Kálmán Kalocsay: Sunsubiro / Sunset

The opening stanza of this poem is a tease. The reader might believe the poem to be taking a particular direction, until realising the description is metaphorical.

The poem was published in the collection Streĉita kordo (Taut String) published in 1931. The translation appeared in Ten Esperanto Poets in English Translation (1991) and later in La Brita Esperantisto (The British Esperantist) in the November/December edition of 1998.

Kálmán Kalocsay
Sunsubiro,
1931

Jam iĝis kupro la tagmeza or’.
Ĉe l’ horizont’ la sun’ adiaŭluma,
Okul’ gigante granda, plorbruluma
Rerigardante pasas drone for.

Kaj kvazaŭ sang’ fluinta ĵus el kor’,
Jen arda ruĝo sur fenestro doma.
Moment’ ... kaj estingiĝas ruĝ’ fantoma,
Kaj jen la dom’, rabite pri l’ trezor’.

Malluma domo. Lumon lamp’ ne ŝutas.
Ĉu l’ mastro dormas, aŭ eterne mutas,
Plu lin ne vekos la maten’ radia?

Mallum’, mallum’, mallum’, tra l’ domo tuta.
Rigardas nokton la fenestro muta
Kun ros-malseka vitro apatia ...

Ĉu mi revidos vin, ho kara mia?

Translation: Katelina Halo
Sunset,
1931

The gold of noon takes on a copper stain.
Low in the sky the sun with farewell rays,
Like a gigantic eye, with backward gaze,
Reddened with tears, sinks drowning in the main.

As if the blood were ebbing from a vein,
The windows of the house all crimson blaze.
A moment – and the ghostly hue decays,
And the house stands, robbed of its golden gain.

A lightless house. No lamp sheds any light.
The master is asleep? or lying stark,
No longer to be roused when night shall wane?

Throughout the house is night, is night, is night.
The silent window looks upon the dark,
All wet with dew its apathetic pane.

O dearest, shall we ever meet again?

_______________________________

From the Clarence Bicknell site, with Esperanto poems by Clarence Bicknell, Karolo Pič, and Lajos Tárkony; with English translations and notes.

See also the translation of "Sunsubiro," "Sundown" by A. Z. Foreman, with recitation of the Esperanto original. I recite Foreman's translation along with the original in my podcast of 5/3/13: The Contributions of Esperanto to World Culture: Parts 1 & 2.

Lajos Tárkony (4) in English (2) / en la angla

On the Clarence Bicknell site I just blogged about, I found this pdf file of some original Esperanto poems with English translations:

O dearest, shall we ever meet again?

These are poems of separation and displacement. The poems are:

Clarence Bicknell: La elmigrintoj / "The Emigrants": translated by William Auld

Kálmán Kalocsay: Sunsubiro, 1931 / "Sunset": translated by Katelina Halo

Karolo Pič: Rememoro post vi / "Remembrance of you": translated by Roy McDonald

. . . and the entry on Lajos Tárkony is reproduced in its entirety below.

_____________________________________

Critics have described Lajos Tárkony as master of the sonnet, of polished verse, and perhaps the most musical poet in Esperanto. “Evening on a Balcony” is regarded as one of his three most accomplished poems. The sonnet dates from Tárkony’s early period. It was published in Dekdu poetoj (Twelve Poets) in 1934 and was written in Abbazia, Italy. The poem was republished in the collection Soifo (Thirst) in 1964. The translation, with the original, appeared in La Brita Esperantisto (The British Esperantist) in the edition of May/June 1996.

Lajos Tárkony

Balkona vespero,

1934

Lit-seĝo. Lankovriloj. Dua etaĝ’. Balkono.

Siajn vualojn densajn faligas jam vespero.

Sonorilvoĉo velke traŝvebas en l’ aero.

Torpor’ postfebra. Kape vaganta pensĉifono.

Sur transa bord’ de l’ golfo, en fee fora fono

ekbrilas lumserpento: vibranta koliero

sur kolo de l’ mallumo. Anoncas ĝi pri tero,

pri urbo kaj loĝantoj, pri homo kaj pri ŝtono.

Ho stranga pens’: ĉi urbe, kies stratetojn plande

ankoraŭ mi ne tuŝis kaj kien mia febre

sopira okulparo rigardas lace, lante,

ĉi urbe eble homo – same soleca, trista –

algapas nun la maron, niaj rigardoj eble

sin krucas en saluto, ho ve, senpove dista ...

