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Contents

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

ATTILA JÓZSEF IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

POEMS BY ATTILA JÓZSEF
Születésnapomra - On my birthday
Reménytelenül - Without hope
Óda - Ode
Kései sirató - Belated lament
A Dunánál - By the Danube
Karóval jöttél - You came with a stick...

POEMS INSPIRED BY ATTILA JÓZSEF'S POETRY
Derek Adams: Hopeless
Polly Clark: Graduation Photo, 1964
Antony Dunn: Heart
Jacqueline Gabbitas: Grass looks on with disinterest at the mothers and the sons who follow
George Gömöri: The last apple
Wayne Holloway-Smith: Valentines Day 1919
Ágnes Lehóczky: En Route for the Airport through the Ninth District
Tim Liardet: The Guam Fever
John McAuliffe: EXIT
John Mole: Bequests
Clare Pollard: Future Without Hope (That I Hope Will Not Happen)
Clare Pollard: Beads
Sam Riviere: (preface)
Carol Rumens: Laundry Blue
Carol Rumens: Easter Snow
Fiona Sampson: By the Danube
George Szirtes: In the Banlieue. After Attila József's 'A város peremén'
Tom Warner: Danube

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

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Foreword

The Balassi Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre London launched its new project 'Inspired by Hungarian poetry: British poets in conversation with Attila József' in celebration of the Hungarian Culture Day on 22 January 2013.

On 22 January 1823 Ferenc Kölcsey - one of the most important literary figures in Hungarian history - completed his manuscript of the Hungarian National Anthem. Since 1989 Hungarian culture is celebrated on this day.

To mark this special event, the Balassi Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre London invited British poets to contribute to its new project with a poem of their own written in response to the poems of the Hungarian poet Attila József (1905-1937). The original idea of the 'British poets in conversation with Attila József' project came from Tibor Fischer, the internationally renowned British writer of Hungarian origin.

The aim of the project is to raise awareness and appreciation of Hungarian poetry among readers in the UK through initiating a poetic conversation between renowned British poets and selected poems of the outstanding Hungarian poet Attila József.

The Hungarian Cultural Centre asked British poets to respond to a selection of Attila József's poems in English translation, put into English beautifully by John Bátki, Edwin Morgan, George Szirtes and Peter Zollman.

The present online anthology, published on 11 April 2013 - the birthday of Attila József and the National Poetry Day in Hungary - is the product of the poetic 'conversation' between Attila József and more than a dozen of his present-day British counterparts.

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