Eleventh Newsletter
Events of 2008
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Translator’s House (the House opened its gates on the 21st of January 1998) we gave a press conference in the Petőfi Literary Museum on the 14th of February. Our individual sponsors were present at the occasion along with the delegates of our sponsoring institutions. We offered a summing up of the decade, listing the number of works the guests of the house translated, and the many languages they translated into. A list of the works, translators and languages, though far from comprehensive, is posted on our homepage. On the 4th of July we organized a translator’s conference in collaboration with the Major’s office.
Speeches were made by Dr. Márta Schneider, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Education, dr. Márta Talabér, vice president of Veszprém County Council, and dr. István Bóka, Mayor of Balatonfüred and Member of the Parliament. Many of the translators present on the occasion read from the special issue of the Füredi Fordítói Füzetek. This was followed by a discussion where the moderator, the poet Géza Szőcs, asked Anamaria Pop, Karol Wlachovský, Vjacseszlav Szereda, Adan Kovacsics and Heinrich Eisterer about the situation of Hungarian literature in their respective countries. Translators from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, The Netherlands, Croatia, Poland, Norway, Italy, Russia, Spain and Slovenia joined the discussion.
The year started with the arrival of the students of the Balassi Institute studying Literary Translation. Based on the agreement between the Translator’s House and the Institute, the students (Cora-Lisa Sütő, Helena Miletic, Julianna Horváth Chen, Justyna Musialska, Sandra Mihajlovic, Maya Tóth, Viktorija Santic, Weronika Kasprzak) spent a week in the House working on their translations necessary for earning their Master’s Degree. In February the members of the translator’s seminar from Saint Petersburg (Jana Kalnej, Sofija Krasovszkaja, Elizaveta Szocsivko, Alexandra Godun) worked in the house lead by Oxana Yakimenko, (See the next sections of our Newsletter for a list of the translators visiting the house and the work they did there, we also print the list of the published works created in the House.) Between the 2nd and 6th of April a HALMA reunion was organized in Sremski Karlovci (Karlóca), Péter Rácz represented the Translator’s House on the event. (HALMA is a joint cooperation of Writer’s Retreats and Translator’s Houses helping cultural exchanges in Eastern-, Central- and Western Europe with scholarships; www.halma-network.eu )
From the 26th of April to the 3rd of May, the Finnish Translator’s seminar (Mirja Oksanen, Tapani Hynynen, Johanna Raimi, Salla Mikkola, Pilvi Hämeenaho) lead by Tuomo Lahdelma and Gergely Dusnoki worked on translating Ottó Tolnai, with the help of Baba Laura, Beáta Thomka and Lajos Mann. The author was also present. Just a sentence about the general feeling: „All this was beyond our expectations. It was the beginning of a profound friendship.”
The Slovakian translation’s seminar, between the 16th and 19th of May was lead by Judit Görözdi. Translator’s participating were Renáta Deák, Gabriela Magová, Szilvia Szarka (they also gave presentations), Jitka Rožňová, Eva Andrejčáková, Márta Lukács, Mónika Slobodník, Zorán Ardamica; the guest author was Péter Esterházy. The Italian translator’s seminar (26th – 31st May) was once again organized by Eszter De Martin. The translators working on Hungarian folk tales were Francesca Ciccariello, Dénes Mátyás, Anna Lisa Spaccarotella, Éva Zsák. The following guests gave lectures: László Lator, Ferenc Szénási, Nóra Pálmai, István Puskás.
At the garden party we specially thanked a few people for the help offered during our first ten years: the cooking team of the Writer’s Bookshop (Bernadett Nagy, Edit Balogh, Ágnes Karetka); Katalin Hanusovszky responsible for the technical maintenance of the House; and our wonderful caretaker, Zsuzsa Szamosfalviné Bocsor, friend of all our guests.