Translation (W. Auld)

Evening on a Balcony,

1934

A balcony. Two-up. Some rugs. A bed.

Evening has now let down, opaque, its veils,

floats through the air a wilting voice of bells.

Sloth after fever. Thought-scraps in my head.

Across the gulf a snake of light illumines

A far-off fairy realm: a sparkling band

adorns the neck of darkness, tells of land,

a city and its dwellers, stones and humans.

How strange to think: there where my feet have never

trod narrow streets and where my eyes now look,

tired and reluctant, with a longing fever,

perhaps, there, someone – sad and lonely – may

be staring at the sea, our glances hook

in greeting, but, alas, too far away ...

_______________________________

Clarence Bicknell (1842-1918)

Clarence Bicknell (1842-1918) estis eminenta angla esperantisto, kiu ankaŭ verkis originale kaj traduke.

Estas ankaŭ anglalingva artikolo pri li en Wikipedia, kaj manpleno de originalaj kaj tradukitaj poemoj kaj himnoj en Vikifontaro.

Ekzistas Biblioteca-Museo Clarence Bicknell (en la itala).

Oni trovos ankaŭ datumbazon de nacilingvaj sciencaj verkoj de Bicknell.

La plej grava fonto tamen estas la retejo (kvarlingva) Clarence Bicknell, kun perspektivo soleni la venontan centjaron de lia morto. Jen la ĉefpaĝo en Esperanto. Bicknell estis multtalenta homo: enestas sekcioj pri lia vivo ĝenerala kaj kiel artisto, botanisto, arkeologo, esperantisto. Oni celas traduki ĉiujn retpaĝojn al Esperanto kaj bezonas la helpon de esperantistoj. Estas jam Esperanto-sekcio . . .

en la angla | en Esperanto

Jen subsekcioj:

Hymns | Himnoj
Poems | Poemoj

Notu ankaŭ la sekcion Downloads |.

Jen verkoj de Bicknell diversreteje:

Thomas Moore, La lasta rozo: tradukoj de Clarence Bicknell & Antoni Grabowski

Clarence Bicknell: El: «Aŭtuno»

Ĉe Literaturo en nia Esperanto-mondo:

Adiaŭ!
Versaĵo pri Amo
La maro

La elmigrintoj / The Emigrants, de Clarence Bicknell, translation by William Auld

Kaj finfine, miareteje:

"La Sekreto de Amo" [Never seek to tell thy love] de William Blake, tradukis Clarence Bicknell

Kiel vi vidos, mia elserĉo de ĉi-lasta havas interesan historion: mi unue eltrovis ĝin en bibliografio pri Blake, kaj la fonto ne estis esperantista sed obskura japanlingva revuo pri Blake kaj Whitman.

Esperanto doomed?

Yet another article in the mainstream press:

Esperanto: Simple, logical and doomed by R.L.G. | BERLIN The Economist, Sep 26th 2013

Not a bad article: the author mentions Esperanto's positives, and then goes on to explain why it is doomed to failure. There are some missing elements in this perspective. I am not so much interested in rebuttals you can always find in the comments section. Instead, I am interested in the tacit as well as explicit presuppositions of the argument.

Note that the author points out two factors in motivating language learning: (1) advantages coming from wide networking possibilities, (2) the pull of a culture to enjoy. Of course there are advantages to Esperantists networking among themselves, especially when it comes to travel. But the author really means networking in the larger society, involving commercial, intellectual, and other transactions.

And of course he is right, but he should have explicitly added the overriding factor that language use follows power, and not some abstract notion of efficacy; also that Esperanto's best chances were deep-sixed by institutions that didn't want to rock the power-boat of nationalism and existing power relations.

Before I discuss culture, I need to point out that there were always two goals of the Esperanto movement, which began as fused but in more recent decades have separated in the minds of a significant percentage of Esperantists. The first is to gain acceptance in the world at large and to secure Esperanto as the universally accepted international auxiliary language. The second is to cultivate an internally sustaining Esperanto-speaking community. The geopolitical scence has changed drastically more than once over the past century, and the more realistic of Esperantists have abandoned global ambitions. But they still cling to participation in the Esperantophone community, which unlike its original global ambition, is a success story.  The goal of universal acceptance is named by those who rejected it "pracelismo" or "finvenkismo"--i.e. adherence to the primeval goal or final victory.  This responds to the notion of networking in the larger sense.

