 |
| Salvatore Quasimodo |
Balatonfüred has organised a poetry contest in memory of Quasimodo (1901-1968) for the sixteenth time this year and will name the winner during a two-day event that starts on Friday. The programme will start with a public meeting of the editorial board of the local literary journal Tempevölgy at the Blaha restaurant on Friday at 11am. A literary afternoon, to be opened by Géza Vasy, chairman of the Hungarian Writers Association, will follow on the terrace of the Sunset restaurant at 3pm. Afterward, the literary historian Mihály Praznovszky will present the book Letters From Ulcisia by the former head of Budapest's Italian Cultural Institute Arnaldo Dante Marianacci. Marianacci, as well as Quasimodo's son, Alessandro Quasimodo, will be among the guests at a talk and book presentation in the evening.
On Saturday morning, an exhibition of ceramic artists from the Lazio region of Italy will open at the Kisfaludy Gallery. At noon, a talk entitled Poetry and Youth will take place in the Blaha restaurant. Afterward, wreathes of remembrance will be laid at a tree planted by Quasimodo along the city's Tagore Promenade in 1961. The current director of Budapest's Italian Cultural Institute Salvatore Ettore will give a speech.
The prizes for this year's poetry contest, which drew entries from 135 poets, will take place in the Main Hall of the Anna Grand Hotel at 6pm. Italy's ambassador to Hungary Paolo Guido Spinelli, state secretary at the Ministry of Education and Culture Katalin Bogyay and Baltonfüred mayor István Bóka will all address the gathering.
The winning poem will be read in Italian by Alessandro Quasimodo and in Hungarian by the actor Sándor Lukács.
The gala will finish with a concert by the pianist Tamás Érdi.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
Photo: famouspoetsandpoems.com
