Lajos Koncz

Ted Hughes and János Pilinszky

In the 1960s as a medical student in Munich, Germany, I befriended two talented young Hungarian poets living in exile: Gábor Bikich and János Csokits. On one occasion in late 1967, Csokits and Bikich were discussing the problems of translating poetry, critiquing a book of Dylan Thomas' poems translated into Hungarian. During the conversation Csokits mentioned an English poet by the name of Ted Hughes who has expressed interest in translating contemporary Hungarian poetry and asked him (János Csokits) to aquaint him with the works of some young Hungarian poets. The name of János Pilinszky was among them. Csokits regarded this as a major breakthrough in trying to break the linguistic isolation of Hungarian poetry in the English speaking world. His point was that only a great poet can translate poetry written in another language.
In those days in Germany I was not familiar with the name of Ted Hughes, and Pilinszky's name was just beginning to be known to Hungarians living outside Hungary. Only after I was transplanted to the United States did I learn that Ted Hughes was indeed well known, also as being the husband of Sylvia Plath. In the meantime, the Communist repression was eased and books published in Hungary could be purchased in the West. It was in Boston that I bought books of Pilinszky's poetry such as Rekviem (Requiem) and Nagyvárosi ikonok (Metropolitan Icons).
In 1972 a group of Hungarian-American students and intellectuals at Harvard University formed a cultural society later called Harvard Circle, with the purpose of inviting Hungarian lecturers in arts and sciences. It was my task to organize presentations, and in 1974 I invited my friend from Munich, János Csokits, to share his poetry with us. He was in the process of moving to London and he could not fit in a trip to America. He suggested that I invite Pilinszky instead and offered to speak to him. He did, and Pilinszky accepted the invitation.
At that time, WGBH, one of Boston's Public Radio stations, had a weekly programme featuring poetry in translation. Poems were read in the original language, followed by the English translation. We were preparing a programme of Hungarian poetry and I remembered the project I heard of in Munich: Ted Hughes translating János Pilinszky. I asked János Csokits where the project stood and whether Pilinszky could bring some translations with him, if they existed. Indeed it turned out that the project was nearing completion, but neither Pilinszky nor Csokits had any of the completed poems. Csokits promised that he will try to get the translations to Boston by Pilinszky's arrival.

In his book published in 1992 in Budapest1, János Csokits gave an account of his friendship with both Pilinszky and Ted Hughes. He described how he met Ted and Sylvia Hughes in 1960, and how subsequently Ted Hughes told him of his plan to start a journal with contemporary poetry in translation. In January 1967 Hughes and Csokits decided to compile a Hungarian volume in the series "Modern Poetry in Translation". Csokits was supposed to do the "raw" translations, and he started out with the poems of Pilinszky.
János Csokits met Pilinszky later that same year in Paris. They spent much time compiling a list of poems Pilinszky wanted to include in the anthology. Later they could only meet or correspond when Pilinszky travelled to the West. To correspond from behind the Iron Curtain with an emigré poet like Csokits, who was in the employ of Radio Free Europe and later the BBC, was dangerous.
During a visit to England in 1970 Pilinszky met Ted Hughes and together they read poems in the original and in English at an international literary event. In 1971 Hughes showed the first few "finished products" to Csokits and told him about his plan to publish a book of Pilinszky's English poems with Carcanet Press.2 Ted Hughes was fascinated with Pilinszky's poetry and while the idea of a Hungarian anthology as part of MPT became stranded forever, Hughes continued to press Csokits for more and more accurate, word for word translations. Finally in 1974 it seemed the Pilinszky volume was in sight. Ted Hughes felt that most translations were final and he and Csokits focused on the Introduction to the book. After so many years, János Pilinszky, however, was loosing faith.
"I don't even dare to ask any more what the status of my book is", he wrote to János Csokits in his letter in which he is asking him for the translations of Ted Hughes one month before his trip to America.
A few days after János Pilinszky arrived in Boston, a big envelope came in the mail from Ted Hughes with 22 poems and a long letter in which Hughes gave a personal account of the labour and love that is behind the translations. It also documented to me what an important role János Csokits had played in transmitting "the peculiar qualities and tensions of [Pilinszky's] language, and his technical form", based on which Hughes created these English poems.

