1988. szeptember (209-245. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
slíffli Editor: György Krassó » 24/D Little Russell Street * London, WC1A 2HN * Tel. 01-430 2126 (from abroad 441-430 2126) 238/1988 (E) 24th September, 1988 Falud;/ Evening in the Jurta Theatre Perhaps no-one in contemporary Hungárián poetry and that of the last 50 years has provoked such passionate debate as György Faludy, it can certainly be said that his life was the most varied, adventurous and dangerous of his fellow poets. He was forced to emigrate twice:once in 1938 from the rise of Nazism and secondly, after years spent in the Recsk death camp, in 1956 from the Stalinists vengeance which followed the revolution. Vienna, Paris, Morocco, New York and Toronto are only a few of the places where he lived, struggled and of course wrote poetry or translated, places where he was always faithful to his humanist ideas bút where his homeland was always Hungary. The Hungary where he was persecuted, humiliated, tortured and imprisoned so many times and where he finally seemed tó have been forgottén. Forgottén? No Hungárián poet has ever been feted as much as now when he returned after more than three decades. He was asked haek many times bút he never accepted official invitations and he was nőt willing to step on Hungárián soil while János Kádár, mur- derer of thousands, was in power, he who was swom in by Russian tanks. Now he has accepted an invitation by the Writers Alliance, he arrived on Monday September 19th in Budapest. On Tuesday he dedicated his books, including his Villon translations which were published in one hundred thousand copies by the new "Hungárián World" press and the New York edition of his complete verse. Qn Thursday he took part in the premier of a documentary entitled "György Faludy The Poet" in the Puskin Cinema. Yesterday evening the Jurta Theatre gave a performance in honour of Faludy’s birth- day. At least 1000 people crowded intő an auditórium built fór 320. The avant-garde performance was directed by András Jeles: on one side of the stage sat Faludy and his fellow Recsk prisoners,, on the other his admirers - poets, literary historians - and well known participants in the Democratic Opposition Movement such as László Rajk jr. The set consisted of a picture of Kádár and Brezhnev kissing, a fridge, a slimming machine, girls playing ball and smoking and lots of rubbish which was pain- stakingly cleared away by two cleaning women during the performance while everyone sang both political and playful Faludy poems which had been set to music. Somé of Faludy’s poems such as "Mayakovszki’s last verse" and "Leam This Poem" were recited by well-known actors including András Kern who read out a poem written in London 30 years ago about Imre Nagy’s execution. At the end of the evening Faludy read out his poem written in Paris in 19á0 entitled "Ode to the Hungárián Language". "Hungárián tonguei Proliferate and you are one with us / hot as our inflamed spirit. / Nőt a sated desire, bút a buming promise, / common future and resounding sentence" - four lines of a poem which are as true today as they ever were. One of his fellow Recsk prisoners Tibor Zimányi referred bitterly to an article published recently which doubted Faludy’s sarcastic response to an AVH (Stalinist secret police) interrogator in Recsk bút was nőt surprised hearing that prisoners at Recsk were beaten to death with chair legs. Ex-members of AVH are even today in leading positions in „Hungárián cultural life - said Mr.Zimányi. György Faludy is feted by the Hungarians nőt only fór his poetry bút fór his bravery, his faith in his ideas and his uncompromising natúré. /") Subscribers can use or quote the Hungárián October newsletters in totál or in detail as long as the source is acknowledged.
