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Poetry1961

The Door

by Miroslav Holub (1923-1998)

A short free-verse poem that urges the reader, again and again, to open a door, while admitting honestly that there may be nothing worth seeing on the other side.

CuriosityRisk and fearFreedomHope without illusion

UK rights notice

Rights notice: the poem and Ian Milner's English translation are in UK copyright (Holub died in 1998). The translation is published in the UK by Bloodaxe Books in Poems Before & After: Collected English Translations. Quotations here are short fair-dealing extracts for criticism and review under CDPA 1988 s.30; read the full poem in that collection.

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