The story of human misfortune compounded by the indifference of others opens up a topic for reflection: have the misery and despair described in Bezruč's Silesian Songs really disappeared from the world, or are they just hiding in places we prefer not to look, because we have breakfast on the table every morning and in winter all we have to do is turn the thermostat dial? Are people who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in a situation where they have to help loved ones who can't take care of themselves being helped more today than they were a century ago? Do the maritimes today have no choice but to jump into the waters of the Ostravice River?
The gloomy illustrations - the faces of unfortunate orphans, the little graves and the desperate jump into the waves - seem to have been sketched in charcoal, which became his livelihood and his wife's undoing, by old Magdon himself and not by Andrea Tachezy, whose whimsical illustrations and collages usually evoke quite different feelings.
Czech edition