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01.05.2010 11:30

How the murderer of a poet became a hero

Life & literature

The commander of the death-squad personally responsible for the murder of Miklós Radnóti – perhaps the greatest poet of the Holocaust well known in English translation – escaped retribution for the deed. His remains rest in official burial grounds reserved for the heroes of the Hungarian Republic.

11.19.2009 09:48

National zoo III.

György Dragomán: Blood

Nobody quite knew how the war between werebears and carnivorous boars had started. The boars figure it was bears that started it, the bears figure it was boars. The werebears told how on a very cold day in winter, when snow was too deep for the boars to burrow down for roots, when hunger and cold had driven them into a cave, they came across a sleeping bear and devoured it.

11.09.2009 16:05

Monkey on a bicycle (excerpts from a memoir)

Agnes Heller

It was 1956. In those days, nobody stole. The murderers who had left prison did not murder, the robbers did not rob. The moral level of the entire nation remained on a higher plane, everyone rose above themselves. In this aspect, 1956 was not just a republican moment in the life of Hungary, but an invigourating moral celebration as well.

10.18.2009 10:36

National zoo II.

István Vörös: The wolf and the lamb

Do angels count as animals these days? For a long time even sirens were considered animals. Dragons and such were taken to be some sort of lizard. Well, never mind. Let's stick to discussing the lamb.

10.12.2009 11:46

National zoo I.

Júlia Lángh: The snail and the watchdog

We've called on contemporary authors to write modern fables of up to 500 words. The protagonists are animals – real or imaginary – and represent in their character, behaviour and deeds the figures, situations or the absurdities typical of present-day Hungarian society.

07.20.2009 17:16

Village childhood

Szilárd Borbély

In the first half of the 1960s, when I was born, and in the second half of the decade, when my memories begin, the village was entering the final phases of its narrative, bitter, sad, already less idyllic, weighted down by strains. The deep fissure, however, was not drawn between the village and the world outside the village, but within the village itself.

05.22.2009 08:11

Let’s just dump our books into the Danube

The economic crisis and publishers' woes

These last few weeks had seen an upheaval on the Hungarian book market as one publisher put forth an open letter calling on his fellow publishers to resist big distributors who try to weather the economic crisis at the expense of small independent publishers.

05.10.2009 12:45

Introduction to Hungarology

László Garaczi

How is the homeland represented in the works of authors from different cultures: this was the question asked by the organizers of the 2009 PEN World Voices festival. Here is what László Garaczi had to say.

02.02.2009 19:04

Jack London – is that a brand of jeans?

Or: the reading habits of Hungarian youth

As we contemplated Jack London’s birthday on January 12th, we were curious to know the reading tastes of Hungarian young people. We discussed opposition between classic and contemporary youth fiction in Hungary. What is most popular among them today? Is it the rewritten classics, the trendy vampire stories or the favorites of their parents’ generation?

09.18.2008 09:09

A breath of fresh air

László F. Földényi

Distant from Asia, yet not in Europe. Moving away from the East towards the West, wary of the former, hopeful in the latter. (...) To the foreigner, Hungary appears a land of contradictions, a terra incognita with much that is recognizably European, but even more that remains beyond comprehension, just as an operetta bears some resemblance to real life, yet is light years distant from it.

08.17.2008 22:17

Devoutly gossiping humanists

Antal Szerb and Miklós Szentkuthy

Antal Szerb was only seven years Szentkuthy’s senior but the lives of young men are such that with one aged twenty and the other twenty-seven the rift in knowledge, scope and erudition can appear insurmountable. At least this is how it seemed to Miklós Szentkuthy.

06.14.2008 08:47

To Translate

Ágnes Nemes Nagy (1922–1991)

The Hungarian language is isolated. The Hungarian language means death for world literature. To write poetry in Hungarian is galley slavery. The Hungarian language is exceptionally suitable for poetry.

06.02.2008 11:22

From Jerome the Crab to Old Missus Fluff

Children’s verse in Hungary

We are witnessing a phase of ever more splendid blossoming in the field of children’s poetry in Hungary. One after the other, impressive works are appearing to the delight of readers young and not so young.

04.18.2008 10:25

The plucking of poetry

— all the way to the goose flesh

Written poetry is aristocratic by nature, yet it is customary (it behooves us) to call the world we live in democratic. On what authority do I call myself an Odysseus, a king, a priest, a leader, and—well, yes—a poet?

