Relics o Langage
Bygyőzőferencz
Scottish poet Tom Hubbard met Győző Ferencz at Belgium’s Leuven International Poetry Festival in 1987. The fruit of their long friendship can be found in a new pamphlet, Minoritie Status (Tapsalteerie, £5), where Hubbard translates Ferencz’s Hungarian poetry into Scots. Ferencz describes the project as the translation of Hungarian, “a language spoken by relatively few, into Scots, another language spoken by relatively few. It is a deeply European idea, against insularity, seclusion and its consequences, provincialism, intolerance, discrimination, bias, and violence.” On 16 November at the Scottish Poetry Library (tickets £5), Ferencz will be joined by Scottish poets Stuart A Paterson and Marcas Mac an Tuairneir to launch Minoritie Status.
My voce is sic ane sindry clatter My lugs is deaved wi somebdy’s patter
That comes frae whaur, and wha? O thon clanjamfrie, whilk am I? Gin I could seeve it oot somewey
Frae aa thon smush – weill, braw.
But the aich o my ain voce, that’s thrawn, Juist thraws the mair the aich o thon,
And as they dirl and dunner, Relics o a forgotten leid Winna form a weill-composit screed,
Fir at thon task, they scunner. You can find a copy of by Minoritie Status by Győző Ferencz at the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT. For poetry enquiries, e-mail reception@spl.org.uk or visit www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk