2025
The Hungarian Translators’ House Foundation
Twenty-Seventh Newsletter
Guests of the Translators’ House in 2024 and the works translated by them:
Sophie Aude (France) Péter Nádas: Világló részletek;
Márta Patak (Spain - Hungary) András Visky: Kitelepítés;
Yu Zemin (China) László Krasznahorkai: Báró Wenckheim hazatér;
Sophie Aude (France) Péter Nádas: Világló részletek;
Svetla Kioseva (Bulgaria) László Krasznahorkai: Az ellenállás melankóliája;
Abdallah Al Naggar (Egypt) László Almásy: Levegőben, homokon;
Robert Svoboda (Czech Republic) Zsolt Kácsor: Cigány Mózes;
Éva Zádor (Germany) Dóra Gimesi: Emma csöndje;
Robert Svoboda (Czech Republic ) Zsolt Kácsor: Cigány Mózes;
Andrei Dosa (Romania) Stefano Bottoni: A hatalom megszállotja;
Carles Dachs (Spain, into Catalan) László Krasznahorkai: Sátántangó
Krisztina Nemes (Spain, into Catalan) László Krasznahorkai: Sátántangó;
Natalia Dyachenko (Russia) Gyula Krúdy: A vörös postakocsi;
Yu Zemin (China) Joób Kompolthy: Dzsung hajóval Kínán keresztül;
Elzbieta Sobolewska (Poland) László Krasznahorkai: A világ megy;
Abdallah Al Naggar (Egypt) István Vörös: Loni és a Varázsvár; Research: The image of Hungarian literature and culture in the Arab world.
Nelly Dimova (Bulgaria) Magda Szabó: Für Elise;
Tereza Worowska (Poland) Béla Hamvas: Olbrin Joachim csodálatos utazása;
Marko Čudić (Serbia) Magda Szabó: Ókút;
Yonka Naydenova (Bulgária) A Hungarian Cultural Dictionary; Péter Esterházy: Kis magyar pornográfia;
Karol Wlachovský (Slovakia) Dezső Kosztolányi: Rendkívüli események;
Robert Svoboda (Czech Republic) Bálint Harcos: A halandzsarablók; excerpts from Géza Csáth’s diary;
Rachel Mikos (USA) Krisztina Tóth: A majom szeme;
Tamás Mihók (Romania) Péter Závada: Selected poems;
Zsigmond Filip (Romania) Mátyás Szöllősi: Szabad;
Giap van Chung (Vietnam) Magda Szabó: Abigél;
Eren Dezelbien (Turkey) Miklós Jósika: Abafi;
Josefina Komporaly (Romania, UK) Gábor T. Szántó: Keleti pályaudvar, végállomás
Levente Vervoort (The Netherlands) István Örkény: Egyperces novellák;
Karol Wlachovský (Slovakia) Desző Kosztolányi: Rendkívüli események;
Mari Alföldy (The Netherlands) Ádám Nádasdy: Billeg a csónak;
Eszter Orbán (Hungary, Spain) Krisztina Tóth: Pixel;
José Miguel Trevejo (Hungary, Spain) Krisztina Tóth: Pixel;
Sophie Aude (France) Péter Nádas: Világló részletek;
Yu Zemin (China) László Krasznahorkai: Az ellenállás melankóliája;
Minnamari Sinisalo (Finland) László Krasznahorkai: Seiobo járt odalent.
Translation events and seminars in 2024
January 9-16 2024 Balassi Scholarship KKM Literary Translation Programme Residential Week. Alexandra Rybak, Daria Beshchastnova, Daria Nikitina, Marietta Kolodziejzak, Olga Polivtseva, Öles Zümrüţ, Tatjana Terenya, Viktoria Kaprielova and Zsófia Chiara Civello worked on the first draft of their final translation pieces.
February 12-19 2024 Bulgarian Translators’ Seminar. Led by Svetla Kioseva.Viktoriya Andonova, Elica Klimentieva, Liliya Duleva, Teodora Todorova, Zornitsa Videnova and Maria Koleva worked on János Háy: Nehéz. Guest speaker: Nevena Panova.
February 29 – March 3 2024 Három Holló Literary Translation workshop. Katharina Kellig Katharina, Sophia Matteikat, Lídia Bokodi, Ágnes Otto,Wilhelm Droste and Éva Zádor worked on poems by Anna Terék és Krisztian Peer.