03.04.2008 21:08

The Man from London

A film by Béla Tarr

Béla Tarr's first feature film since Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) is based on a mystery novel by Georges Simenon, but it is no ordinary crime story. The mystery is not the identity of the robbers and murderers, but what takes place in people’s hearts.

02.20.2008 10:38

From The Paul Street Boys to the 100 most beautiful Hungarian poems

Corvina Publishing House in Budapest has spent decades in the business of conveying classic and modern Hungarian literature to foreigners. The director of the publishing house talks about the chances of Hungarian books finding their way to an audience outside Hungary.

07.23.2007 08:43

Football and literature 5.

László Garaczi: How my greatest desire was fulfilled

"I married and divorced, but all the thoughts running through my head were: goal-kicking and Maria Schneider. I managed to trade off my small council apartment for a larger one through a fictitious contract, but all the while I was occupied with the thought of goal-kicking and Maria Schneider."

06.07.2007 09:04

Football and literature 4.

Endre Kukorelly: Macho football

"Without this, life itself just doesn’t work. Football is the arena of initiation, admission, and success, boys settle it playing, on their own, without any intervention from adults, cleanly and without pity, like wolf-cubs."

05.29.2007 09:04

Football and literature 3.

József Mélyi: Football and Sex

...an English historian of football recently came forward with the remarkable conclusion that football never would have become so widespread in England had the higher-ups not seen in it an effective remedy against masturbation in pubescent boys.

05.18.2007 09:04

Football and literature 2.

László Darvasi: The meaning of the game

"His name was Igor Khlebnikov. He was a midfielder in Vorkuta, and last year, just before a cup match, while they were oiling his thighs, he realized what the meaning of the game was."

05.09.2007 08:13

Football and literature 1.

Péter Zilahy: How I won the cold war

"...for this is how we play football: without hope or glory, but at least we don’t pretend not to know what is happening here, that behind each pioneer there is an empire, tanks, Gulag, Afghanistan, and many, many unuttered compound sentences."

03.28.2007 11:14

Chance meetings on a dramaturge's dissecting table

Three performances by the Béla Pintér Company

Writer-director-actor Béla Pintér occupies a unique role as impressario in Budapest's alternative theatre scene. His signature blend of music and movement, traditional and modern theatre techniques makes each of his one-act shows an unpredictable and memorable experience.

02.15.2007 11:14

Cheap life, pricey death

István Tasnádi: Hungarian Zombie (theatre review)

A middle-aged husband unable to provide for his wife and mother-in-law after the local meat-packing plant closed down decides to commit suicide. An infotainment show host arrives to sign a contract whereby he will do it live on television.

02.13.2007 09:14

Forgotten by history

Zoltán Kamondi: Dolina (film review)

This year's Budapest Film Week, the major event of Hungarian filmmakers, was again rich in literary adaptations. A feature by director Zoltán Kamondi, Dolina, was based on Ádám Bodor's 1999 novel, The Visit of the Archbishop.

02.02.2007 10:14

A wild Don Juan in Budapest

Viktor Bodó: The Great Sganarelle and Co.

Viktor Bodó claims to have used György Petri's translation of Molière's Don Juan for his new production staged in the Katona József Theatre, The Great Sganarelle and Co. Yet it seems as though Don Juan merely provided the original inspiration for Viktor Bodó to set about transplanting this mythic figure to a modern urban setting.

12.29.2006 08:08

Ferenc Puskás: Hungarian football is dead

Péter Zilahy

Everybody who knows something about football (and that’s about two billion people) knows that Hungarian football is dead. It didn’t die just now—its condition gradually deteriorated, and in the end it didn’t even recognize itself in the hospital—but on this day it has been pronounced clinically dead.

12.18.2006 11:37

Sports the Hungarians do badly

Zoltán Egressy: Portugal; Spinach and Chips

After a certain number of performances, a production takes on a life of its own, and the critic is unable to review it as an isolated night of entertainment. It has become a continuum, an institution, evolving over time as a living creature would. Such is the case with Zoltán Egressy's two plays.

11.21.2006 09:37

Enchanted reality

Ernő Szép: Purple Acacia; Bridegroom

One of the most famous love stories of Hungarian theatre, and a play about bohemian Budapest before World War I.

11.01.2006 10:08

Art and politics – part eight

László Najmányi

As I am writing this article on the night of the 50th anniversary of the ’56 Hungarian Revolution, there are barricades and street fights in Budapest. There are large crowds of protesters gathering at several key points of the capital.