Now we come to the notion of culture, which relates to the culture of the Esperantophone community. The most prominent of Esperantist literary figures have either insisted or denied that the Esperanto movement has its own culture. I am not the only one to insist that the notion of subculture is more accurate.  Then one could ask, what are the motives for participating in any subculture? They are varied.

I have addressed the question of culture in two podcasts to date on The Contributions of Esperanto to World Culture, particularly in Part 1. I characterized "culture" as process, not artifact, and so I conceptualize the Esperanto movement as a culture-forming process, one which I'll add has quite a colorful past if an often prosaic present. I also emphasized the Eastern European experience, eventually focusing on the central contribution of Hungarian writers to the development of Esperanto's cultural capital. Under conditions of repression Esperanto was not a frivolous hobby or playground for crackpots; it provided an alternative means of expression.

PS: Esperanto proselytizers are indeed obnoxious. Hence I have chosen my own path, not to convert, but simply to inform about the history of Esperanto as a living language.

Langston Hughes en Esperanto

Ĵus aperis Esperanta traduko de fama poemo de negra-usona verkisto Langston Hughes:

Harlemo (Harlem), tradukis Joshua "Sproŝŭa" Birns-Sprague

Estas iomete plu da Hughes en Esperanto:

Kvar Poemoj de Langston Hughes, tradukis Carlos A. Castrillón

La poemoj: Ankaŭ Mi Prikantas Amerikon, Negraj Laboristoj, La Minejoj de Johannesburg, Mi Estas Negro

. . . Kaj mia traduko:

"Adiaŭ Kristo" [Goodbye Christ], tradukis R. Dumain

Mi eltrovis forgesitan recenzon en Literatura Mondo:

Observo: Negraj Poetoj en Ameriko [Recenzo de “L.”]

Mi memoras, ke en 1987, mi diskutis kun la tiama vicprezidanto de la Esperanto-Societo de Vaŝingtono komunan deziron traduki verkojn de Hughes, li prozajn, mi poeziajn. Eble de tempo al tempo mi provetis. Mi memoras nur provojn traduki la faman poemon "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" [La Negro Rakontas pri Riveroj].

Mi ne plenumis tiun aferon, sed ĉe mia retejo vi trovos miajn Esperantajn tradukojn de verkoj de Paul Robeson, Duke Ellington, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, kaj miajn proprajn Esperantajn poemojn pri ĵazmuzikistoj John Coltrane, Hilton Ruiz, kaj Miles Davis.

Kontraŭaj taksoj de filmo ’The Universal Language’

Mi jam blogis plurfoje pri la filmoj de Sam Green pri utopioj kaj Esperanto. Jen du pluaj, kontraŭaj recenzoj:

Recenzo: The Universal Language 
(Nova filmo estas nur (ne tiel) ĉarma kuriozaĵo)
de Jim Ryan, Usona Esperantisto, 2013:2 (mar-apr)

Dua recenzo de The Universal Language
de Renato Corsetti, Usona Esperantisto, 2013:3 (maj-jun)

Sam Green estas amiko de Esperanto. Plue, kiam mi petis pli da dokumentado pri la filmĉerpaĵoj kaj fotografoj prezentitaj en liaj filmoj, li komplezis. Li donas pluajn informojn kaj fontojn en sia blogo pri la filmo. Do li ja volas helpi Esperanton. Tamen, la akra kritiko de Jim Ryan estas la pli ĝusta takso. La dokumenta filmo de Green estas disorda, nekohera, miskompreniga, kaj finfine nesufiĉe dokumenta, malgraŭ la raraj, nemalhaveblaj malnovaj filmetoj kaj fotografoj el la plej drameca epoko de la Esperanto-movado antaŭ la Dua Mondmilito.

Green malŝparas tempon kaj rimedojn pri portretoj de strange pozitaj esperantistaj kongresanoj, ne nur en la filmo mem, sed en la kromsuplementoj. Aparte en la aldona materialo, estus preferinde doni plenajn dokumentajn materialojn–malnovajn filmojn, fotografojn, ktp. kun fontindikoj kaj sugestoj por plua esplorado. Oni povus montri ankaŭ polurita(j)n deklamo(j)n de poemoj originalaj kaj/aŭ tradukaj.

Dokumentfilmo estu ne nur hazarda kolekto da impresoj sed vere historie informita kaj informiva, kun kohera historia perspektivo. La historia sento ĉi-kaze estas domaĝe misa, dankon al la nekompetenta ligigo de la Esperanto-movado kun diktatoreco, ekz. stalinismo, fare de Arika Okrent,  kiu estas lingvisto sed nek historiisto nek sociteoriisto.

