The event, to start at 4pm, will feature Turczi, along with his editor Magda Székely and publisher András Mezei, who heads Belvárosi Könyvkiadó. The event will be hosted by writer Tamás Jónás, and actor Balázs Lázár will recite from the collection.
In her review of Turczi?s new volume of poetry, entitled ?The Night of Long Poems?, Ilona Legeza writes: ?The six cycles of poetry in this volume is more than an occasional compilation. Although the majority of these poems were published in Turczi?s previous books, their joint publication in this volume gives them a new context, marking the author?s attempt for completeness. The twenty poems in the first cycle - ?Always the Same Way from Now On? ? use a deliberately rigid form of repeated ten-line sections to contemplate the problems of male adulthood, with lines such as ?It takes you longer to realise you exist than to realise you have existed?. The subsequent twelve-piece cycle, ?One Year?, is composed of more smoothly-formed ten-line sections. One can detect a parallelism of the internal and external events in the verses, as well as powerful images evoking changes in nature.
The poem ?Venus Vulgivaga? is distinguished with its daring and playful libertinism among the erotic poems that have been so abundant over the last decade. The poem uses innovative language to express erotic details. His poem ?American Action? aspires to reinstate ?inspiration to its miserable throne?, and thereby ?understand and express in a long feverish poem why everything is conditional?. Just as his poem on the ?hysterical peace at the end of the century?, the poem ?The Dinner of Mister Plato? also conveys a message to contemporary readers: ?I used to believe that reason and power belong together by nature - I was wrong?, or ?in these kind of pompous democracies it is quite an achievement to get away unhurt if you are a thinker?.
The last poem in the volume, entitled ?The Euthanasia Waltz?, depicts the internal drama of a dictator - probably inspired by examples in South America - before his death by suicide, using a film-like structure in the poem. The personality of extremes and the absurd situation creates a profound poetic and philosophical impact.
Turczi is a winner of the Kossuth Prize, Hungary?s highest award for artists.
