Abstract
The article compares the poems by Paul Celan (Todesfuge, Ehgführung) with the works of Jiří Kolář (especially Prométheova játra) on the background of the discussions about the possibility of poetry after "Auschwitz" provoked by T. W.
Adorno. It can be determined two principal positions of poets.
The first is factual or documental (represented by Jiří Weil's Žalozpěv za 77 297 obětí) the second critical or reflexive. This critical stance represented here by Celan and Kolář faces the problem of the resistance to the facts and constitutes a reaction on the first position.
The works of Celan and Kolář, however different they are, show in this respect some important affinities (e.g. moment of the silence, time and the position of the man).