La recenzo de Corsetti estas stultaĵo. Li laŭdas la filmon kiel realisman, montrante la esperantistojn kiel ili estas, sen polurigo de la makuloj kaj strangaĵoj. Kaj ja li mem estas esperantista kultisto kaj finvenkisto, sed la filmo fakte ne donas realisman bildon. Se jes, ĝi montrus diversajn, eĉ kontraŭajn perspektivojn pri la movado kaj la esperantistaro, preter reva idealismo, strangeco, kaj nostalgio al fiaskinta utopiaĵo.

Fakte mi tre ŝatas Sam Green kaj kunsentas lian emon rigardi retroen al la epoko de la 20a jarcento kun komparo al la mondorda situacio nuna. Sed percepteblas ankaŭ diferenco inter generacioj lia (postmalvarmmilita) kaj mia (malvarmmilita), el kiuj oni spektas aŭ spertas la epokojn ekz. de la 1930-40aj jaroj, la 1960-70aj jaroj, aŭ la 1980aj kaj postaj jaroj.

John McWhorter on conlangs

 John McWhorter is a linguist specializing in creole languages and a political reactionary focused on problems of race. In more recent years he has been addressing the public also on matters of language. In this video, he turns his attention to conlangs:

Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi real languages?


McWhorter affirms that these conlangs exhibit all the features of real languages including fully elaborated grammars, speech communities, and linguistic change over time.

Note also that the development of these languages is tied to, and most importantly originated in,  science fictional world-building. 

As I indicated in a previous post, McWhorter has confessed to knowing Esperanto. If these hobby languages can be justified as real languages, then Esperanto deserves linguistic legitimation all the more. I would like to see McWhorter do a video or podcast on this infinitely more important constructed language, Esperanto, which builds on the real world, has a speech community that functions in the real world (with unfortunate exceptions), serves a useful purpose, and can profit far more from validation from linguists.

Graham Greene & Esperanto (7): Confidential Agent (film) revisited

I already blogged about the film Confidential Agent (1945, 118 min.) and posted the trailer along with it. (For more information on the film see the IMDb site.)

For the novel Graham Greene created the character Dr. Bellows, naive creator of the artificial international language Entrenationo. You can find the video clip featuring Entrenatio and a few others here:

Confidential Agent -- (Movie Clip) Mr. Contreras

Here is the video clip in which Entrenationo appears:



Dr. Bellows, the naive inventor of this language, has no idea that his institute serves as a dangerous meeting ground for international intrigue and a life-and-death struggle.

In the novel, Greene creates an effective portrayal of an artificial language movement completely ineffective and oblivious to the real dangers of the world. Greene probably saw a parallel between Bellows/Entrenationo and Zamenhof/Esperanto. And while Esperantists have often parodied their own foolishness, and in some cases have criticized Zamenhof's political limitations, Zamenhof was no Bellows, and some Esperantists were politically astute, including those who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War, which though not named serves as the backdrop for Greene's novel.

Endre Tóth, Omaĝe / Homage to Endre Tóth

I wrote an homage in English to one of the greatest of Esperantist storytellers, the blind Hungarian composer and writer Endre Tóth:

A Memorial Tribute to Endre Toth

This followed upon my translation of Tóth's brilliant story "Groto" into English:

"Cave" by Endre Tóth, a philosophical tale 

As a result, I was contacted by an old friend of Tóth. Some years later I published what he wrote me about his friend:

Remembering Endre Tóth: Some Preliminary Notes by Lester Shepard

More recently, I translated both these pieces into Esperanto. They have been published in the most recent issue of Beletra Almanako, and so the rest of this post will be in Esperanto.