Éva Köves’s solo exhibition (organized by the art historian Márta Kovalovszky opened by the poet Ferenc Szijj) showed writer’s portraits. The new number 7. issue of the Füredi Fordító Füzetek, featuring a poem by Dezső Tandori (Előkészületek és születésnap), was translated into 11 languages by 11 translators. The event was opened by Dr. István Bóka the Mayor of Balatonfüred, Anna Szélmolnár played a violin solo, Ferenc Darvas played the piano all night. Our permanent exhibition displays works by: Ferenc Banga, Imre Bak, Márton Barabás, Mariann Bán, Bátki John, András Böröcz, Imre Bukta, Mária Chilf, József Darázs, Pál Deim, El Kazovszkij, Miklós Erdély, László Fehér, László Felugossy, Áron Gábor, Bálint Havas, László Hegedűs2, Katalin Káldi, Károly Kelemen, Kemény György, Keserü Ilona, Klimó Károly (he gave a series of eight paintings to the House as a gift), András Koncz, Antal Lakner, Viktor Lois, Rezső Móder, István Nádler, Réka Nemere, István Orosz, Vladimir Péter, Sándor Pinczehelyi, Sándor Rácmolnár, Gábor Roskó, Kata Szalai, Zsuzsa Szenes, Ágnes Szépfalvi, Tamás Szikora, Klára Szilárd, Margit Szilvitzky, János Szirtes, Zoltán Szlabey, László Szotyory, Gábor Szörtsey, József Szurcsik and Mamikon Yengibarian.
From the 29th of June and the 4th of July the guests of the Spanish translator’s seminar,
(Mária Szijj, Rita Juhász, Zita Máté, Anna Süveges, Fernando de Castro, Eszter Orbán and Márta Pávai Patak) translated a text by György Konrád, lead by Ádám Kovacsics.
In September we hosted two additional seminars for young translators. First from the 15th to the 22nd of
September Franciska Čurković-Major invited the best of her students from Zagrab University. Anna Čorak, Margareta Futač, Dunja Nikolić, Lucija Pravica, Darko Tomšić, Dijana Antolović, Marija Gavran, Vanja Hatala, Ljubica Jerković, Renata Szanto worked on texts by János Háy. István Ladányi was invited to give a lecture to the participants. – In the last week of September we hosted our first ever Polish translator’s seminar. The leader of the team (Monika Pierzchała, Anna Butrym, Anna Balcewicz, Dorota Stronkowska, Justyna Musialska, Julia Wolin, Weronika Kasprzak) Tereza Worowska chose the participants through a translator’s contest, in Balatonfüred they worked on texts by György Spíró, Géza Csáth, and László Krasznahorkai. Lectures were
given by István Kovács, Lajos Pálfalvi. On the 25th of September they gave a presentation of their work in the city Library (Lipták Szalon). – The winner of the translator’s contest organized by the National Library of Foreign Literature, Balázs Kántás, was awarded a week’s stay in the House. – Till the end of the year many other translators worked in the house. In November our foundation participated in the found raising auction hosted by Summa Artium, the acquired resources will be utilized for the library and the founding of international relations and organization of seminars.
In the first days of December the second HALMA meeting was organized in the Literarisches Colloqium Berlin, where new applicants joined, and the number of the participating houses increased to 27. The next meeting will take place at Balatonfüred in April 2009.
Kinga Szokacs prepared extracts from our literary journals throughout the year to aid our translators; these can be found in the house as well as online.
Some of our guests used the low cost meal opportunity provided by the Baricska csárda, many of them visited the beach of the UNI Hotel which is free of charge for our guests, we thank them, once again for these opportunities.
Our caretaker Zsuzsa Bocsor Mrs. Szamosfalvi once again 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, Népszabadság, Magyar Nemzet, Népszava, Magyar Rádió, Duna TV, Élet és Irodalom, Litera, Magyar Katolikus Rádió, HVG, Magyar Távirati Iroda, Műfordítók Egyesületének honlapja, Osservatorio Centro Europeo, Magyar Demokrata.