Final Matters: Selected Poems, 2004-2010 (The Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation) - Softcover

Borbély, Szilárd

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691182434 ISBN 13: 9780691182438

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2019

Synopsis

An award-winning translator presents selections from the haunting final volumes of a leading voice in contemporary Hungarian poetry

Szilárd Borbély, one of the most celebrated writers to emerge from post-Communist Hungary, received numerous literary awards in his native country. In this volume, acclaimed translator Ottilie Mulzet reveals the full range and force of Borbély’s verse by bringing together generous selections from his last two books, Final Matters and To the Body. The original Hungarian text is set on pages facing the English translations, and the book also features an afterword by Mulzet that places the poems in literary, historical, and biographical context.

Restless, curious, learned, and alert, Borbély weaves into his work an unlikely mix of Hungarian folk songs, Christian and Jewish hymns, classical myths, police reports, and unsettling accounts of abortions. In her afterword, Mulzet calls this collection “a blasphemous and fragmentary prayer book ... that challenges us to rethink the boundaries of victimhood, culpability, and our own religious and cultural definitions.”

About this title

About the Author

Szilárd Borbély (1963–2014) wrote in a wide variety of genres. His books include the novel The Dispossessed and the poetry collection Berlin-Hamlet. Ottilie Mulzet is a literary critic and the translator of The Dispossessed and Berlin-Hamlet, among other books. Her translation of the novel Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai won the 2014 Best Translated Book Award. She lives in Prague.

Review

"Final Matters is Borbely's 'painted bleeding'; the poetic craft and rhetorical strategies employed in the collection allow him to keep hidden the unspeakable personal trauma whilst at the same time revealing the questions this and other such acts of extreme violence ask of us all. . . . At times, Borbely devastates, but the material is never gratuitous, however heartbreaking: and there is always, somewhere, a shred of faith, of hope, hard won―he is a poet who writes against oblivion."---Tony Flynn, High Window

“Szilárd Borbély was one of the best and most original poets and novelists of his generation―and Ottilie Mulzet is a wonderful translator of his work: her ear for nuance is excellent and precise.”―George Szirtes, award-winning poet and translator

"Any reader will find a mine full of treasure within Final Matters, and every reader of poetry should have a copy of this excellent translation of Borbély's masterful work."---Bruce Arlen Wasserman, New York Journal of Books

"The poetry of Final Matters is a tremendous achievement, and shows that Borbély should be considered not just among the great writers of post-Soviet Europe, but also of contemporary Judaism."---Daniel Kraft, Jewish Currents

"Szilárd Borbély's life’s work is as significant as it is tragic. He was a poet―a great poet―who shatters us."―László Krasznahorkai, winner of the Man Booker International Prize

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0691182434
• ISBN 13: 9780691182438
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 200