February 27, 2008

Hungarian Poet Gábor Gyukics Presents Poems of Attila József in English

Hungarian Poet Gábor G. Gyukics appeared on stage at the Embassy on Tuesday, February 26, 7pm and presented the latest English language poetry translation of Attila József, titled A Transparent Lion, which was co-translated by Gyukics and fellow American Poet Michael Castro.

Regarded by many as Hungary's greatest twentieth-century poet, Attila József was born in Budapest in 1905 and died, after apparently throwing himself under a train in 1937 at the age of 32. Writing in intense emotional tones that swung between despair and hope, József invigorated old poetic forms with new freedom, orchestrating his poems with fresh rhythmic patterns influenced by folk music's rhythms as well as their metrics. But he was also influenced by Dadaist and other modernist ideas sweeping across Europe, finding a voice that would synthesize the older cultural forms of Hungary with the new experiments of his time. Transparent Lion is considered as one of the best translations of Attila József's poetry to American English.

Gábor Gyukics's tour included the following venues:

Los Angeles, CA: 20 January, Sunday

Berkeley, CA: 22 January, Tuesday

San Francisco, CA: 25 January, Friday and 27 January, Sunday

St. Louis, MO: 9 February, Saturday

Dallas, TX: 12 February, Tuesday and 14 February, Thursday

New Orleans, LA: 16 February, Saturday

Savannah, GA: February 20, Wednesday

Washington DC: 26 February, Tuesday at the Embassy of Hungary

After the performance at the Embassy, he traveled on to New York to read at six other occasions and venues.