Magyarázni

by Helen Hajnoczky

The word "magyarázni" (pronounced MUG-yar-az-knee) means "to explain" in Hungarian, but translates literally as "make it Hungarian." This faux-Hungarian language primer, written in direct address, invites readers to experience what it's like to be "made Hungarian" by growing up with a parent who immigrated to North America as a refugee. In forty-five folk-art visual poems each paired with a written poem, Hajnoczky reveals the beauty and tension of first-generation cultural identity.
‘Because translation between cultures is always fraught – and yet somehow translate we must – Magyarázni explores language and cultural identity in the permeable space fomenting between family and society, word and image initiating us into a new alphabet of lived meaning. In reading we wonder along with Magyarázni ’s wandering “you,” we care and get entangled in the “brambles of your cursive,” we too are “made Hungarian.”’
– Oana Avasilichioaei
‘Familiar but out of reach, Magyarázni reforms the language of home on the tip of your tongue, a language of knotted cursive and bubbled syntax; folksong and stovetop. Each letter blossoms as a hand-drawn flower and a sputtering drone of spits and pith. Magyarázni punctuates every I with a poppy seed, every C with the splinter­ed foil of a solemn treat. Mournful and personal, Magyarázni calls out for the language of family.’
– Derek Beaulieu

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2016

Reviews

[Lily Tice Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in one sitting because I gobbled it up whole. Hajnoczky writes sentences that are full of broken glass and boiled carrots, typewriter keys and tangled stitches. She makes her Hungarian culture come alive through a menagerie of images, and I loved every minute of it.

[Isla McKetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visually beautiful and well-written book. I felt the displacement and longing so deeply.