Post mia aperigo de la supre-menciitaj verkoj en la angla, mi tradukis la du omaĝojn al Endre Tóth al Esperanto por publikigo en Beletra Almanako, n-ro 17, junio 2013:

• Ralph Dumain: Memor-omaĝo al Endre Tóth (p. 104)
• Lester Shepard: Memore pri Endre Tóth: Kelkaj notoj (trad. Ralph Dumain) (p. 105-107)

Trevor Steele on original Esperanto novels

Trevor Steele summarizes the importance and achievements of Esperanto literature in this lecture in English, given in Sydney, 2 June 2013:

Romanoj en Esperanto, prelego de Trevor Steele
 SOME NOTES ON NOVELS IN ESPERANTO

Following a general orientation to the subject, Steele summarizes the content of historically key original novels of varying quality written in Esperanto, with English translations of snippets of each.  The novels summarized are:

Ivan Ŝirjaev: Sen titolo (Without a Title 1903/1919, 1995)
Henri Vallienne: Ĉu li? (Was it Him?, 1908)
Heinrich August Luyken: Pro Iŝtar (For Ishtar, 1924)
Hendrik Jan Bulthuis: La vila mano (The Shaggy Hand, 1928)
Julio (Gyula) Baghy: Hura! (1930)
Sándor Szathmári: Vojaĝo al Kazohinio (Voyage to Kazohinia, 1935, 1941, 1958)
Raymond Schwartz: Kiel akvo de l‘ rivero (Like Water in the River, 1962)
Vladimir Varankin: Metropoliteno (The Underground Railway, 1933)
John Islay Francis: La granda kaldrono (The Great Cauldron, 1978)
Anna Löwenstein: La ŝtona urbo (The City of Stone, 1999)

Steele mentions but skips over Jean Forge (Jan Fethke), István Nemere, Stellan Engholm, and Cezaro Rossetti.

In this treatment of Szathmári's Vojaĝo al Kazohinio, Steele quotes from William Auld's commentary (in English translation).

Steele's characterizations of these novels are useful. Among the authors listed Baghy is iffy as a novelist. Löwenstein is fairly new on the scence and I have not read her work. Some of the early Esperantist writers are rather mediocre, thematically, as you can see. Schwartz, though known mainly as a humorist, did write a serious novel, and from what I call it take be taken as serious fiction, though I did not see it as adding up to much philosophically. But Steele does include three of the most important fictional works written in Esperanto, those of Varankin, Szathmári, and Francis. He does not mention that the novels of Szathmári and Varankin are available in English translation.

The bad novels had to be mentioned for historical reasons. There, however, many good and a few excellent fiction writers not mentioned in this talk. Among the most profound is (1931-1981), whom I will discuss in my next post.

Amos Oz: Esperanto among the Kibbutzim

Famous Israeli author Amos Oz, who lived on a kibbutz for decades, has written a book of connected stories about kibbutzim, Between Friends. The publication release date for the English translation is September 24.  One of the stories in the book is titled "Esperanto." Here are excerpts from two reviews.

Amos Oz explores the daily lives behind utopian dreams in 'Between Friends' by Michael Walsh, Daily News, September 18, 2013

 The collection concludes with a masterfully rendered story called “Esperanto,” which has an atmosphere so rich it can almost be considered a character itself. It focuses on Martin Vandenburg, an anarchist who teaches Esperanto, the easy-to-learn constructed language that was crafted to transcend nationality and promote peace.

Between Friends by Amos Oz – review by Alberto Manguel, The Guardian, Wednesday 8 May 2013

The Esperanto teacher declares that "imprecise words poison relations between people everywhere, and that's why clear, accurate words can heal those relationships, but only if they are the right words spoken in a language that all people can understand". One of the students observes that Cain and Abel "probably spoke the same language too"; another says nothing but thinks that "the sorrow in the world was born long before words".

Vandenberg believes humans are essentially generous and kind-hearted but corrupted by their environments. He wants states to be abolished and replaced with an international, pacifist brotherhood of Esperanto speakers.

“When all human beings speak the same language,” he tells his class, “there will be no more wars because their common language will prevent misunderstanding among individuals and peoples.”

This claim reveals an ideological rift. Students question his belief with instances of violence between people who spoke the same language: Cain and Abel, German Jews and Nazis.

One student sat quietly, thinking “the sorrow in the world was born long before words.”

If that young man is correct, then the feeling of sadness, miscommunication and pain existed long before anyone uttered those nouns, which are essentially metaphors for something intangible.

On this web page are two videos and links to the story "Esperanto" in Italian and Hebrew:

Video. Amos Oz, Esperanto (Festival Internazionale delle Letterature 2012 – Basilica di Massenzio, Roma )

In the second of these videos, Oz recites the story in Hebrew, accompanied by music and Italian subtitles.  The first is an interview in which Oz summarizes the story "Esperanto," which you can view right here:

Mihály Vörösmarty en Esperanto

Mi jam blogis pri Mihály Vörösmarty kaj Mihály Babits en Tutmonda Sonoro (TS) kaj Hungara Antologio (1933). Mi enretigis pluajn poemojn el Hungara Antologio (1933) kun aldonitaj retligoj al trovitaj tradukoj el Vörösmarty:

Antaŭparolo de Mihály Vörösmarty
La Homoj de Mihály Vörösmarty

Mi trovis anglalingvan tradukon de "Antaŭparolo" sed ne de "La Homoj."

