Blown off course
The Princess of the Wind Hungarian Fairy Tales by Elek Benedek
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
One of my more misbegotten plans to learn Hungarian was to tackle Benedek Elek in the original language. I thoroughly enjoyed it: but it occurred to me, as I pestered my wife for English translations for the forty component parts of a traditional Hungarian plough, that this was not perhaps the most productive way of learning a language. I dropped the project for something more modern ‘Hello, Itt Magyarország!’ perhaps, and pretty soon dropped off studying Hungarian altogether. Perhaps I should have ploughed on.
So I was delighted when I discovered the Princess of the Wind in a local bookshop. Benedek Elek without annoying my wife, it’s got to be good. Unfortunately it wasn’t. I really struggled to enjoy these stories, the translation had taken away their charm. The low point was this, at the close of “The Princess’ Shoes”:
“The newly humbled princess threw her arms around the prince and they made peace with one another. And they held a splendid wedding characterized by great merriment. And they both lived happily for many years to come.”
Appalled by this I checked the original:
“No, száz szónak is egy a vége, olyan szépen megbékültek s összemelegedtek, hogy öröm volt látni. Én legalabb láttam, ti megnézhetitek bátran.
Holnap legyenek a ti vendégeitek”
My daughters say my Hungarian is pre-intermediate, I hold out for intermediate, but either way Hungarian speakers forgive me for this, my own gloss:
“Well, one word is the end of a hundred, they ended their quarrel and warmed to each other so nicely, that it was a joy to see it. At least I saw it, and you may see it without fear.
Tomorrow they will be your guests.”
I would like to say that the style of translation is consistent, but it isn’t. Some times Demeter tries to capture some of Elek’s disarming, playful, (and at least for me) inventive langauge, but most of the time she doesn’t. It often reads -as above – as if its been translated by committee. This is a great shame: Hungarian literature is one of the world’s great undiscovered treasures, and it starts here in the stories told to little Hungarians. I’m disappointed that Corvina, who usually provide very good English translations of Hungarian classics, have let their quality control slip here.
Hungary: read, write and glean 