Ποιήματα

by Attila József, Γιάννης Ρίτσος (Translator)

Dr. Tverdota Gyorgy: "...σαν το σύμπαν να βλέπεις τον εαυτό σου τρανό"
Γιάννης Ρίτσος: Εισαγωγικό σημείωμα

ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΑ
- Αγνή καρδιά
- Μενταγιόν
- Τραγούδι
- Κοράλλι
- Μενταγιόν
- Δροσιά
- Η μητέρα μου
- Πίκρα
- Ο χορός της αρκούδας
- Ωδή
- Χειμωνιάτικη νύχτα
- Νύχτα στα προάστια
- Βροχή
- Χωρίς ελπίδα αργά, στοχαστικά
- Μέσα στο σιδερόχρωμο ουρανό
- Ξύπνημα
- Η μητέρα
- Νανούρισμα
- Εκείνη η ωραία αλλοτινή γυναίκα
- Αυτό πονάει
- Έναν αναγνώστη μόνο
- Επέστρεψες μ' ένα ραβδί μονάχα
- Σύντομα πια θ' αφανιστώ

ΣΗΜΕΙΩΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΤΑΦΡΑΣΤΗ
- Αττίλα Γιόζεφ: Curriculum Vitae
- Μίκλος Χουμπάυ: Ο Αττίλα Γιόζεφ

Η τέταρτη, τιμητική, έκδοση αυτού του βιβλίου κυκλοφορεί επί τη ευκαιρία των εορτασμών για τα εκατό χρόνια από τη γέννηση του ποιητή (1905-2005). Το έτος Αττίλα Γιόζεφ τελεί υπό την αιγίδα του υπουργείου Εξωτερικών και του υπουργείου Εθνικής Κληρονομιάς της Ουγγαρίας.

Genres: Poetry, Hungarian Literature, Hungary

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

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

[Vesna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will separately write about Attila József as a magnificent poet in my review of By the Danube.

Not sure how to rate the book for abysmal translation while not reflecting on Attila József’s gorgeous poetry that I enjoy from the pen of other translators. My rating only refers to Hargitai’s translation that takes so much liberty that some original meaning is not recognizable. This is not just about avoiding the “mirror-image fidelity” as Hargitai writes in his brief introduction to Perched on Nothing's Branch: Selected Poems of Attila Jozsef which is identical to the current collection except for a handful of poems. Not only that he uses free verse which would be forgivable despite the fact that he is translating the versified poetry, but he does it so liberally that he habitually changes the original meaning of the text. One has to wonder whether those who bestowed his collection with the award for translation are familiar with the Hungarian language.

A sample from a great number of similar examples - from “By the Danube”

original:

És elkezdett az eső cseperészni,
de mintha mindegy volna, el is állt.
És mégis, mint aki barlangból nézi
a hosszú esőt - néztem a határt:
egykedvű, örök eső módra hullt,
színtelenül, mi tarka volt, a múlt.

John Bátki at least attempts to give a sense of the stanza while observing the rhythm and even the rhyme though with odd syntax in the last line (in By the Danube and Winter Night: Selected Poems by Attila József):

A slow drizzle began to fall, but soon
gave up, as if it were all the same.
Still, I watched the horizon like one
inside a cave, watching a steady rain:
this gray eternal rain pouring, steadfast,
so transparent now, the many-colored past.

Peter Zollman, more successful than Bátki in the final line but not as much in observing both the substance and form in the rest of the stanza (included in a couple of anthologies):

A drizzle started, moistening the morning
but didn’t care much, so it stopped again.
And yet, like someone who under an awning
watches the rain - I gazed into the plain:
As twilight, that may infinitely last,
so grey was all that used to shine, the past.

Peter Hargitai inserts nonexistent lines and substantially modifies the original meaning:

A half-hearted rain
couldn’t make up its mind
before it stopped. I saw
through it as if from a cave,
watching it fall drop by drop.
Enough water to fill a sea
in its eternal monotony.

As I read the last two lines, I wondered what happened to the contrast between the bleak rainy present and the colorful/shiny past. Where has it gone?

While Hargitai’s stanza might sound attractive and even beautiful (though this is not always the case elsewhere in the collection), it is not a translation but rather displays Hargitai’s own poetic expression inspired by József’s poem. In fairness to other translators who made a great effort to convey a sense of József’s poetry while rendering its rhythmic quality in the English idiom, I find it difficult not to be critical of a choice of loosely interpretative free verse as it simply circumvents the translating challenges. I can see why some rate it positively but the problem is that, once we read the literal rendition of the original, it becomes clear that this is not Attila József’s poetry!

