His translation of Spiro’s play Blackout (2001) is being published in the upcoming issue of Pilvax, the English-language literary journal based in Budapest .The play, set in 1941, tells the story of a Budapest “perfect couple” and what happens when they find with the enactment of the Hungarian parliaments’ third anti-Jewish law that their daughter is now officially considered Jewish and therefore a target of the fascists.
Andrew began translating Hungarian literature after quite literally stumbling into the Katona Jozsef Theatre in 1988 and watching Spiro Gyorgy’s masterpiece of modern Hungarian theatre Chicken Head. He was then a student from the University of Wisconsin studying at the Economics University for one year. Andrew describes the performance as a life-changing experience. “During the course of the performance I felt myself being transformed into a translator; it was completely unexpected.”
Andrew returned to Hungary in 1993 on a Fulbright Fellowship to translate Hungarian literature into English, during which time he taught a translation seminar at ELTE for students learning literary translation. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences awarded him the Milán Füst Grand Prix for literary translation in 1995.
About Spiro: “I have the luxury of translating the dramatic works of a living author. Spiro has been reading my translations of his plays from the very beginning, and his feedback is of course invaluable. I think I chose Spiro because I strongly feel he is one of the few contemporary Hungarian playwrights whose works speak to all readers regardless of whether the reader has ever heard of Budapest, or is able to locate Hungary in an atlas– which describes a good portion of the North American readership.”
Several prestigious American universities use his translations of Spiro’s plays to teach contemporary East European literature.
Soap Opera, published in UK in 2001 was chosen by John Caird, directed by William Gallinsky, as only one of two fully staged readings during the premier of the Caird Company: Seasons of new play readings : Two Weeks of New Writing and Directing (Gathehouse Theatre, London).
Other plays have been performed in Quebec, at the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and in New York City.
Spiro (born 1946) is perhaps better known inside and outside Hungary as a novelist. His fourth major novel, Captivity, was the literary sensation of 2005 in Hungary, and is being translated into German and English.
For the past ten years, Andrew has been working as a mental health counselor in the United States. “It’s an interesting twist of fate that I specialize in working with adolescents much like Spiro’s lead character in his play Chicken Head. I’ve worked with children and their families involved in the legal system for the past seven years, including juvenile justice, social services, and the adult court system. Every member of the family portrayed in Chicken Head could very well have been a client of mine. Now that I’m living in Budapest again, I work exclusively with expatriates and their families, children and adults.”
Translations of plays by Spiró:
King of Diamonds
The Garden
Quartet
Dobardan
Black Out
Chicken Head
Soap Opera
Andrew Bock, MS, LPC
http://www.budapestcounseling.com
+36 (30) 578 3022
20.03.2007