Hungarian Heritage Review, 1990 (19. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1990-03-01 / 3. szám
There are two living poets who are regarded by thenforeign critics as being among the greatest artists of religious lyric poetry. János Pilinszky (b. 1921) is one of diem. Pilinszky’s Selected poems (Manchester: Carcanet New Press, 1976, 67 p.) was recently translated into English by Ted Hughes and János Csokits. The other one, László Mécs (b. 1895), received the approbation of the world-renowned French poet, Paul Valéry, in the preface to Ladislas Mécs: Poémes (Paris: Horizons de France, 1944. Pp. XI-XVIII). In prose writing several authors captured a readership outside Hungary, at first those who, like Mór Jókai or Géza Gárdonyi (1863-1922), won international literary contests. Gárdonyi wrote about peasant life and historical topics (The Stars of Eger, 1901; The Invisible Man, 1902; The Captives of God, 1908, etc.). Ferenc Móra (1879-1934) also described peasant life but in a more realistic vein than did Gárdonyi. Móra’s historical novel, The Gold Coffin (1932), delineates the last days of the Roman Empire focusing on the struggle between Christianity and heathendom. Móra’s historical novel is a true masterpiece in which an artistic level of the writer’s craft is combined with a scholar’s subject knowledge: Móra commanded an international reputation as an expert archaeologist. István Fekete (1900-1970) is also an outstanding portrayer of village life. His writings are all the more of note because his descriptions of the beauties of nature are unexcelled. Sándor Márai (b. 1900) gives us an insight into the life of the middle classes. Márai infuses his novels with intellectualism and his peculiar philosophy of life in such a way it leaves the reader’s aesthetic pleasure unimpaired. In the last several decades he has lived in the United States and Italy. Dezső Szabo’s (1879-1945) and László Németh (1901- 1975) both belonged to the populist writer’s movement (népi írók mozgalma) and regarded the peasantry as the alpha and omega of the nation’s existence. Both were extraordinarily talented as fiction writers and essayists. In addition, Németh excelled as a playwright. Áron Tamási (1897-1966) through both short stories and novels depicted life of Hungarians living in Transylvania in his very unique and essentially romantic style. Albert Wass (b. 1908), likewise Áron Tamási, selects his themes from the life of the middle class and village folks of Transylvania. Later he included more general subject matter in his widely read novels. Albert Wass has won three prestigious literary awards. After the war he emigrated to the United States where he is active also as a publisher. Lajos Zilahy (1891-1974) in his best-selling novels analyzed social and moral problems of the Hungarian middle class, then turned to depicting the world of the Hungarian and other European aristocracy. Prior to his death Zilahy lived in the United States for decades, writing several books in English. Unlike our previous fiction writers, Tibor Déry (b. 1894) presents rather urban stories and figures, himself being the son of a well-to-do, big city family. All of the above discussed prose writers are well known in this day and age—some of them enjoying overwhelming popularity—in foreign lands. The greatest literary figure during the interwar years was Mihály Babits (1883-1941), poet, novelist, essayist, translator and editor of the Nyugat (The West) periodical, the most important literary journal. He was also director of the Baumgarten Foundation which awarded yearly the nation’s highest literary prize. Since Babits was a middle-of-theroader, he was attacked by Left and Right alike. Dezső Kosztolányi (1885-1936), likewise multi-talented, was important as a lyric poet, essayist, translator and journalist Following Madách’s philosophical drama, The Tragedy of Man, no play of international note was written for decades to come. It is all the more interesting that suddenly, in 1908, a spectacular “Hungarian invasion” of the American theater began. In New York City alone, the adaptation and production of 53 Hungarian plays written by 21 authors could be seen between 1908 and 1940. From 1923 to 1925, seventeen Hungarian plays opened on Broadway, and between 1930 and 1933, twelve. Furthermore, among statistics elucidating American-Hungarian cultural relations, we should mention that the number of produced plays from each Hungarian author during the period 1908-1940 is as follows: Ferenc Molnár (1878-1952), 16; Ernő Vajda, 5; Menyhért Lengyel, 5; László Fodor, 5; Lajos Bíró, 4; Ferenc Herczeg (1863- 1954), 3; László Bús-Fekete, Gábor Drégely (1883-1944), Lili Hatvány, László Lakatos, 2 each; Árpád Pásztor, Jenő Heltai (1871-1957), Imre Földes, Lajos N. Egri, Lajos Luria (Pseudonym), Imre Fazekas, Attila Orbók, Ádám Gosztony, Lajos Zihaly, János Vaszary, Dezső Szomory, 1 each. Ferenc Molnár’s plays totaled 2,148 first run performances; one reached 326 performances, four exceeded 200, and five exceeded 100 nights. The thirty-seven other plays totaled 2,900 first ran performances; one exceeded 300, one 200, and eight 100 performances. The record run, however, was scored by Gábor Drégely’s A Tailor-Made Man (398). During the same period (1908-1940) most European capitals similarly adapted and produced plays written by some of the above-mentioned authors. In addition to plays, many other forms of literature have been translated into foreign tongues. Tibor Demeter’s excellent multivolume bibliographical tool entitled Magyar szépirodalom idegen nyelven (Hungarian belles lettres in foreign languages in essence is not so isolated since its products have always been translated into foreign languages and at a very impressive rate. Between the wars, & example, many works of a series of Hungarian authors have appeared in Italian, among them the novels of Mihály Földi, Jenő Heltai, Mór Jókai, Sándor Márai, Kálmán Mikszáth and Ferenc Molnár. English translations of Hungarian belletristic works published in Great Britain since 1830 were listed in Magda Czigány’s useful bibliography, Hungarian literature in English translation published in Great Brian, 1830-1968 (London: Szepsi Csombor Literary Circle, 1969. 117 p.). ************* 34 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW MARCH 1990
