摘要：Columbia University in the City of New York (New York 37,N. Y.) Department of Slavic Languages Jan. 6,1948 Prof. Angelo M. Ripellino Via Cimarosa 18 Rome,Italy Dear Professor Ripellino,I am sending you a complimentary copy of La geste d’Igor.2 Thank you for your readiness to review it in Fiera letteraria and for your promise to send me your essay on the puppet theatre.3 I came to Prague in 1920 and made the acquaintance of Seifert in 1921. A little later,but still in the early twenties,began my friendship with Biebl and especially with Nezval. I brought to Czechoslovakia the first information about Xlebnikov and Majakovskij. Even their names were completely unknown in Prague before I came. Often I spoke with the Devětsil people about the above-mentioned Russian poets and about the current problems of Russian poetry of that time. Some of these slogans influenced the ‘poeticism’ in birth,but the influence of modern Russian poetry as such was rather weak,much weaker than that of the French. The lack of knowledge of the Russian language was at that time general and the whole preceding development of Czech poetry favored much more the influence of Western trends. But Nezval with his extreme capacity of grasping new poetic values succeeded by listening my readings and word for word translations of some of Xlebnikov’s and Majakovskij’s poems to catch their poetic individuality. With best wishes for the New Year,Cordially yours,Roman Jakobson.
