For better or verse?

A fair amount of hot air has been emitted over literary translation in general, with talk of the destruction of source-texts, the invisibility of the translator and the rest. Verse translation, however, is spoken of even more oddly at times, and the object of this paper is to examine the problem and propose a future course.

Csókolom

Is it possible, I ask myself, to somehow follow the life or the soul of a nation through this one tiny expression? - The musings of a translator of Hungarian literature a propos of the reappearance of an old expression of greeting.

Notes towards Pilinszky's hagiography

Pilinszky attempted to speak the tongue of angels in a fallen century. He became the self-tormenting conscience of the Hungarian spirit.

Close contacts: Miklós Mészöly

“We should not for a moment turn our back on the blazing sun, the present.” This is Mészöly’s torch that should be handed on. - Iván Sándor on Miklós Mészöly.

Legendary Danube X: Beside and beneath the Danube

Some people who it may be assumed know what they are saying say that just as every tale has it counter-tale so every river has its counter-river. In the latter case it generally seems that the counter-river is somewhat broader than the river itself under which it winds, underground, but precisely following its route and, discounting one or two inexplicable exceptions, runs in the opposite direction.

Legendary Danube IX: On the shortest night: black whirlpool

Yet in summer, when the night is shortest and the longest trains trundle over Gubacsi Bridge, an enormous boat makes an appearance on the Soroksár Danube, arriving via the tubular bridge and preceded by huge waves.

Legendary Danube VIII: Go Hungary!

I was travelling with my then four-year-old daughter Sally on the No. 2 tram running along the Pest bank of the Danube opposite Gellért Hill. Sally posed the question: “Why is that tall lady throwing the little fish into the water?”

Legendary Danube VII: Mouth-sparrow

Father clambered in order to feel around the place of the tongue that was not to be found... The onlookers, affronted to their toll-paying core, nodded away. They had not paid good money out for this. Father checked the mouths of all four lions but did not find a tongue in any. Tumult, as the district rag put it.

Legendary Danube VI: The unfaithful

In the end just a single figure was still paddling around in the gleaming water. It was a handsome man, elegant as a Venetian amoroso: a haughty profile, sternly gazing fiery eyes, a dark green silk cravat round his neck—those were what were caressed by fading light. Around him the fabulous landscape: sky, water, clouds, mundane visual delights...

Legendary Danube V: The happy ship

Now they had been released, and they were impudently happy, being on the point of shouting ‘Long live the Tsar!’ or ‘Long live the First Secretary!’ (or the Regent, or the chief shaman of the Hungarians), but fortunately for them they did not shout any of these things—they instinctively had more taste. Not to mention the four harsh years of their jail sentences, though admittedly those had ended.