Magyar Egyház, 2001 (80. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
2001 / 3. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 13. oldal Hungarian people, of the heroic past, of the sea of suffering they had endured. He explained to them with conviction that though the culture of the Hungarian nation faced major challenges, it became significant all the same and that the Hungarian descended youth born in the United States had nothing to be ashamed of. Among his many-fold responsibilities, he willingly accepted the additional mission of educating and raising leaders for the church from amongst the circle of the second generation. As teacher at Elmhurst College, he instilled the love of the Hungarian language and culture in his pupils with great devotion and perseverance. One of his pupils was August Molnár. The idea, the spiritual root of the American Hungarian Foundation (later established by August Molnár) stems from the Elmhurst College experience and from the spirit of Barna Dienes. In 1941, a Hungarian Program was started at Elmhurst College, in Elmhurst, IL. As a pioneer undertaking, Rev. Dienes Barna just transferred from his Homestead, Pennsylvania church to the Chicago South Side church, and accepted teaching responsibilities alongside with his nearby pastoral post. In 1945, the General Council of the Evangelical and Reformed Church voted to support the “Hungarian Chair” at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, IL, and appointed Rev. Barnabas Dienes to a full time teaching post. He then resigned from his pastorate at the Chicago South Side Church. In 1947, the World Council of Churches called on Rev. Barnabas Dienes to initiate relations with Hungarian Protestant dispersed people abroad, gave him a special assignment to visit war-torn Hungary, and the refugee camps in Europe. And then he accepted a most trying commission in 1948, and made a tour of all the countries of Central and South America, to prepare accommodations for the homeless Hungarian refugees of his faith. During this journey sudden death befell him in South America in January, 1950. On the 50th anniversary of his death, an appropriate tribute to this great Hungarian- American would be the publication of some of his most important writings. His correspondence, his reports on the situation of the refugees in Europe after World War II, his studies, his literary descriptions may be regarded as gems in the Bethlen Collection. An omnibus volume of his writings to be issued by the American Hungarian Foundation, would not only pay homage to the memory of Barna Dienes, but would save American Hungarian values from oblivion. Julianna Puskas SELECTED POEMS OF GYULA ILLYÉS IN ENGLISH What you have almost forgotten: Selected Poems of Gyula Illyés, edited with an introduction by William Jay Smith, presents the work of Hungary’s most famed poet. Illyés’ work is direct, vivid, colloquial, and varied. Many of his poems bear witness against injustice from the vantagepoint of his peasant roots. However, as William Jay Smith points out in his introduction: “Illyés was not an apologist for socialism nor a public defender of any system or theory. He continued, a literary giant, throughout his life to attack injustice wherever he found it, and to promote passionately, and with the power and balance of his art, a civilized view of man.” Whatever his subject - love, family, nature, or social injustice - Illyés shaped taut lyrics with absolute command of his poetic craft and a vivid eye for detail. What you have almost forgotten has been rendered into English by a team of expert translators and is the only work now in print in English of the rich, varied work of Hungary’s beloved national poet. Gyula Illyés died in 1983 a few months after his eightieth birthday. Throughout his lifetime, he drew inspiration, like Béla Bartók in music, from his Hungarian roots. And like Robert Frost in New England and Robert Burns in Scotland, Illyés springs from the common people and gives the land a voice. Among his many honors, he received Hungary’s highest literary award, the Kossuth Prize, in 1948 and again in 1953. After a selfimposed silence from 1956 to 1961, he continued publication of work in a wide variety of genres, and the translation of his work into other languages brought him worldwide renown. William Jay Smith, former Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, a position now known as Poet Laureate, and author of more than fifty books of poetry, translation, and criticism, has a distinguished publishing career spanning fifty-two years. His most recent book, The Word Beneath the Window: Poems 1937-1997 was widely praised. For his outstanding contributions to the promotion of Hungarian culture, he has twice received awards from the government of Hungary - The Gold Medal for Labor and the Pro Cultura Hungarica Award.
