"The new issue of Pilvax features the complete text of György Spiró’s play Blackout with an introduction by Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész. The play is set in Budapest in 1941 and tells the story of a wealthy Budapest couple struggling with the enactment of third anti-Jewish law, and how as a result their daughter has officially become Jewish.Kertész writes in his introduction: “It’s the story of the times we live in: the conflict between destructive hatred on the one hand and creative critical thinking on the other. It’s far too early to say which one will win.” The play received Best Play Award (2001) from the Hungarian Dramaturgy Guild.
Spiró (born 1946) is known as one of Hungary’s most prominent post-War literary figures, and is the recipient of the Attila József Prize for Literature, among many others. A novelist, playwright, and essayist, his earlier career was spent in radio journalism.
His first novel, Waltz, appeared in 1974. In addition to his writing, he is employed as Professor of Literature and Aesthetics at ELTE. His fourth major novel, Captivity, was the literary sensation of 2005 in Hungary, and is being translated into German and English.
Blackout was translated by Andrew Bock. “I have the luxury of translating the dramatic works of a living author. Spiró has been reading my translations since I began in 1991, and his feedback is of course invaluable. I chose Spiró 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 lived in Budapest, or is able to locate Hungary in an atlas.”
Spiró’s hit play Prah is being performed in the United States this April also in Bock’s translation. “Bates College in Maine commissioned the translation. They’ve used my translations of Spiró’s plays for more than ten years in their drama department. Other American universities have used my translations to teach contemporary East European literature as well.”
A recipient of the Milán Füst Award for literary translation, Bock was a Fulbright Felow in 1993 during which time he taught a literary translation seminar at ELTE. He is a mental health counselor in private practice in Budapest. “As a therapist, I feel that literary translation is a quite natural and complementary hobby. In both activities, I am serving as an agent for transformation.”
11.02.2008