FOREWORD

by Jonathan Rose

This dual translation from Hungarian into English as well as Spanish invites audiences of both English and Spanish speakers to relish the poetry of Ferenc Mózsi. Actually, what we have here in Spanish is a translation of a translation. Alfredo Leiseca has rendered the clever English translation by Peter Hargitai into Spanish, striving to preserve the wit and linguistic versatility captured so aptly from the original by Professor Hargitai.

What I have done in editing these translations (more so with the Spanish translation) has been to try to preserve wit wit(h) several modest additions of my own, maintaining intact the greater portion of Alfredo Leiseca's rendering. I have endeavored to maintain similar line breaks wherever possible. Similarly, I have attempted to conserve the line spacing and page endings so that an English speaker with little or no knowledge of Spanish, or a Spanish speaker with little or no knowledge of English, will be able to discern meaning more readily. I do this because attempts of intuition of an unknown language have always interested me.

Ferenc Mózsi's words form more than simply a rant, although his ardent criticism of world conditions is evident throughout. Mózsi exhibits a wry, sardonic humor by means of his clever parenthetical in(as)sertions, foreshadowing his usage of this technique with his title, which has been t(r)endered for your approval.

I enjoyed particularly (noting that readers may have different tastes and enjoy other poems as well, and not to the exclusion of other poems) NOT TODAY, MELODIA DELLE LINGUE DIMENTICATE, WELDINGPOEMS, and ON PAPER. Without further ado, these fifty poems are served for your enjoyment. Dig in.