Carl Alpert remembers Lidia Zamenhof

 Thanks to Neil Blonstein for publicizing this article and attendant information:

 “Interesting People I Have Met: Lidia Zamenhof” by Carl Alpert

From this little piece alone one can see the idealism and naivete of Lidia. She thought she could solve social problems by propagating Esperanto and the Baha'i religion throughout the world. In a way, her thinking was a step backward from her father's, which itself did not sufficiently engage the world politically. Lidia's innocence extended to her sojourn in the USA, which was far more extensive than her father's, but it had a curious twist: Lidia innocently crossed racial boundaries in the USA in a way that others would not have. There are many black Bahai's in the USA—I've known many of them myself—and Lidia cultivated a number of them in the 1930s.

Babelmatrix & Babelonhu: tradukoj!

Mi jam menciis Esperantajn tradukojn trovitajn ĉe retejoj Babelmatrix (Babel Web Anthology - the Multilingual Literature Portal) kaj rilata Babelonhu (por hungara literaturo). Estas aliaj individuaj rilatoj retejoj por aliaj lingvoj/literaturoj. Estas kelkaj serĉkategorioj. Entute oni celas per kombinaĵoj de tradukoj enkonduki la serĉantojn al pluraj literaturoj de Eŭropo.

Troveblas ankaŭ multaj tradukoj en Esperanto el naciaj literaturoj. En Babelmatrix elektu: ANTHOLOGY (antologio) = full database (tuta datumbazo) & LITERATURE = all - All (ĉiu-ĉiun) & TRANSLATION (traduko) = eo - Esperanto.

Jen la aktualaj rezultoj:

Czech (ĉeĥa)

Borovský, Karel Havlíček (1)
Neruda, Jan (1)

Šrámek, Fráňa (1)
Vrchlický, Jaroslav (1)

German (germana)

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1)
Heine, Heinrich (2)

Hölderlin, Friedrich (1)
Schiller, Friedrich (1)

English (angla)

Keats, John (1)
Milton, John (1)

Poe, Edgar Allan (2)
Shakespeare, William (2)

French (franca)

Baudelaire, Charles (1)
La Fontaine, Jean de (2)

Mallarmé, Stéphane (2)
Verlaine, Paul (1)

Hungarian (hungara)

Ady Endre (1)
József Attila (1)

Petőfi Sándor (12)
Rejtő Jenő (1)

Italian (itala)

Dante, Alighieri (1)

Michelangelo, Buonarroti (1)

Polish (pola)

Miłosz, Czesław (1)
Sienkiewicz, Henryk (1)

Słowacki, Juliusz (2)
Szymborska, Wisława (1)

Zagajewski, Adam (1)

Russian (rusa)

Bulgakov, Mihail Afanaszjevics (1)

Lermontov, Mihail Jurjevics (1)

Puskin, Alekszandr Szergejevics (1)

Slovak (slovaka)

Krasko, Ivan (1)

Simile, en Babelonhu oni trovos el la hungara literaturo la jenajn:

Ady Endre (1)
Arany János (1)
Balassi Bálint (1)
Gárdonyi Géza (1)
Janus Pannonius (1)

Jókai Mór (3)
József Attila (2)
Juhász Gyula (3)
Kölcsey Ferenc (1)
Örkény István (4)

Petőfi Sándor (12)
Rejtő Jenő (1)
Tóth Árpád (1)
Vörösmarty Mihály (2)
Zrínyi Miklós (1) 

La supraj rezultoj atingiĝis laŭ kriterio AUTHOR (aŭtoro). Oni povas serĉi laŭ aliaj kriterioj, ekzemple TRANSLATOR (tradukinto).

Oni trovos ĉe ĉiu verko la originalo kaj la celatan tradukon.

La sola mankanta ero estas originalaj verkoj el Esperanto tradukitaj al naciaj lingvoj.

Lajos Tárkony (Ludwig Totsche) 1902-1978 (3)

Jen pluaj retligoj pri Lajos Tárkony.

