Final Matters: Selected Poems, 2004-2010

by Szilárd Borbély, Ottilie Mulzet (Translator)

An award-winning translator presents selections from the haunting final volumes of a leading voice in contemporary Hungarian poetry



Szil�rd Borb�ly, one of the most celebrated writers to emerge from post-Communist Hungary, received numerous literary awards in his native country. In this volume, acclaimed translator Ottilie Mulzet reveals the full range and force of Borb�ly's verse by bringing together generous selections from his last two books, Final Matters and To the Body. The original Hungarian text is set on pages facing the English translations, and the book also features an afterword by Mulzet that places the poems in literary, historical, and biographical context.

Restless, curious, learned, and alert, Borb�ly weaves into his work an unlikely mix of Hungarian folk songs, Christian and Jewish hymns, classical myths, police reports, and unsettling accounts of abortions. In her afterword, Mulzet calls this collection "a blasphemous and fragmentary prayer book ... that challenges us to rethink the boundaries of victimhood, culpability, and our own religious and cultural definitions."

Genres: Poetry

200 pages, Hardcover

First published February 5, 2019

About the author

Szilárd Borbély is widely acknowledged as one of the most important poets to emerge in post-1989 Hungary. He worked in a wide variety of genres, including essay, drama, and short fiction, usually dealing with issues of trauma, memory, and loss. His poems appeared in English translation in The American Reader, Asymptote, and Poetry. Borbély received many awards for his work, including the Attila József Prize. He died in 2014.

Reviews

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were many moments of profound dissipation of pain. The poems felt like crystals of memory, a living archive of sorrow.