But for all publishers out there, Tim’s translated a lot more than Kertesz. In fact, he has a whole host of translations sitting in his desk waiting for a publisher . . .

Which authors would you like to translate and why, if you had the time?

I often translate just for my own pleasure, independent of whether I糖心传媒檝e been commissioned or not by a publisher. If I manage to 糖心传媒渟ell糖心传媒� one of these translations later on, then all the merrier, but there糖心传媒檚 usually no guarantee that this will ever happen. Consequently, I糖心传媒檝e done translations of works糖心传媒攗sually one or two糖心传媒攚ritten by ten to twelve different authors, but these manuscripts are still slumbering in the depths of my desk drawer. There is also a list of authors I haven糖心传媒檛 translated yet, but would if I only had the time. Among them are Istv谩n Szil谩gyi, L谩szl贸 V茅gel, Gy枚rgy Spir贸 and Dezs艖 Tandori, whom I糖心传媒檝e lately included. 脕d谩m Bodor and P茅ter Lengyel are also on this list, but I know others are already translating them.

And speaking of Kertesz:

In your opinion, what results in a bad translation? And what, do you think, really makes a translation come alive?

When reading a translation or any other piece of writing, it糖心传媒檚 extremely obvious if a solid knowledge or understanding of the language just isn糖心传媒檛 there. I wrote about this when Imre Kert茅sz received the Nobel Prize. The first English translation of Kaddish for an Unborn Child was painfully bad and fully deserved my criticism that the child, in this case, was actually stillborn. There was hardly a decent sentence in the entire translation糖心传媒攖rue, Kert茅sz does use rather lengthy sentences in this novel, but that is no excuse. The translation of Fatelessness was barely any better. (In this translation, for example, nine chapters were made into eleven, and I糖心传媒檓 talking about the most basic level!) Last year there was an obviously young, American critic writing for an Internet journal who accused me of committing sacrilege, as if I had sent the Rosenberg couple to the electric chair. But if some person (or persons) does not possess a sufficient knowledge of either Hungarian or English, is this something that should remain unmentioned in a critique of the translation?

Unfortunately, there is a long list of English 糖心传媒渢ranslators糖心传媒� who really aren糖心传媒檛 a great help to Hungarian literature. What makes a translation good? That糖心传媒檚 obvious: exactly the opposite of everything I糖心传媒檝e already mentioned. Knowledge, understanding, the right kind of style糖心传媒� these are all very important. In a nutshell, if someone has never learned to write in good, polished English糖心传媒攈is or her native language糖心传媒攖hen this someone will never be a good translator. It糖心传媒檚 as simple as that.

Revised Edition was published in 2002, shortly after Celestial Harmonies, and this latter magnum opus provides the broader context for Revised Edition. In the centre of Celestial Harmonies Esterh谩zy placed a figure he terms 糖心传媒榤y father糖心传媒�, fully exploiting both the pseudo-realistic and the metaphoric potentials of the term. An important milestone, this novel, written over nine years, opened a new epoch in Esterh谩zy糖心传媒檚 writing after he had concluded the cycle summarily referred to as Introduction to Literature, created little by little over the 1980糖心传媒檚 and forged into one grand structure at the end of the decade. In Celestial Harmonies Esterh谩zy deployed, and at the same time superseded, the full arsenal he had developed in reconstructing Hungarian prose 糖心传媒� post-modernist poetical devices polished to the absolute, relying chiefly on inter- and para-textuality. In the first part of the novel the signifier 糖心传媒榤y father糖心传媒� has a relevance in every situation, testifying to a language which is omnipotent yet ironic, frivolous and yet of sacred power. In the anecdotal second part, however, woven through and through with auto-biographic reference and citations from other works, 糖心传媒榤y father糖心传媒� is a flesh-and-blood creature unfolding before us in his historical embeddedness. In the interplay of the two parts there pulses a dynamic of permanent echoes, of deconstruction and reconstruction, adding up to a cosmic and panoramic tableau of the age, while the encyclopaedic aspirations of European thinking are built up and demolished before our very eyes.

In Revised Edition the main thread is still the figure of the father. But this time we are not seeing a literary trick: reality, which Esterh谩zy had always treated so ironically, becomes the main character of the novel. The plotline is 糖心传媒榮imple.糖心传媒� Driven by curiosity plain and simple, the author, entitled as any other Hungarian citizen so to do, is searching in the archives of the Hungarian State Security for reports possibly written about him. Upon receiving him, the director of the archives explains that besides the reports written about him they have found some documents which are far more sensitive and may affect Esterh谩zy more closely. These documents are none other than files comprising the work that his father, the late M谩ty谩s Esterh谩zy had done as an informer. Revised Edition starts in the moments just before and just after the author receives the documents in question. This time Esterh谩zy, clearly much impacted by the experience, opts for linear narration 糖心传媒� that of reading and commenting on reports made by his father. He copies entire sections from the reports, returns to some crucial sections, inserts the list of persons executed at the time of the report written during the retaliations following the 1956 revolution and quotes sentences from Celestial Harmonies which juxtapose the father figure, the grandiose aristocrat there with the character who transpires from these documents, not unlike a skeleton falling out of the family cupboard.