How two cultures can be brought together
An epic poem written in Hungarian in the mid-19th century will form the centrepiece of a spectacular light show on a city centre church in the Welsh capital this weekend. Chief reporter Martin Shipton explains
IN the year 1277, according to legend, King Edward I invited about 500 bards to a banquet in Montgomery Castle.
When they failed to sing his praises, he had them slaughtered.
Bizarrely, the tale is much better known in Hungary than it is in Wales.
Every Hungarian child is taught to recite by heart a poem based on the legend called The Bards of Wales by János Arany, one of the country’s best known poets.
This year is Arany’s bicentenary and a spectacular light show will take place to commemorate the poet and his poem at St John’s Church in Cardiff city centre this Saturday.
For Arany, the bards’ story became the symbol of passive resistance by the Hungarian people against the repression of the Habsburg Emperors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire based in Vienna.
By setting his poem in Wales and selling it as a translation of a Welsh song, he was able to evade censorship.
Arany saw parallels between the story of the bards and the situation in Hungary at the time.
In 1857, when the Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph toured Hungary, it was suggested that his visit should be commemorated by a poem.
Arany was a well-liked poet who had translated Shakespeare, but together with his fellow writers he refused to compose poems in praise of the head of a hated regime.
Instead he wrote the epic ballad for private circulation, publishing it only in 1863. The poem has been translated into English and Welsh, and in 2011 Welsh composer Karl Jenkins wrote a cantata based on it.
Those outside St John’s Church on Saturday evening will be able to see lights projected on to its exterior.
Video mapping is a new projection technique that can turn almost any surface into an interactive, dynamic video display.
Instead of projecting on a flat screen, light is mapped onto any surface – this time the beautiful facade of the church, just off St Mary Street in the city centre.
The animation will be projected four times every hour from 7pm until 10pm.
The Hungarian Cultural Centre in London is organising the show to celebrate Hungarian creativity past and present, to honour János Arany, and to emphasise the cultural links between Wales and Hungary.
It has been designed by a group of talented Hungarian visual artists, Glowing Bulbs.
Arany, who was born on 2 March, 1817, died on 22 October, 1882.
He was a Hungarian journalist, writer, poet, and translator. He has often been described as “the Shakespeare of ballads”, having written more than 40 of them which have been translated into more than 50 languages.
Jenkins’ symphony, based on the poem, received its world premiere in Budapest’s Palace of Arts with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra.
Jenkins, who conducted his own work, said at the time: “I knew nothing about this poem 12 months ago. It’s written in Hungarian and all children in Hungary have to learn it at school.
“It’s very political, and is about King Edward’s invasion of Wales, crushing the Welsh rebels. They see it as analogous with their own suffering as part of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires.”
The composer added: “I’ve been commissioned to set this in three languages – it is an English piece but there will be Welsh and Hungarian versions.
“It came as a great surprise to me because I, like many people in Wales, never knew that this poem existed.”
Arany wrote his own preface to the poem, which said: “The historians doubt it, but it strongly stands in the legend that Edward I of England sent 500 Welsh bards to the stake after his victory over the Welsh in 1277 to prevent them from arousing the country and destroying English rule by telling of the glorious past of their nation.”
From 1867 the Austrian Empire was transformed into Austria-Hungary with Hungarians as a “partner” nation instead of a subject people.
After World War I, The Bards of Wales became widely known in the independent state of Hungary, which lost two thirds of its territory with the break-up of the empire.
Gyorgyi Kocsis, deputy editor-inchief of Hungarian political magazine HVG, said: “If you ask any Hungarian about Wales the first thing that comes to mind will be a poem by one of our most respected writers, János Arany, who lived in the 19th century.
“The poem is known as The Bards of Wales and everybody learns it in school by heart.
“It talks about the suppression of Hungary by Austria, but it’s written in a coded language so it appears to be about the Welsh rebellion against King Edward I.
“But generally Hungarians regard all British people as English.”
In 2007, an English copy of the poem, translated by Peter Zollman, was donated to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.
Alun Davies, the Honorary Consul for Hungary in Wales, said: “This is a great example of how two cultures can be brought together.”