Frua marto, posttagmeze /Post dimanĉa pluvego / Mia lito de Ludwig Totsche (Lajos Tárkony)

Balkona vespero de Lajos Tárkony

el “La spegulo” de Lajos Tárkony

Tradukoj el la hungara de Lajos Tárkony:

In memoriam dr. K.H.G. (Esperanto) ⇐ Örkény István :: IN MEMORIAM DR. K. H. G. (Hungarian)
La Mesio (Esperanto) ⇐ Örkény István :: A Megváltó (Hungarian)
La senco de la vivo (Esperanto) ⇐ Örkény István :: Az élet értelme (Hungarian)
Uz-instrukcio (Esperanto) ⇐ Örkény István :: Használati utasítás (Hungarian)

Aperaĵo de Stephane Mallarmé, tradukita de Lajos Tárkony

Babelmatrix: Babel Web Anthology — the Multilingual Literature Portal

        Fenestroj de Stephane Mallarmé, tradukita de Tárkony Lajos

        Mara vento de Stephane Mallarmé, tradukita de Tárkony Lajos

 Lajos Tárkony de Kálmán Kalocsay, Hungara Vivo, n-ro 4, 1962

Jen recenzoj:

Lajos Tárkony de István Ertl, Legologa Blog, Novembro 3, 2010

Lajos Tárkony (Nia Trezoro) de István Ertl, La Ondo de Esperanto, 2012. №7 (213). Ankaŭ bloge ĉe La Balta Ondo.

Lajos Tárkony in English / en la angla

For my recent podcast The Contributions of Esperanto to World Culture: Part 3: The Esperanto-Hungarian Literary Connection (Continued) I was unable to find any translations of any poems by Lajos Tárkony (1902-1978) in English, so I didn't recite any Esperanto originals. I've now found one translation, so here it is, together with the original. Click on the link below for my source of this translation.

             Marta renkonto

Ĉu vi eĉ ne rimarkis…? La bubo Marto iris
ĉe via flanko ŝtele, kun paŝo kapreola,
kaj al vi, tram-atenda, kun malicet' petola
mokante vian gapon, la jakon li ektiris.
Ĉu vi eĉ ne rimarkis…? Ho, ne! Vi triste miris
la bluon de l' ĉielo en posttagmezo ora,
animo via estis falinta kaj torpora
kaj je flugintaj sonĝoj frostante ĝi sopiris.
Tra l' strato brue svarmis popolo eleganta
en vestoj disflorantaj, kaj, dum pri l' bildo vanta
Vi gapis - blonda, svelta figuro alrapidis.
Inter vi pont' momenta: interrigardo arkis,
jam vin altiris io, sed ĉio preterglitis
kaj kune la Feliĉo… Ĉu vi eĉ ne rimarkis?

                     March

         translated by William Auld

Didn't you see the little rascal, March,
come tiptoe up to you while you awaited
your tramcar with a soul forlorn, deflated,
and tug your jacket, mischievous and arch?
Didn't you notice? … You surveyed the sky
of early afternoon with heavy heart;
a stricken tree, you stood alone, apart,
and mourned lost visions with a tremulous sigh.
The street was crowded. People's fashions flared
into resplendent bloom, and while you stared
at such display - a slim blonde figure passed.
Just for a fleeting instant eyes met eyes,
something awoke in you but didn't last,
and Joy was lost… You didn't realise?

The Contributions of Esperanto to World Culture: Part 3: Hungary

Jen nova mia podkasto anglalingva: La kontribuo de Esperanto al monda kulturo: parto 3a: la Esperanto-hungara beletra konekso (daŭrigata). La cetero estas en la angla:

Here is my latest podcast:

9/7/13 The Contributions of Esperanto to World Culture: Part 3: The Esperanto-Hungarian Literary Connection (Continued) (53:36)

I reiterate the main points of parts 1 and 2, with a reminder of the importance of Esperanto for Hungarians then and now, especially as a conduit for Hungary's humanistic cultural heritage in the face of bigotry and barbarism. I then review the activities on behalf of Esperanto on the part of leading Hungarian writers associated with the literary journal "Nyugat" (1908-1941), with special attention to Mihaly Babits and Frigyes Karinthy. I also discuss the classic verse drama "The Tragedy of Man" by Imre Madach, with a passage in Esperanto and English translation. I outline the landmark Esperanto anthology of Hungarian literature of 1933, with a note on author Mor Jokai (1825-1904). I round out my presentation of the pre-World War II era by highlighting two additional Hungarian Esperantist writers, Lajos Tarkony and Imre Baranyai.

