Translator’s Note

It appears that we still believe, as Jaroslav Hasek wrote in his Introduction to Book One, that "Great times demand great people." Once again we "can run into a shabby man in the streets . . . who himself has no idea of the significance he actually has in the history of the great new era." The difference is that nowadays it might be the streets of any city anywhere on this planet, not only Prague, and the new era is not that of nation states rising out of the ashes of the decrepit monarchies, but the new age of globalism.

"The shabby man" might not be Josef Svejk, though, just somebody who is said to be "svejking" - if his behavior is detected by his opponents and detractors and they charge him with it. (Although he has been sighted here and there, even on an election campaign trail or two, the authorities can neither confirm nor deny he’s ever entered the United States or indicate by what means, if he did. It is amazing that the current new era has already been labeled "information age", but when it comes to it, we don’t have any information we really seek or need.)

Those who have not met him yet might see Svejk as the one who still "modestly walks on his way, not bothering anybody". Yet, he engages people and does so without regard to rank, national origin, gender or any other means of profiling. His communing with others still brings varying results and reactions. "In turn, he isn’t bothered by journalists, who otherwise would be begging him for an interview." Of course, journalists bother only with one another and their own kind with whom they live in one or two socio-econo-demographic clusters. Svejk is not, as the saying goes, on their radar. And when they bump into him, somewhere in the fly-over country, they find him somewhat amusing, but soon tire of him and proclaim him to be a reactionary buffoon.