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2nd April 75 Court Green
North Tawton
Devon

Dear Dr Koncz,
I understand Janos Pilinszky is coming to stay with you toward the end of this month. He asked me, through Janos Csokits who now lives in London, to send you some of the English translations we have made of a selection of his poems. Here they are.
As you will see, they are pretty literal. In fact my co-translator, Janos Csokits, has let me get away with very little. He insisted on the closest verbal accuracy. This was very much to my own taste. We have tinkered with most of them for nearly eight years. Quite a few of them now satisfy me completely as English poems. I am extremely pleased with them. Others - particularly the longer ones, French Prisoner, Frankfurt 1945 - are at least accurate and effective, though I feel I could go on altering and adjusting my versions of them forever. Aprocrypha [sic!], which seems to me the very greatest, and certainly the most crucial poem in the group we have tackled, is beyond translation. However, the vision in it is somehow so powerful that any reader perceives immediately what a great and beautiful statement it is - even in the roughest word for word crib.
According to Pilinszky's request, I am sending you what seem to me the best translations. There is no point in reading to American listeners translations which are simply poor, and the Hungarian listeners can appreciate the originals. Later on, when the book comes out, I will see you get a copy. There seems a good possibility of getting the book published in the States, later on.
Everything about this book has been delayed, year after year. But in the end that has been an advantage. It's only during this last year that I've got the best into a final form.
The real excellences of Pilinszky - the peculiar qualities and tensions of his language, and his technical form - of which I have acquired a very strong impression, even though I know no Hungarian, are beyond me, naturally, and obviously cannot be approximated. What I concentrated on was his overall tone, as I understand it, and the vision which the poems transmit so clearly and strongly, and which seem to me unique. I am aware, even in the shorter poems, that Janos Pilinszky has touched an unusual sort of greatness - one which seems to touch me very closely.
Please give him my love. I hope we shall see him soon.

Yours
Ted Hughes

p.s. Do you know Agatha Fassett?
If you do, please give her my love too.

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The poems were carbon copies of the typed manuscript, numbered according to their sequence as they later appeared in the book, each poem on a separate page. Each page bears the inscription: Translated by Janos Csokits and Ted Hughes (in that order).
The poems were: (3) Under the Winter Sky; (4) Harbach 1944; (6) What Underground Struggle; (7) Sin; (8) World Grown Cold; (13) Passion of Ravensbück; (15) Impromtu; (16) The Desert of Love; (17) Revelations VIII. 7.; (20) Under a Portrait; (22) Unfinished Past; (24) Epilogue; (25) Fable; (26) Introitus; (27) Van Gogh; (28) The Passion; (29) As I Was; (30) Crime and Punishment; (31) Exhortation; (33) My Coat of Arms; (35) Enough; (36) Straight Labyrinth.
I well remember how extatic Pilinszky was seeing his poetry in English. Although he did not speak a word of English, he considered the English translations as far outweighing in importance any other translations (including those of Pierre Emmanuel). One of the reasons was his admiration of the sheer number of people who speak English on this earth. "Half the world speaks English"; he used to say.
He asked us repeatedly to read the English rendition aloud and questioned us about the wider meaning of one word or another. In a handwritten note I thanked Hughes for his letter and the translations. Pilinszky joined me on the same paper with a few words of thanks of his own:

Cher Ted! - Je suis absolument touché concernant la traduction de mes počmes. Avec quoi j'ai mérité tant d'efforts et d'intuition de ton part! Ce n'est pas une phrase réthorique. Ta générosité humaine et artistique dignifie aussi un peu de vie pour moi dans un sens mot ŕ mot.
D'ici je pars le 1 mai. Je suis invité ŕ Rotterdam - , est-il possible que nous nous rencontrerons?
Salutations ŕ ta femme, plein d'amitié et de reconnaissences,

votre et ton: János

 

Lajos Koncz
is a physician and community leader, living near Boston, Mass. He has published articles on Hungarian literature, music and 20th-century history.