Summertime Czechast: Karel Čapek’s 1930s take on “Changing Times” — now in English
In this summertime episode of Czechast, the podcast in English about all things Czech, I set aside our usual interviews. Instead, I read my own English translation of a short story written and published in the 1930s by Karel Čapek, arguably the most famous Czech writer. Playful yet thought-provoking, it shows that lamenting the “decline of times” is hardly a new phenomenon.
This episode of Czechast, the podcast in English about all things Czech, is a little different. In the spirit of summer, I decided to set aside our regular interviews and instead read a short story by Karel Čapek, written and published in the 1930s. Čapek — one of the most celebrated Czech authors, playwrights, and journalists of the 20th century — is perhaps best known internationally for coining the word “robot” in his play R.U.R. But he also wrote brilliant short pieces that capture timeless human attitudes.
The story you’ll hear is one of them. It deals with the recurring belief that “times aren’t what they used to be” — the idea that the present is somehow worse than the past. I’ve heard this refrain more and more often lately, whether in the United States, especially in the years after Donald Trump’s presidency, or elsewhere in the world. Čapek reminds us, with humor and insight, that such sentiments are far from new.
A little teaser: you’ll meet old caveman Janeček and his sharp-tongued wife, sitting outside their cave one sunny October day. The hunters are away, the women are gathering berries, and the children are — as always — getting into trouble somewhere nearby. As the couple chats, their complaints tumble out: the younger generation doesn’t know how to make a proper spear, they rush through scraping hides, they waste time drawing bison on cave walls, and worst of all, they’ve picked up strange new habits from “foreigners.”
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What begins as light-hearted grumbling becomes a wonderfully absurd catalogue of everything that’s supposedly going wrong with the world — in the Stone Age. Čapek’s satire is as sharp as a flint spearhead: his prehistoric elders rail against lazy youth, dangerous innovations, and the loss of “good old traditions,” sounding uncannily like conversations we still overhear today. Nearly a century after he wrote it, the humor and bite of this story prove that lamenting “the decline of the times” is truly timeless.
While there may be other English translations of this story, the one in this episode is my own — my attempt to render Čapek’s wit, rhythm, and nuance into English. Nearly a century after it was first published, his words still feel fresh, funny, and quietly wise.
Karel Čapek (1890–1938), Czech writer, playwright, journalist, and critic
- Born: 9 January 1890, Malé Svatoňovice, Bohemia (then part of Austria-Hungary)
- Died: 25 December 1938, Prague, Czechoslovakia
- Famous for: Co-introducing the word robot in the 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)
- Notable works: War with the Newts (1936), The Makropulos Affair (1922), R.U.R. (1920), Apocryphal Tales (1932), The Gardener’s Year (1929)
- Style and themes: Satire, science fiction, philosophical reflection, social commentary; often addressed technology, political extremism, and human folly
- Political stance: Opposed both fascism and communism; close friend of Czechoslovakia’s first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
about programme
Czechast, Radio Prague International
Czechast is a regular RPI podcast about Czech and Moravian culture, history, and economy.
