Rough Crossing - Literary Canons and Translation
Rough Crossing - Literary Canons and Translation

Summary/Abstract: A couple of months ago, having lighted on a copy of Henry Miller’s The Airconditioned Nightmare, that entertainingly episodic account of a trip the author made across America, following his return in 1941 from a memorable decade (it spawned not only the Tropic of Cancer but also the devastatingly amusing Tropic of Capricorn) spent as an expatriate in Europe, mostly Paris, I came across as neat a summary as I could hope to find of the predicament I find myself in: The other night, at the home of a Hungarian friend, I fell into a discussion with him about the exile and the émigré… “It’s strange,” I said, “that you should bring me to this window. Do you know what I thought of as I sat there? I was thinking of another window, in Budapest, where I stood one evening and caught my first glimpse of the city. You hate Budapest. You had to run away from it. And to me it seemed like a magical place. I loved it instantly. I was at home there. In fact, I feel at home everywhere, except in my native land. Here I feel alien, especially here in New York, my birthplace.” Having myself undertaken several vaguely comparable excursions, it came rather forcefully to mind while I was ordering thoughts for a modest celebration of the centenary of the foundation of the literary journal Nyugat (West). For just over 33 years, Nyugat was undoubtedly the main (though not the only) channel for providing an influential platform for new voices in Hungarian poetry and prose.[...]

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