantem / translation / with J. Hiršal
1990 6 Briefe aus der fiktiven Korrespondenz mit Friederike Mayröcker
1991 Už jenom dýchat... aneb Dum spero, spiro (Just Breathe… or Dum spero, spiro)
1991 Trojcestí (Three-way Crossroads) / with J. Hiršal
1993 Vrh kostek. Česká experimentální poezie (The Top of the Dice. Czech Experimental Poetry ) / with J. Hiršal and J. Kolář
1997 Nonsens. Parafráze, paběrky, parodie, padělky (Nonsense. Paraphrases, Scrapings, Parodies, Fakes) / with J. Hiršal, also with J. Forbelský, J. Vohryzek and I. Wenigová
1996 Meandry (Meanders)
1997 P. Kotyk: Bohumila Grögerová, Josef Hiršal, interview with Petr Kotyk
1998 Branka z pantů (Unhinged Wicket)
2000 Písně šibeničních bratří (Songs of the Gallows Brothers) / translation, with J. Hiršal
2000 J. Bobrowski: Obětní kámen (Sacrificial Stone) / translation, with J. Hiršal
2004 Čas mezi tehdy a teď (Time Between Then and Now)
2006 Rekviem za Ernsta Jandla (Requiem for Ernst Jandl) / translation
2008 Rukopis (Manuscript)
2009 Klikyháky paměti (Memory Squiggles), interview with Radim Kopáč
2012 Dva zelené tony (Two Green Tones)
2014 Můj labyrinth (My Labyrinth)