A Transparent Lion: Selected Poems

by Attila József, Michael Castro (Translator), Gabor G. Gyukics (Translator)

Regarded by many as Hungary’s greatest 20th-century poet, Attila József was born in Budapest in 1905 and died, after apparently throwing himself under a train, in December of 1937. József lived a difficult life marked by severe poverty, loneliness, and depression, paralleling the conditions of his native Hungary during an uncertain and turbulent period of the 20th century between the wars. Writing in intense emotional tones that swung from despair to hope, József invigorated old poetic forms with a new freedom, orchestrating his poems with fresh rhythmic patterns influenced by folk music’s rhythms as well as their metrics. But József was also influenced by Dadaist and other modernist ideas sweeping Europe, finding a voice that would synthesize the older cultural forms of Hungary with the new experiments of his time. New Yorker Michael Castro previously translated the anthology Swimming the Contemporary Hungarian Poetry and works by Attila Balogh. He has published six books of his own poetry. Gábor C. Gyukics was born in Budapest, and divides his time between the US and Hungary. He co-edited Swimming the Ground and has published three books of his own poetry. He received the Füst Milán translator’s prize from the Hungarian Academy of Science in 1999.

Genres: Poetry

119 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

The son of Áron József - a soap factory worker of Székely and Romanian origin from Banat - and a Hungarian peasant girl with Cuman ancestry - Borbála Pőcze - was born in Ferencváros, a poor district of Budapest. He had two elder sisters: Eta and Jolán. When Attila József was three he was sent to live with foster parents after his father abandoned the family and his mother became ill. Because the name Attila was not well known at the time, his foster parents called him Pista.

His mother died in 1919, aged only 43. After this, he was looked after by Ödön Makai, his brother-in-law. Later he applied to the Franz Joseph University – his dream was to become a secondary school teacher – but he was soon turned out when a man named Antal Horger determined he was unfit for teaching because of a provocative poem he had written (With All My Heart).

After this he tried to support himself with the little money he earned by publishing his poems. He started showing signs of schizophrenia, and was treated by psychiatrists (now he probably would be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder). He never married and only had a small number of affairs, but frequently fell in love with the women who were treating him.

He died on 3 December 1937 at Balatonszárszó. Crawling through the railway tracks, he was crushed by a starting train. The most widely accepted view is that he committed suicide, but some experts say that his death was by accident.

Reviews

[Gavin Lyon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Hungarian friend of mine highly rates this poet. And it seems he is well respected in Hungarian academia. As such I can only assume it is a poor translation as the language seems very bland. Once again I'm cursing my deficiency with other languages.

[bwright1701 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Attila’s spirit has endured many sufferings, including these exceptionally dinky and bland translations.