István Eörsi (; 16 June 1931, in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

– 13 October 2005, in Budapest) was a Hungarian writer, novelist, political essayist, poet and literature translator. He was born in educated

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish family. After completing English and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

literature studies in

he worked as a school teacher. Beginning in early youth, he wrote articles for communist newspaper, claimed to be a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

, and wrote a poem on the occasion of death of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. Eörsi was part of the Hungarian minority that welcomed the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, when the Russians invaded his country. He was one of those who looked on the Russians as liberators and not enemies. Although most of these Russian supporters were disillusioned after the rise to power of Stalin, Eörsi found new opportunities in this time of uncertainty. Even as a schoolboy, Eörsi published poems that sang the praises of the communist government. In later years, he was an opponent of the proletariat's dictatorship and an oppositionist. Because of his participation in 1956 uprising he was sentenced to eight years in prison, of which he served three and a half (until the 1960

amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

). After his release he was banned from publication, because of which he concentrated on translating works of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

Heine Heine is both a surname and a given name of German origin. People with that name include: People with the surname * Albert Heine (1867–1949), German actor * Alice Heine (1858–1925), American-born princess of Monaco * Armand Heine (1818–1883) ...

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, Ginsberg, Shelley,

Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

, Jandl and Lorca. In 1983 and 1984 he lived in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

on a DAAD (

for ''Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst'') scholarship. After the fall of

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

in Hungary in 1989, Eörsi criticized the revival of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

. He was a founder member of

SZDSZ The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party (, , SZDSZ ) was a liberal political party in Hungary. The SZDSZ was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and of Liberal International. It drew its su ...

, but left because of ideological differences. Eörsi's literary style was marked by his ideological stance, and it often bore his political zeal in the form of sarcasm. His writings tended to be volatile as well as passionate, especially when he wrote on political issues. In later years, Eörsi's writing mellowed somewhat. But his work always bore the mark of two things: First, a revisionist form of Marxism he learned from his teacher,

György Lukács György Lukács (born Bernát György Löwinger; ; ; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and Aesthetics, aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an inter ...

; second, his experiences of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, which got him in jail.

Imprisonment

Eörsi's commitment to his ideology, and the expression of it in verse, landed him in prison. He was arrested in December 1956 on the charge of incitement. During his trial two anti-Soviet poems, which had appeared in the clandestine journal ''Elunk'' (We Are Alive) some weeks earlier, were used as evidence. He was handed an eight-year prison sentence. However, he only spent 42 months in jail, as he received an amnesty and was released in 1960.

Works

Eörsi's second poem anthology, entitled ''To Pummel the Devil!'', was published shortly before his arrest. His arrest meant that the book had to be withdrawn from circulation. This withdrawal marked a barren era for Eörsi, whose works had to wait another 12 years to be published again. While the ban on him lasted, Eörsi earned a living working as a freelance journalist. He also made a living working as an assistant to Lukacs, whose books he translated from German into Hungarian. Eörsi's relationship with the old philosopher was more than a professional one. They developed a strong friendship, and the two recorded numerous frank conversations, which were published in 1989 as ''Taped Biography''. In 2005 he was awarded the

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize (, ) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1936, by the Hungarian National Assembly, to acknowledge outstanding personal and grou ...

, regarded as the most prestigious cultural award in Hungary. The same year he died from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eorsi, Istvan 1931 births 2005 deaths Jewish Hungarian writers Writers from Budapest 20th-century Hungarian translators 20th-century Hungarian male writers Translators to Hungarian English–Hungarian translators Translators of William Shakespeare German–Hungarian translators Translators of Rainer Maria Rilke