István Turczi started translating poetry when he was a university student, first English language and then Finnish poems. After a trip to Jerusalem, he began to translate Israeli poets.
"Actually, I didn't pick which poem I would translate, rather the texts and the poets found me," Turczi said of his choice of poems.
"I intentionally don't translate from the mainstream, that is from English, French, Spanish and American literature, rather from lesser known cultures," Turczi said. Such a small country as Hungary, has to "keep as many windows open to the world as possible," he added.
Turczi noted that he maintains contact with most of the authors of the poems in Every Window Is Open, among them Edwin Morgan, a well known Scottish poet who translated two volumes of poems by the Hungarian poet József Attila into English in the 1950s.
Turczi true to the intent as well as the form of the poems he translates. "I strictly follow the rules of the theory of translation, and I strive to approach the text of others with the greatest empathy and humility. I don't just remain true to the form of the poem, but to the poet's characteristic trademarks too."
Turczi will soon publish a new book, called Double Vision, about architecture, that he has written together with his friend, the artist Antal Vásárhelyi.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