10.27.2006 12:07

The Theatre of András Forgách

The Key; Erik; It's Good to Die!

The tradition of playwright – that is, one who writes exclusively for the stage – seems a quaint, outmoded profession in Hungary nowadays. No one simply writes plays; playwriting is most often a sideline for authors more occupied with short stories, novels, and poetry.

10.20.2006 11:08

Art and politics – part seven

László Najmányi

In 1996 I visited Hungary for the first time in 18 years. I came from New York with my laptop and a thoroughly Americanized mind. I found the country completely different from the grey death camp I left almost two decades ago. It was now a bursting, yet somehow utterly depressed and depressing Balkan bazaar, a kind of Mad Max land in King Ubu’s empire, where most people I met were in a bad mood.

10.17.2006 10:14

Mob behavior and shared history

András Papp and János Térey: Kazamaták (Casemates)

The plot of Casemates is based on the darkest moment of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution: the siege of the Communist Party Headquarters in Budapest. With the 50th anniversary of the revolution well nigh, this is no one's idea of a flattering, commemorative play. Rather, it is an excoriating piece of provocation.

10.06.2006 08:14

A surreal journey

Kornél Hamvai: Castel Felice

Masquerading as a naturalist drama, Hamvai's Castel Felice uses the metaphor of ship's journey to explore a no-exit situation with national and existential dimensions.

09.26.2006 09:04

Art and politics – part six

László Najmányi

The nationalist opposition was all over the media in an instant, declaring themselves to have been right all along in warning the voters throughout the election campaign that a secret network of ex-Communist, international bankers who are totally insensitive to the problems of the average Hungarian would take over the country if people elected a Socialist government.

08.30.2006 18:14

Art and politics – part five

László Najmányi

They say that about 7% of the total population of Hungary worked for or collaborated with the feared secret police in Hungary. What happened to these people after the change of the regime? Most of those who are still alive and employable are doing well. They became politicians, curators, and heads of cultural institutions.

08.07.2006 14:04

Art and politics – part four

László Najmányi

To sell ourselves to the Western media as political refugees would have been out of style. Therefore, we wore Russian military uniforms with our punk hairdos and talked about being highly trained KGB agents sent to the free world to destroy the morals of the Western youth.

07.29.2006 15:06

In the Valley of Arts

28 July–6 August 2006

It’s a fact: in summer, people go on holiday. Why? Because the sun is shining; it’s hot; work is scarce; or the family is together, and everybody is fed up with Budapest – where we all love living, if it weren’t for the concrete soaking in the heat, the streets stinking of dog shit and other decomposing biological waste.

07.29.2006 10:06

Art and politics – part three

László Najmányi

"This is your last night, László," said the voice in the phone. It was 3 AM, on a night in early spring, 1978. I put down the phone. After a couple of minutes, it started to ring again. "You’ll be dead by the morning, László," said the voice.

07.06.2006 12:22

Art and politics – part two

László Najmányi

His long, beautifully written secret reports were highly critical of my works, many of which he helped to complete. He called them “the products of a madman” to his state security employers. “Let us give him more state commissions,” he wrote in one of his reports, “so he won’t have time for his own anti-socialist stupidities.”

06.25.2006 18:23

Art and politics – part one

László Najmányi

...the man, while he was reading his essay, deliberately had his tie hang into the soup. His name was Miklós Erdély, and his gesture of having his tie hang into the soup was a forbidden form of artistic expression in Hungary at that time.

06.08.2006 09:23

Landing on the New Moon

On the 20th anniversary of a periodical

The Hungarian literary scene has only recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the rebirth in 1986 of the notable literary periodical Újhold (New Moon), which originally existed between 1946-1948. This is an important anniversary for contemporary literature which found its roots in the New Moon generation.

05.11.2006 16:34

Péter Halász’s living theatre

Halász' theatre was a non-imitational one. He never wanted, nor was he able, to pretend that he is someone else but himself. His theatre was born out of an inner freedom, not hard work, not something that can be regulated, rehearsed and repeated.

05.04.2006 12:23

Eurozine: a European cultural journal

An interview with editor Simon Garnett

Eurozine, a network of Europe’s leading cultural journals, is an online magazine featuring texts taken from its partner journals on various pressing issues of our time, translated into English. HLO talked to editor Simon Garnett about the present, past and future of the magazine during the Budapest Book Festival.