Following fascist, Nazi, and Stalinist repression, Esperanto publishing resumes in Hungary starting in 1956. I discuss the leading Hungarian Esperanto cultural magazine "Hungara Vivo" (1961-1990) and the prominent editor, scholar, and critic Vilmos Benczik. I summarize the literary achievements of two important postwar Hungarian Esperantist writers, Endre Toth and Istvan Nemere. I close with a quote from Graham Greene's novel "Stamboul Train".

At the beginning of part 3, I make a pointed remark about the resurgence of reactionary politics in Hungary, alluding to anti-Semitic and anti-Roma provocations.

Note that I reiterate the importance of Madách and Karinthy for Szathmári.

At the end I also mention Istvan Ertl.

My performance here is not perfect, but hopefully it is listenable. I tend to overdo details, but efforts such as these are rehearsals for future efforts.

 

Graham Greene & Esperanto (6): aboard Stamboul Train again

I blogged about Graham Greene's novel Stamboul Train once before, in Esperanto. This time here is a direct quote:

‘Budapest.’ Dr. Czinner ceased writing for a little more than a minute. That small pause was the tribute he paid to the city in which his father had been born. His father had left Hungary when a young man and settled in Dalmatia; in Hungary he had been a peasant, toiling on another man’s land; in Split and eventually in Belgrade he had been a shoemaker working for himself; and yet the previous more servile existence, the inheritance of a Hungarian peasant’s blood, represented to Dr. Czinner the breath of a larger culture blowing down the dark stinking Balkan alleys. It was as if an Athenian slave, become a freed man in barbarian lands, regretted a little the statuary, the poetry, the philosophy of a culture in which he had had no share. The station began to float away from him; names slipped by in a language which his father had never taught him. ‘Restoracioj’, Pôsto’, ‘Informoj’. A poster flapped close to the carriage window: ‘Teatnoj Kaj Amuzejoj’, and mechanically he noted the unfamiliar names, the entertainments which would be just opening as the train arrived at Belgrade, the Opera, the Royal Orfeum, the Tabarin, and the Jardin de Paris.

     — Graham Greene, Stamboul Train (Penguin paperback, p. 136)

Greene substitutes Esperanto for Hungarian here, making two mistakes in the process. I do not know why he chose to utilize Esperanto here, and why Hungarian in particular. Could it be a coincidence that since Budapest was the world cultural capital of Esperanto between the world wars, Greene identified Esperanto with Hungarian?

On Greene's concerns about language, here again is a paper with an updated link:

Going Especially Careful in The Third Man: A Linguistic Exploration by David Crystal.
Paper given to the Graham Greene Festival, Berkhamsted, September 2009.

Crystal finds the danger-signals in Greene's fiction often connected with language. Artificial languages are markers of especially ominous developments. There is nothing particularly ominous in the quote above as far as I can tell, but see an earlier post on Greene for a list of references in other novels.  There are separate treatments of Greene's postulated artificial language 'Entrenationo' in his novel The Confidential Agent.

Konsumismo de protestado

Konsumebla kontestado por la mezaj klasoj de Pierre RIMBERT, Le Monde Diplomatique en Esperanto, majo 2009.

Jen malnova artikolo pri la alimondisma movado, sed ĝi restas interesa pro la koncepto de varigo kaj mezklasigo de kontraŭkapitalismaj, kontraŭsistemaj movadoj. Tio implicas ankaŭ la asimiladon de socia kritiko kaj socia teorio al la kulturindustrio (termino de Theodor Adorno).

Car mi jam blogis pri Paul Nizan, mi citas la jenan referencon, ne nepre por konsenti:

Kiel signo de intelekta distingiĝo, la kapablo supermeti la poron kaj kontraŭon, kontraŭmeti kleran bibliografion (prefere la sian) al politika argumento, eĉ „pensi kontraŭ sin mem”, montras la malemon de parto de la mezaj klasoj partopreni en la tranĉeoj de la socia milito se ne temas pri iliaj propraj interesoj. Tiu sinteno, samtempe kun la emo engaĝiĝi por malproksimaj kaj malavaraj aferoj, troviĝas aparte enradikiĝinta ĉe la artistoj aŭ ĉe la universitatanoj, kiujn Paul Nizan denuncis en 1932 en La gardhundoj.

Krom afiŝoj ĉi-bloge, vidu ankaŭ:

Misio de la Filozofo de Paul Nizan