{"id":7428,"date":"2022-08-09T01:31:19","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T01:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/?p=7428"},"modified":"2022-08-29T09:56:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T09:56:06","slug":"borbely1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/borbely1\/","title":{"rendered":"Language is Cruelest of All: Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly in English"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Portrait\"<\/a>

Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly (Photo: Lenke Szil\u00e1gyi, courtesy Kalligram Press, Budapest)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When in 2013 Borb\u00e9ly\u2019s<\/span> first novel <\/span>The Dispossesed<\/span><\/i><\/a> was published in Hungarian, the buzz quickly picked up and demand grew for an English translation. A literary sensation somewhere between memoir and fiction, the book posed an incredible challenge for the reader to digest, let alone the translator to interpret and present the text in a way that might be relatable in another culture. The masterful English translation by Ottilie Mulzet (Borb\u00e9ly, 2016), however, proves that the author himself can come to the translator\u2019s aid both as inspiration and solution, both with autobiographical details he was willing to disclose.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The late Borb\u00e9ly was an accomplished author publishing in a remarkable variety of genres: novels, short stories, essays, scholarly, popular, and newspaper articles, drama, sequences, free and formal verse, and more. He drew on a wide variety of references and resources in his work, befitting Hungary\u2019s own historical position as a cultural crossroads\u2013\u2013ancient mythology, Hasidic Judaism, Christianity, Baroque and Rennaisance literature, <\/span>philology, philosophy, and the history of literature. That extraordinary breadth offers an intellectual feast for the reader but also poses extraordinary demands on a translator.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I described and grappled with some of those demands in a recent essay for the outlet <\/span>Europe Now<\/span><\/i>, available on their website<\/a>, reflecting on Borb\u00e9ly\u2019s work as his novel <\/span>Kafka\u2019s Son<\/span><\/i> became newly available in Hungarian (with an English version soon to come). That essay was part book review, part career appraisal, part reflection on the challenges of translating\u2013\u2013and in the process of writing it, I realized there was much more to say!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This series of blog posts will cover some additional reflections on Borb\u00e9ly, translation, Hungarian literature, and so forth that didn\u2019t make it into that shorter essay. I have consulted both Hungarian and English editions of Borb\u00e9ly\u2019s works, which I will cite as I quote from them (in APA style, for those who are interested in citation\u2013\u2013check out our other post here<\/a>). Nick Allred, who edited the <\/span>Europe Now<\/span><\/i> essay as an Editorial Fellow for the 2021-22 academic year (part of the Mellon-Center for European Studies Dissertation Fellowship), has collaborated on the text in this series throughout the process. While we will post installments in this series under one or the other of our names since a blog post can\u2019t accommodate co-authorship, all of them are effectively a joint production.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Borb\u00e9ly-Series by Books We Read<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Language is Cruelest of All: Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly in English<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Language is a Graveyard: Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly and Literary Translation<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. We Say \u201cAluminom\u201d \u2013 Books by Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly in English<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Et. In. Arcadia. Ego. \u2013 Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly and Intertextual References<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly in English<\/span>: <\/span>Kafka\u2019s Son<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These brief descriptions of Borb\u00e9ly\u2019s titles above are far from giving justice to the complexities of Borb<\/span>\u00e9ly<\/span>\u2019s texts; instead, they serve merely to illustrate the author\u2019s erudition, the depth and breadth of his creative skills, and the difficulties involved in unwrapping his layered imagery. Borb<\/span>\u00e9ly<\/span>\u2019s was not only an incredibly well-read author and bright scholar, but his friends and peers can also attest to his diverse personality traits spanning from a wicked sense of humor, mostly dark and grotesque matching his predisposition to depression, to being a rather shy person, speaking infrequently and quietly, in a calm manner, to select people only. <\/span><\/p>\n

    He was also surprisingly pragmatic, riding his bike around his hometown, Debrecen, and advocating for more bike routes in his column <\/span>Dr<\/span><\/i>\u00f3tszam\u00e1r<\/span><\/i> (English: Wire donkey) in<\/span> the local newspaper (another example of his personal preoccupations bleeding into his work, if one remembers the almost-Kafkaesque bicycle scene in <\/span>Kafka\u2019s Son<\/span><\/i>). Complementing a survival strategy he prescribed to himself, his work ethic was also exemplary, as he held onto the demanding academic career of a university professor in an environment in Hungary, striking a rare balance of prolific publication and dedicated teaching. <\/span>Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly, PhD<\/a>,<\/span> worked tirelessly, giving all that it takes, until he couldn\u2019t take it any longer.<\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/p>\n

    The authors wish to express their gratitude to Szil\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly\u2019s first publisher, Kalligram Press<\/a> (Budapest, Hungary) for providing illustrations to the series: photos by Lenke Szil\u00e1gyi<\/a> (see more photos of Hungarian authors<\/a>) and Tibor Hrapka (see more designs of Kalligram book covers<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    \n

    Selected Works by Szi<\/span>l\u00e1rd Borb\u00e9ly <\/span>in English<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

    BOOKS<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n