04.06.2006 09:23

Sounding myths

On Ágens’ sound poetry

Ágens, the singer is no follower of any musical trend. Her singing and the style of her works have been compared to that of shamans and to the atmosphere of religious initiation rituals, as well as to jazz, György Kurtág and Meredith Monk. Nevertheless, we had far better avoid compulsive categorising and just listen to her music.

03.10.2006 09:22

Rhine Industry: No Guarantees

The Nibelung Residential Park (Krétakör's performance)

Although unsuited to be heirs to the failed or vanished gods for want of any morality, dignity or honour, the modernised industrial copycats of Wagner’s mythical heroes still equal their forefathers in one thing: the sheer force of their actions.

03.06.2006 12:23

George Szirtes's blog - day seven

Kertész at the Jewish Book Week in London

When I was twenty-one I was baptised, along with C, by full immersion in a West London Baptist Church. It was an act of romantic commitment. My mother was in the congregation. Later, she was to write to a friend in Hungary that C and I emerged out of the water like drowned rats.

03.05.2006 22:23

George Szirtes' blog - day six

Redonda and Iles Flottantes

The ethics, and indeed very nature, of blogging was of some interest to me. What kind of communication was it? Personal? Public? Semi-public? And if so, what were the most useful analogies or precedents that could determine its manners, its poetic? I began to think of the News section of my website as something like a private newspaper column with limited circulation.

03.03.2006 22:32

George Szirtes's blog - day five

The way to silence

After a year at Goldsmiths College, London, it was teaching work, children, Hertfordshire and the long struggle to make a reputation – a six-year struggle that seemed like sixty.

03.03.2006 22:23

George Szirtes' blog - day four

A cautionary tale

L had been an unemployed steel worker from Miskolc and had been attracted by an advertisement in a major Hungarian newspaper offering work in England. He went to an office in Budapest, was told about the job and presented with a contract that he signed. The contract was in English, not in Hungarian and he signed without understanding it.

03.03.2006 10:22

George Szirtes's blog - day three

To London for Márai

Márai is easy to translate. What I mean to say is that he gives himself to you and invites you to enjoy the clear rhetorical circling of his prose as he uncovers layer after layer of motivation. He is all burning curiosity tempered by patience.

03.01.2006 11:23

George Szirtes' blog - day two

Heavy industry – light industry

Creative writing is almost a branch of heavy industry. The number of courses suggests an intense interest in literature, albeit more in its production than in its consumption.

02.28.2006 12:43

George Szirtes's blog - day one

Working in Wymondham

Since this journal is now, for a week at least, posted (in Hungarian translation) at Litera, the website for Hungarian writers, it may be an act of courtesy to introduce them to this part of England.

02.23.2006 15:45

The artists of taxidermy

György Pálfi: Taxidermia

In the category of feature films at the 37th Hungarian Film Festival, the screening of György Pálfi’s new film Taxidermia was preceded by much expectation. The movie is based on the short stories and writings of Lajos Parti Nagy. The screenplay was written by the director and Zsófia Ruttkay.

11.16.2005 02:43

Being human

Gabor Terebess: Haiku in the Luggage

Gabor Terebess’ haiku is a kind of Magical Mystery Tour, leading from a zen monastery through revolutionary Paris on to the land of Australia and the island of Bali.

11.01.2005 18:28

Time to build the tower of Babel

babelmatrix.org

In February 2005, a multilingual portal called Babelmatrix was launched on the world wide web. At present, the site offers access to outstanding pieces of Hungarian literature in the English, Czech, Dutch, Polish, German, Russian and Portuguese languages. This, however, reveals next to nothing about the ultimate objectives of the website.

10.27.2005 08:30

Budapest Bardroom’s hexidecimal edition

An English-language show in Budapest

The Budapest Bardroom defines itself as an ‘English-language show in Budapest, featuring poetry, music and spoken word by local and visiting performers’. This fall’s Bardroom session was themed around the date: an inconspicuous October 16th, being Sunday, but that turned out to be irrelevant. English-reading Budapest, alive and kicking.

10.12.2005 15:30

A permanent Woodstock

Sziget Festival, Budapest

Start to plan your summer vacation ahead! HLO is trying to help you choose by bringing you the history of one of the most colourful festivals in Europe, told by a musician/journalist who was there right from the outset.

04.20.2004 16:44

Interest in these "distant" cultures

Simon Corrigan

In common with most British schoolchildren, I didn't receive much grounding in Hungarian literature. Even when, in my teenage years, I started exploring the literature of other (and in those days Hungary was particularly 'other') European cultures, Hungary was conspicuous by its absence.