Farewell and a Handkerchief-Poems from the Road is a collection that reflects on the month-long travels of Czech poet Vítezslav Nezval through Vienna, Paris, southern France, and Italy. During this journey, on May 9, 1933, Nezval had a chance encounter with two of the surrealist movement's most influential poets-André Breton and Paul Éluard-while sitting at the Cardinal Café on the Grands Boulevards in Paris, a meeting that proved transformative. After returning home, Nezval helped found the Czech Surrealist Group, along with Karel Teige, Jindrich Stýrský, and Toyen. It became the only official group of its kind outside of France.

Vítezslav Nezval was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth-century avant-garde. He was a leading founder of the Czech movement Devetsil (Nine Forces), a group that included individuals such as Nobel laureate Jaroslav Seifert, which evolved into the Czech Surrealist Group. He was born in 1900 in Biskoupky, a small town in southern Moravia. His works in English include The Absolute Gravedigger (Twisted Spoon Press, 2016), Prague with Fingers of Rain (Bloodaxe Books Ltd., 2009), Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Twisted Spoon Press, 2005), and Antilyrik and Other Poems (Green Integer, 2001). He died in 1958.