SHAKESPEARE IN MAGYAR

Evening Post, Issue 88, 12 April 1924, Page 16

SHAKESPEARE IN MAGYAR

COiiPBETENEW-TBANSLATION TO ". '.^-BE/PUBLISHED. '„ "

.. The Association of. Hungarian jA-iithora and' Playwrights has decided. to n'n (entirely 'new translation.of the works otvShakesp.eare, .says..a'- Balkans co-re-spondent..." of. the '" -. Guardian;.''.';:^, a Kg. publishing ;company has volunteered to'carry:the expenses 0 | th e new edition in, a couple of years', time a modern May gar translation of f the great playwright will .be ' In Hungary, perhaps even more than in .Germany .and Austria, the plays of Shakespeare .count amongst the greatest attractions of the theatres. Budapest's' leading dramatic institution, the National- Theatre, ■ produced : two Shakespeare " cycles," performing all, even the least important' tragedies and plays. - These performances had .an enormous success,-and-for .weeks ahead all tickets, were booked. The old Magyar translations of Shakespeare, though prepared by first-class authors and poets, were all made sixty' to eighty- years ago. The Association of Hungarian Playwrights asserts that Ihese translations are now obsolete1, • that during, the last eighty years the Magyar I .language-.-has1/been' enriched with ne,w words and idioms in ail enormous measure, that the new Magyar literary stole is more adaptable for , English translations than was the old 'one, and, finally, it argues that most of the existing; translations are poor from 'the point <5 view of stage technique. The new translations will be done by the "best Hungarian poets and translators, , MM. Babits, Kooztslanyi, Szaho, Toth,- and Eakosi. .The.explariator}' notes of thci'new. edition will bo made by AJ.'' Hevesi, director of the National Theatre, who was responsible for the production of. the Shakespeare series last y_ear a ;