Politics and literature

These days in Hungary literature has become an issue that people talk about passionately in the press, at demonstrations and on communal websites. We take a brief look at two cases, one involving the changing of the national curriculum, the other the publication of a new anthology of political poems.

Meeting with a Thesaurus, or How to Translate the Word ‘Jaj‘

I came home one day and there it was on my desk: unassuming, as if not wanting to draw attention to itself, and yet noticeable for all that.

The Door: István Szabó's film

Spotless collars, handkerchiefs white as snow gleam around Emerenc Szeredás; no sick person remains untended, no street unswept. Yet in the world of consolidating socialism of the Hungary of the 1960s, the harshness and strange lifestyle of this ex-servant somehow seems irritating and inscrutable.

The ten most beautiful words and where they came from

Perhaps in a language as enchantingly beautiful—fully admitting to an extreme bias in this case—as Hungarian, it should come as no surprise that poets are forever compiling lists of the ten most beautiful words.

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.