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HUNGARIAN
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SAMPLES - IN QUEST OF THE MIRACLE
STAG: THE POETRY OF HUNGARY |
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Preface to the Second Revised Edition |
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The first edition of this book appeared
in 1996 when Hungary, having been founded
in |
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896 A.D., was celebrating its millecentennial
and the 40th anniversary of the Hungarian |
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Uprising of 1956. The present edition of
2000 celebrates- Hungary's having become
a |
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European Christian nation under King Stephen
I, who was later sainted by the Catholic |
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Church and is commonly remembered today
as St. Stephen not only by Hungarians but |
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all over the world. |
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During the four years between the first
edition and the present one, Hungary became a |
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member of NATO together with Poland and the
Czech Republic and preparations are |
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under way for Hungary to become a member
of the European Community. |
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Volume I, which
features only the completed oeuvres, has received enthusiastic notices
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and reviews from such notable Anglophones
as Nobel Laureate Seamus- Heaney, |
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Professors Audrey Lumsden-Kouvel,
and Emery George. Dissatisfaction with the
book |
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came from exclusively Hungarian sources,
which was predictable. With the first edition, |
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which reached all points in North America,
Hawaii, England, Australia, and even Kenya |
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completely gone, it became necessary to reissue
the book. We have tried to eliminate |
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the typos and other infelicities that inevitably
manage to sneak into a book of this size. |
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In a number of places we have added additional
translations of a given poem, when |
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such additional material became available
and the poem in question was of sufficient |
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importance to warrant the duplication. I
would like to mention Gyula Illyés's "One |
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Sentence on Tyranny",
Attila József's "Ode" and
"On My Birthday", which are generally
considered untranslatable. The latter had four versions in the first
edition, npw |
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there are six. We expanded the material
on Bálint Balassi and Sebestyén
Tinódi |
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Lantos.
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The physical format of the second edition
has also changed. Instead of pushing stanzas |
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together in order to save space,
the present version restores all poems to their original |
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format. This was made possible
by the expertise of Tertia Publishers in
Budapest, |
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whose 10 point Garamond letters,
although smaller than the 11 point Times Roman the |
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first edition appeared in, are
much more appealing. |
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I have benefited from the insightful
remarks of numerous colleagues at the University of |
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Illinois at Chicago and Indiana
University as well as from Thomas Kabdebo,
George |
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Gömöri,
Clara Györgyey, and Emery George,
living in Ireland, the UK, and in the USA, |
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respectively. |
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Volume II
is scheduled to appear at the end of Hungary's Christian millennium.
This |
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officially started on August 20,
2000 and lasts until August 20, 2001. It will contain the |
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poetry of living authors ranging
from the 90-year old classics György Faludy and
Amy |
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Károlyi
through such octogenerians as Győző Határ,
followed by the seventy and |
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sixty-year olds, who can be considered
as Hungary's most important living authors. We |
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intend also to include young poets
with a proven talent and a distinct voice of their own. |
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Any infelicities that still remain
are my sole responsibility. |
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Adam Makkai |
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