[Mehmet]

55 sayfa önsöz kitabın neredeyse yarısını teşkil etmiş.

[Xandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a pure heart (Tiszta szívvel )

Without father without mother
without God or homeland either
without crib or coffin-cover
without kisses or a lover

for the third day - without fussing
I have eaten next to nothing.
My store of power are my years
I sell all my twenty years.

Perhaps, if no else will
the buyer will be the devil.
With a pure heart - that's a job:
I may kill and I shall rob.

They'll catch me, hang me high
in blessed earth I shall lie,
and poisonous grass will start
to grow on my beautiful heart.
..........................................................................................

in this volume, this poem is translated differently (translated poetry is weird, huh?):

With all My Heart

I have no father, I have no mother,
I have no God, I have no land,
I have no cradle or a cover,
no kiss, no lover's hand.

Three days I haven't eaten,
not too much and not too well,
all I have is twenty years,
twenty years of hell I'd gladly sell.

If no one wants them,
then maybe the devil will.
I'd be thrilled to rob and steal
and kill and kill.

They'll catch me and they'll hang me,
and cover me up with blessed earth,
and death-eating grass will start growing
from my lovely heart.

[Dimitris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Λατρεμένος! Τον έχω διαβάσει και ξαναδιαβάσει αυτόν τον υπέροχο λεπτό τόμο (έχουμε την δεύτερη έκδοση του 1975).

Αν γράψω ότι ο Ρίτσος μου αρέσει περισσότερο ως μεταφραστής ξένης (ψευδο-στρατευμένης) ποίησης παρά ως ποιητής ο ίδιος θα με κάνετε κάνσελ από το Goodreads; Τι καταπληκτική δουλειά που έκανε και εδώ και στον τόμο του σύγχρονου, και παρόμοιου με τον Γιόζεφ, Σεργκέη Γεσένιν! Και στον Μαγιακόφσκι φυσικά.

[moi, k.y.a.]

Her seferinde çeviri şiiri, seçme şiir kitabı okumayacağım diyorum ama kendimi dinlediğim mi var k?

[Sinan Öner]

Macar Şair, Yazar Attila Jozsef'in Memet Fuat tarafından Türkçe'ye çevrilmiş şiir kitabı "Temiz Yürekle", Macar Şiiri'ni (20. Yüzyıl Macar edebiyatını) anlamak açısından çok değerli bir kitap! Attila Jozsef, "Temiz Yürekle" kitabındaki şiirlerinin birçoğunu Macar Şiir Dergilerinde yayınlamış, sonradan kitaplaştırmış. "Temiz Yürekle" kitabında yer alan şiirlerden biri, "Temiz Yürekle" şiiri, dünyaca ünlenmiş bir Macar şiiri, bir şiiri de "Yoksulların Gecesi, Kömürüm Ol!" dizesi ile ünlenmiş şiir. Attila Jozsef, Macar Şiiri'nde "sosyalist lirizm"in başlıca temsilcisi bir Şairdir, "Temiz Yürekle" Attila Jozsef'in "sosyalist lirizm"inin "en iyi" şiirlerini içeriyor. Attila Jozsef'in "Temiz Yürekle" kitabını Macar toplumunun tarihini, Macar edebiyatının 20. Yüzyıl'daki deneyimlerini anlamak için mutlaka okumalıdır, Attila Jozsef'le Macar Şiiri birbirinden ayrılmaz bir "bütünlük" oluşturuyor.

[Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much of the poetry I had found from Hungarians was of a type where the form stifled the creativity, or made it into a style which has never been my favorite. There were some poems with more traditional rhyme schemes, and yet József managed to transcend the rhyming to give some great moments which I felt, even through the older style. I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book, and some of the pieces in section four didn’t do it for me, but in total this collection was worth the read. Glad I finally got around to it, years after I lived in Hungary.

[Justin Kern · Rating 2 out of 5]

These poems are translated from hungarian, and many of them are dark poems.

I'm not a big poem guy, and I'm *really* not a big translated poem guy.

I did not enjoy the poems but I feel sad knowing the author had such a difficult life that ended so tragically.

It's just my inability to appreciate poetry, most likely. They are probably good.

[☆ Réka ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Attila I love you and I always will and you will live through me and I will live for you. Don't love Hargitai's translation, and I especially dislike this version of Tiszta Szívvel.