Seventh Newsletter 

Events of 2004

On the 14th of April, the Hungarian Day of Poetry, three guests of the House read in the Ráday Bookshop: the Romanian translator Anamaria Pop, the Bulgarian translator Svetla Kjoseva and Gábor Gyukics, an English translator. – On the invitation of The Hungarian Cultural Institute of Bratislava Péter Rácz spoke about the House and suggested a Hungarian-Slovak translation seminar. In May he traveled to Helsinki with a similar purpose, in Moscow he awarded the four prizes of the translator’s competition organized by the Hungarian Center for Science, Culture and Information: four invitations to the House. – On the 20th of April Art historian Edit Sasvári guided the students of the local Lóczy L. secondary school on a tour showing them the works of fine-art exhibited in the House. – During the Balatonfüred Book Week the works created in the House were introduced to the public of the city, on the 5th of June the Garden was the location for the launch of Gábor Lipták’s volume, Aranyhíd. – On the 12th of June we had our traditional garden party (sponsor: Infokom Kft), among our guests were once again many writers, translators and artists. The house hosted an exhibition of Lenke Szilágyi’s photographs Portraits of Writers, opened by Lajos Parti Nagy.

The Lipták Képtár is our standing exhibition consisting of works on loan by  Ferenc Banga, Imre Bak, Márton Barabás, John Bátki, András Böröcz, Imre Bukta, Mária Chilf, József Darázs, Pál Deim, El Kazovszkij, Miklós Erdély, László Fehér, László Felugossy, Áron Gábor, Bálint Havas, Katalin Káldi, Károly Kelemen, György Kemény, Ilona Keserü, Károly Klimó, András Koncz, Antal Lakner, Viktor Lois, Rezső Móder, István Nádler, Réka Nemere, István Orosz, Sándor Rácmolnár, Gábor Roskó, Zsuzsa Szenes, Ágnes Szépfalvi, Klára Szilárd, János Szirtes, Zoltán Szlabey, László Szotyory,  +Gábor Szörtsey, József Szurcsik, Villő Turcsány and Mamikon Yengibarian. The event was opened by the town’s deputy-major Pál Kiszely.

On the same occasion we launched the third issue of the Füredi Fordítói Füzetek (Füred Literary Translation Leaflets), containing the short story A legrövidebb novella by László Darvasi in twenty six languages. The volume also contains the work of last year’s French, Spanish and Croatian Translator’s Seminars. The musician David Yengibarian entertained us despite the steady rain. The stew was prepared by the team of the Writer’s Bookshop led by  ©Ágnes Karetka and ©Bernadett Nagy, the bulk of the kitchen-work was done by ©Kinga Szokács  amd ©Judit Tóth. – Olivia CARINO and László BITÓ once again provided important financial help which allowed for our uninterrupted work along with some improvements (for example the re-modeling of the dining room). – In August three guests of the house (Vjacseszlav Szereda, Mari Alföldy, Etsuko Iwasaki) participated on the event Magyar irodalom Európában – műfordítás, terjesztés, befogadás of the Tokaji Írótábor.

In May the tradition of the translator’s seminars was continued by an English poetry translation seminar. Led by István Géher, English poets (Polly Clark, Antony Dunn, Matthew Hollis, Clare Pollard, Owen Sheers) and their Hungarian colleagues (László G. István, András Imreh, Mónika Mesterházi, Anna T. Szabó, Péter Rácz, Krisztina Tóth) translated each others poems. The seminar was part of the week long project of the British Council and the Arts Council (organized by Gabriella Gulyás and Julia Bird); in October the poets traveled to England to a reading tour.

 – In the last week of June Ádám Kovacsics once again led a Spanish  translation workshop (participants: Kinga Atzél, Dóra Bakucz, Éva Cserháti, José Miguel González Trevejo, Andrea Imrei, Márta Komlósi, Eszter Orbán, Márta Pávai Patak, Miguel Ángel Peláez Navarrete, Mária Szijj, Tünde Tompa; the speakers included: Susana Andrés [Ediciones B Publishers, Barcelona], Ádám Bodor writer, Zsuzsa Takács poet, translator). The participants translated works by Imre Kertész, Ádám Bodor, János Pilinszky and Miklós Radnóti. – In the second week of July we organized a workshop for French translators, led by the translator Ágnes Járfás. The participants: Sophie Aude, Olivier Bickart, Anne-Marie Giudicelli and Iris Stollsteiner-Maróczi; translated short stories by Frigyes Karinthy and talked to Péter Esterházy. – From the 29th of September till the 2nd of October we organized a Slovak translator’s seminar, Margit Garajszki, Zsuzsa Forgács, Gabriela Magová and  Marianna Husáriková translated works by János Pilinszky, Lajos Kassák, Lajos Grendel and Pavel Vilikovský; the speakers were Ildikó Hizsnyai, Judit Görözdi, Renáta Deák, Karol Wlachowský, Jitka Rožňová és László G. Kovács. – The Hungarian-Italian translator’s seminar planned for the end of October as a joint project with the Florence State University had to be postponed for financial reasons. – The winner of the translator’s competition organized by the Bálint Balassi Institute, the Norwegian Ingvild Holvik was awarded a week’s stay in the house as an additional prize, along with the translator László G. Kovács, the recipient of Book of the Year Prize by the János Arany Foundation. – The garden of the House once again provided a nice venue for the S. Quasimodo poetry competition on the 11th of September; the winners read their works. – On the 25th of September the third open-doors day of the House was organized, where the citizens of Balatonfüred were acquainted with our work.

Many of our guests received awards for their work, some examples: Ádám Kovacsics was awarded the Premio Ángel Crespo de Traducción for his translation of  Sinistra körzet (Ádám Bodor), Anamaria Pop recieved the Szindbád prize of the Erdélyi Magyar Írók Ligája, Sava Babič was awarded the Jakov Ignatovity prize founded by the Serbian Minority living in Hungary, Jože Hradil received the  Pro Cultura Hungariae distinction.

The translator’s stay has been sponsored by the Magyar Szak- és Szépirodalmi Szerzők és Kiadók Reprográfiai Egyesülete (MASZRE). – Our caretaker Zsuzsa Bocsor Mrs. Szamosfalvi did a splendid job all through the year, the guests were delighted. – In the course of the year the following media reported about the work of the Translators House: Napló (Veszprém), Füred TV, Balatonfüredi Napló, Magyar Rádió, Korunk, Prae, Litera, Barátság, Élet és Irodalom, Népszabadság, Suomi-Unkari, Új Szó (Pozsony), Mister.