What You Have Almost Forgotten

Fülszöveg

Gyula Illyés, one of Hungary's greatest poets of the twentieth century, died in 1983 a few months after his eightieth birthday. Throughout his life he drew inspiration, as did Bela Bartók in music, from his Hungárián roots. Like Róbert Frost in New England and Róbert Burns in Scotland, Illyés came from the common people. He gave the land a voice both in his poetry and in his memoir of peasant life, People of the Puszta, the translation of which into many languages brought him world renown. Henry Taylor, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, has said of this, the only available English translation of the poetry of Illyés: 'A wide variety of excellent translations, selected with judicious expertise by a superb poet and translator enables us to connect with one of the great voices of the century. Mr. Smith's introduction is splendidly informative and graceful.' William Jay Smith, former Poet Laureate of the United States (1968-1970), is the author of more than fifty books of poetry, children's... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Gyula Illyés, one of Hungary's greatest poets of the twentieth century, died in 1983 a few months after his eightieth birthday. Throughout his life he drew inspiration, as did Bela Bartók in music, from his Hungárián roots. Like Róbert Frost in New England and Róbert Burns in Scotland, Illyés came from the common people. He gave the land a voice both in his poetry and in his memoir of peasant life, People of the Puszta, the translation of which into many languages brought him world renown. Henry Taylor, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, has said of this, the only available English translation of the poetry of Illyés: 'A wide variety of excellent translations, selected with judicious expertise by a superb poet and translator enables us to connect with one of the great voices of the century. Mr. Smith's introduction is splendidly informative and graceful.' William Jay Smith, former Poet Laureate of the United States (1968-1970), is the author of more than fifty books of poetry, children's verse, literary criticism, translation, and memoirs. His most recent work, The World below the Window: Poems 1937-1997 (1998), received wide acclaim. For his outstanding contribution to the promotion of its culture, the government of Hungary twice honored him with medals. Next year Curbstone will publish his sequence of poems, The Cherokee Lottary, which deals with the forced removal of the American Indián tribes east of the Mississippi. Vissza