George Gömöri

George Gömöri

GEORGE GÖMÖRI (Budapest, 1934) hasbeen living in England since November 1956. After studies in Oxford, he taught at the University of California (Berkeley), and then did research at Harvard. From 1969 to 2001 he taught at the University of Cambridge. He published many books on Polish and Hungarian literature; also numerous books of poetry in Hungarian and several in English. He is a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Kraków). He was awarded the Janus Pannonius Prize for Translation in 2014. His recent publications include Steep Path, an anthology of modern Hungarian poetry translated with Clive Wilmer (Corvina, 2018) and Magyar „apostol” Angliában. Tanulmányok és versek Békássyról (Savaria, 2020).

INTRODUCTION TO BÉKÁSSY’S “FAREWELL TO THE APOSTLES”

When last year I was interviewed by Radio Kossuth about Ferenc Békássy, one of the questions concerned the chances of finding any still unknown manuscripts by the young Anglo-Hungarian poet who died at the age of 22 in the First World War. At the time I said I thought this

REPORT FROM THE OTHER WORLD – POEM

There is pushing and shoving now at the railed gatesof Non-Being – the young mass-murderersare queuing up for their reward in heaven.Because they too in the end were blown apart,the question remains: can they be reassembledby the demons of the Prophet disguised as angelsor will their bodies go into orbitsomewhere

CHRONICLE OF AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR

Simon Hall, 1956. The World in Revolt, Faber & Faber, London, 2016 1956 was a year of change, tumult and rebellion all around the world. So many events were compressed into just twelve calendar months that looking back on 1956 it seems that it was a time of global revolt.

LETTERS BY JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES FROM HUNGARY AND VIENNA

When in the Michaelmas Term of 1911–12 Ferenc Békássy began his studies at King’s College, Cambridge, he was not long in earning the attention of John Maynard Keynes, a Fellow of the College. Keynes was bisexual, before World War I heavily engaging in homosexual affairs, for many years a lover

A PACT THAT STARTED WORLD WAR II

Roger Moorhouse, The Devils’ Alliance. Hitler’s Pact with Stalin 1939–1941* Historians investigating the causes of World War II seldom return to the treaty that made the beginning of hostilities possible: to the German–Soviet pact of 23 August 1939. This so-called “non-aggression” agreement sometimes referred to as the “Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact” was

NOTES TO ‘THE PASSION AT RAVENSBRÜCK’

One steps clear of the others, stands in a block of silence, still. The prison garb, the convict’s scalp blink like an old film-reel. Fearful to be a self alone: the pores are visible, with everything around so huge and everything so small. And that was it. As for the

THREE POEMS

LORCA, ON A DAWN ROAD Walking the road from Viznar toAlfacar you come to the Well ofTears,as in Moorish times the Fuente Grande was called –it is not far from Granada,but close to the waters of Lethe. To this spotthe firing squad at sunrise took its prisoners.Federico, to no advantage,

FERENC BÉKÁSSY’S CORRESPONDENCE WITH JAMES STRACHEY

Ferenc Békássy belongs to that small but distinct group of people who before the First World War were “at home” in two languages: Hungarian and English. In fact he wrote poetry in both and could have gone on to write even better poems had he not fallen in 1915 during

1956-63: MY FIRST YEARS IN OXFORD

My interest in the English language goes back to 1947 when at the age of thirteen my mother sent me to Sárospatak to learn the tongue of Shakespeare. This was an excellent Calvinist grammar school (gimnázium) in North-East Hungary with a long-standing tradition of teaching English (quite a few of