The collection, called Silenced Voices, contains works by András Sütő, János Székely, Géza Páskándi, Csaba Lászlóffy and Géza Szőcs that touch on the existence of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. The pieces were translated by Csilla Bertha and Donald E. Morse.
The translators aimed to give English speakers perhaps their first taste of Hungarian literature from Transylvania. "In English-speaking countries, Hungarian literature is little known, but the existence of Hungarian minorities is unknown," Bertha said.
If one compares the two languages, English vocabulary is far bigger, and the language is "looser", while Hungarian can be used to strain and compress, which causes a problem in translation, Morse said.
Silenced Voices was published by Carsfort and launched in Dublin last October. Though the volume will be presented in Budapest, too, it will not be available in Hungary, Bertha said.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