March 19-24 2024 Catalan Translators’ Workshop. Dóra Bakucz, Krisztina Nemes, Bernadett Smid, Carles Bartual, Carles Dachs and Andreu Gomila translated poems and haikus from Hungarian into Catalan and vice versa. Guest speakers: Kálmán Faluba, Balázs Déri, Ildikó Szijj, Tibor Berta, Dóra Faix, Miquel Roser, Norbert Sándor.
April 8-13 2024 Slovenian Translators’ Workshop. Mladen Pacicic, Andrea Iván, Deja Rebernik, Mihaela Modic, Tina Raj, Zan Kelih and Marjanca Mihelič worked on Krisztián Peer: 42 and Anna Moskát: A hazugság tézisei. Guest speaker: Vera Ágnes Pap
April 26-28 2024 A meeting of the editorial board of the literary translation journal and workshop, Versum
May 22-27 2024 Croatian Translators’ Workshop Led by Kristina Katalinić. Antea Bastalić, Magdalena Sirnć, Jennifer Hoffmann, Jolán Mann and Laura Halgaš worked on the Hungarian folk tale ‘Fehérlófia.’
June 22-29 2024 Slovak Translators’ Workshop Lucia Molnár Satinská, Eva Andrejcaková, Lenka Nagyová, Gabriela Magová and Renáta Deák worked on their current translation projects.
July 1-7 2024 Spanish Translators’ Workshop Led by Márta Patak. Veronika Major, Eszter Orbán, Zita Máté, Adan Kovacsics and José Miguel González worked on András Visky: Kitelepítés.
September 10-13 2024 English Translators’ Workshop Led by Josefina Komporaly. Bernard Adams, Anna Bentley, Austin Wagner and Thomas Sulmon worked on Gábor Zoltán: Orgia. Guest speakers: Péter L. Varga and Ottilie Mulzet
September 22-28 Estonian Translators’ Workshop Led by Lauri Eesma. Lea Kreinin, Rünkla Mihkel and Leelo Jõulu worked on writing by Viktor Horváth, Krisztina Tóth, Péter Nádas, and Éva Janikovszky.
September 3-8 20245 Spanish Translators’ Workshop Led by Dóra Bakucz and Gergő Tóth, Miriam Palacios Martinez, Giuseppe Orrù, Esmeralda Malinalli Díaz Pérez, Dániel Kún and Eszter Horváth worked on the following one-minute plays: Péter Fábián: Hiddel Béla, Melinda Szarvas: Able Table, Ádám Geri: Halálvágy and Dóra Bakucz: Farkasszem.
In collaboration with the Goethe Institute, we commemorated the 35th anniversary of the opening of the border to the West with a set of events entitled Dividing Walls/ Trennlinien. At the Translators’ House, Lídia Nádori and Kende Lőrinc Varga ran a literary translation workshop in which eight participants worked on an excerpt from Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Kairos. As part of our look back at the events of 1989, Judit Klein interviewed historian Kriszta Slachta.
A team-building weekend was held for the students on the Balassi Institute’s literary translation course in November (23-24). This was also an opportunity for the students to become acquainted with the resources that would be available to them at the House during their residential week in January, when they would be working on their long translation pieces.They were tasked with finding uncommon Hungarian words ‘hidden’ away in the library’s collection of Hungarian dictionaries and encyclopaedias.
Events and other news
Árpád Vickó, who translated Hungarian literature into Serbian, passed away on August 2, leaving behind a rich body of translated work and fond personal memories.
On August 24, the Translators’ House community lost Vyacheslav Sereda, another colleague who was dear to us. In accordance with his wishes, friends and colleagues gathered to scatter his ashes in the garden of the House.
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Colours and Years Garden Having completed her Spanish-language translation of Margit Kaffka’s Színek és Évek [Colours and Years] and seen it to publication, Eszter Orbán had the idea of recreating the melancholy garden that belongs to the novel’s character Magda Pórtelky by planting the same flowers in the garden of the Translators’ House. She engaged the help of artist and gardener László Márton, and together they sourced these flowers (including Clematis 'Jackmanii,’ alumroot, English lavender, rosemary, false spirea and bearded irises) both in Hungary and abroad. They prepared the soil for them, heaving large stones, digging and raking, then planting and watering them, watering and planting. The wonderful results of their work can be see in the photograph. Our thanks to Eszter and László!
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Maintaining the fabric of the House is as much a part of what we do as welcoming the literary translators who put Hungarian literature into their own languages. To this end, we decided to replace the windows on the ground floor with better insulated ones. We also had to get the leaking skylights on the first floor repaired.
