Description
Poetry.
This collection is Attila F. Balázs’s first bilingual (Hungarian-English) edition published in America. It is translated into English from the Hungarian by Elizabeth Csicsery-Romay, published by Cross-Cultural Communications), edited by Bill Wolak & Stanley H. Barkan.
”Reading a poem by Attila Balázs is like diving head first into turbulent water. There’s no chance for second guessing, the decisive moment has arrived, action is inescapable. There’s no time for excuses, denials, regrets, or hesitations. As the poem is unfolding before you, everything is calibrated to enhance the immediacy of its situation . . . Balázs’s poetry probes our common humanity. His writing reminds us of the necessity to confront loss, grieving, and despair without sidestepping our ambivalence, contradictions, and imperfections. Yet, like an old friend, ultimately he offers us consolation and understanding.
—Bill Wolak
Author Bio
Elizabeth Csicsery-Ronay is a writer, poet, translator, and editor. She studied philosophy at George Washington University, then modern languages at the Sorbonne, Paris. Was music critic for five years for The Bulletin, Brussels and editor of the Berlioz Society Bulletin for 12 years. She has translated books on music, history, politics, short stories, novels, children's stories, and poetry from French and Hungarian into English. Her magnum opus is a translation of Hector Berlioz's collection of music criticism, A Travers Chants, The Art of Music and Other Essays. She translated many poems by Hungarian poets in the anthology, Down Fell the Statue of Goliath, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Her own poems come to her in three languages, Hungarian, French, and English. They have been translated into many languages.
Author City: USA
Attila F. Balázs was born in Târgu Mure?, Transylvania. He began his studies at the Institute of Catholic Theology in Alba Iulia. Later, he majored in Library Science and Literary Translation in Bucharest. He worked as a librarian at the Harghita County Library in Miercurea Ciuc until 1989. In 1990, he moved to Slovakia. Between 1990 and 1992, he was an editor of Szabad Újsag (Bratislava), collaborated with Új Szó and was the manager of the Madách Publishing House in Bratislava. In 1994, he founded AB-ART Publishing (Bratislava), of which he has been the director since then. As the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry and the translator of more than twenty books of poetry and fiction, Attila F. Balázs has received numerous awards and prizes in acknowledgement of his various literary activities such as the Opera Omnia Arghezi Prize, Târgu Jiu, Romania 2014; the Dardanica Prize, Brussels- Prishtina; the Lucian Blaga Prize, Romania, 2011; the Lilla Prize, Hévíz, 2011; the EASAL Prize, Paris, 2020; the Madách Prize, Slovakia, 1992; the World English Writer's Union Award, India, 2019; the Lukijan Musicki Award, Belgrad, Serbia, 2019; and the International Prize Dardanica, Brussel / Prishtina, 2019. On October 10, 2018, the Board of Trustees of the World Academy of Arts and Culture awarded The Honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature to Attila F. Balázs, which was issued at the XXXVIII World Congress of Poets in Suiyang, China. His works have been translated in 20 languages.
Author City: HUN