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When the trees in the garden were inspected last year (see newsletter # 26) it turned out that an enormous lime tree between the main building and the smaller house in the garden was riddled with rot and posed a danger to life. This was felled in July.
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Precipitation measured in the garden in 2024 broken down by month: January 26 mm, February 16 mm, March 13 mm, April 36 mm, May 65 mm, June 114 mm, July 8 mm, August 14 mm, September 51mm, October 77 mm, November 30 mm, December 15 mm. 465 mm in total.
Translations published in 2024 and earlier
László Krasznahorkai: Megy a világ (Slovak, Brak) Gabriela Magová
Dóra Gimesi: Emma csöndje (German, Achse Verlag) Éva Zádor
Noémi Kiss: Karácsony a Dunán (German, Der Nebelmann danubebooks) Éva Zádor
Poems by Gyula Juhász (Slovak, Marenčin) Karol Wlachovský
Imre Kertész: Sorstalanság (Bulgarian, Nike, 2nd edition) Svetla Kioseva
János Háy: Nehéz (play, Bulgarian, Panorama) Svetla Kioseva
Zoltán Dósa: Sírversek (Romanian, Artă poetică mortală) Ingrid Tomonicska
Magda Szabó: Ókút (Serbian, Štrik) Marko Čudić
Andrea Tompa: Haza (English, Istros Books) Josefina Komporaly
Péter Nádas: Hollán kék káprázata három szemhunyásban, (Hungarian- French- English, Hungarian National Gallery) Sophie Aude
László Krasznahorkai: Báró Wenckheim hazatér (Spanish, Acantilado), Adan Kovacsics
Péter Kántor: Megtanulni élni (selected poems, Bulgarian, Ergo) Martin Hristov
Magda Szabó: Tündér Lala (Croatian, Srednja Europa ) David Pölhe, Klara Beštak and Magdalena Sivrić at the Croatian translation seminar
Benedek Totth: Holtverseny (Polish, Biuro literackie) Elžbieta Sobolewska
Tamás Mihók (Romanian) was awarded a prize for young writers
József Debreczeni: Hideg krematórium (Spanish, Debate, Penguin Random House) Orbán Eszter
Gábor Schein: Selected Poems (English, Contra Mundum Press) Ottilie Mulzet and Mihálycsa Erika
László Krasznahorkai: Herscht 07769 (English, New Directions Publishing Corporation) Ottilie Mulzet
Szilárd Borbély: Kafka's son (English, Seagull) Ottilie Mulzet
We would like to express our gratitude to the following individuals and institutions:
Thank you to all those who value the smooth running of the Hungarian Translators’ House at Balatonfüred, and who have selflessly offered us their assistance.
Eszter Orbán, László Márton, Ildikó Urbán, Éva Szabó, Anna Bentley, András Imreh, Károly Klimó, Andrea Andócs, Zoltán Bakos and Mrs. Ágnes Kárpáti Bakos, †László BITÓ, Dr. István BÓKA, Olivia CARINO, László CSERÉP, Balatonfüred Town Council, Kata Csorba, Anikó Mórocz, †Kari KEMÉNY, Judit Klein, Dr. Evelin Hust, Katalin Hanusovszky, all the staff at The Writers’ Bookshop, Budapest (Írók Boltja), †András Jékey, Márta Józsa, Judit GESKÓ, Péter Bozsik, the artists who have lent us their works, Krisztián Tóbiás, András Lipták, Lídia Nádori, the Hungarian Literary Translators’ Association (MEGY), István Ladányi, Tibor Martinovics, Judit Garai, János Szakács, Probio Rt., László Somogyi; Szilveszter Szabó, Dániel Bíró, Rétesbolt (Strudel Shop), Gábor Németh (gardener) Kristóf Kovács (electrician), Tibor Bolgár (plumber), Zoltán Preininger (IT specialist), Imre Sümegi and Máté Geiger (tree surgeons), Tibor Dőry (building maintenance), Ágnes Rácz, Judit Rácz, Júlia Rácz, Rebeka Rácz, Boglárka Mészáros, István Széles and Ildikó Firczi, Kinga Szokács, Katalin Vida, Gabi Nagy, Károly Szamosfalvi, Mrs. Zsuzsa Bocsor Szamosfalvi, Mrs. Katalin Rácz Csonka, the Lipták Gábor Town Library; Barnabás Poór (Mikrocomp Kft.), Gábor Dénes, Júlia Lázár, Lili Horváth and Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó. And lots of literary translators. Apologies to anyone we may have omitted!