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September 24, 2016

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Home » Feature » Art and Culture

Poet uses fable to discuss serious themes

By Yao Minji | September 24, 2016, Saturday | Print Edition

HUNGARIAN poet Geza Szocs compares the ancient Chinese emperor with the Dutch population of Transylvania, asking, through the mouth of an owl, whether the world will collapse because the emperor has lost his ability to unite, and whether the Great Wall was built to divide the good and the evil.

This short fable is one among many essays and poems that have been recently published in a Chinese anthology of his works, titled “Above the Sun.” In the book, he explores the idea of death, the soul, spirituality, and identity, among many other questions.

The 63-year-old poet, advisor to prime minister and former Secretary of State for Culture, writes often about Transylvania, also referred to as Erdely, where he was born, raised and later forced into exile for “discrimination against minorities” near the Romanian boarder. In an e-mail interview with Shanghai Daily, he explained the significance of the area for him and his writing.

“Besides, or, rather, beyond the ‘tangible’ topographical sense, Transylvania also exists on the mythological, philosophical and spiritual map where you find Shambala or the Islands of Avalon or Bimini,” he said.

“If there is a province that can be called my homeland, it is none other than this sublimed, rather than the ‘real’ Transylvania.”

He also mentions China and Chinese tales often, and has been trying to find and to republish “The Magic Jug,” a collection of Chinese tales translated and published in 1950s, given to him by his parents. He has since been drawn to Chinese culture, which later expanded into his political career to help promote Hungary’s relations with Asia, and especially with China.

Shanghai Daily chatted with Szocs about his experience and his writing.

 

Q: You were forced into exile in your earlier years. How did that affect your writing and your view?

A: Wherever I am sent or cast by fate, I seek to find what it wants to teach me in that particular situation, and in what ways I can learn more about the world and myself.

 

Q: A lot of the poems and essays in this book are like fables, discussing philosophical questions through a fantasy/fair tale story. Is that your preferred style?

A: Yes, this is probably so by instinct, although over the course of the years I tend to use this genre more and more; I like it.

 

Q: There are quite a few references about China here. Would Hungarian readers be familiar with these references?

A: Yes, the history and culture of China, along with the typical Chinese values, have been long merged with Hungarian public awareness.

 

Q: You have helped greatly with China-Hungary exchanges, especially with people-to-people relations. Do you value this as much as high-level exchanges?

A: I put more trust in spontaneous relations than in programs conceived and managed from above. Officially launched programs will never work as organically and thoroughly as spontaneously arising activities which follow the intrinsic rules of development. It is for policy-makers to always realize, institutionalize, support and stand for these.

 

Q: How do you see the situation in Europe right now? Are you more optimistic or pessimistic about the future of European Union?

A: The main problem of the European Union is that those who created it were envisioning a particular kind of commercial company. To this day the spiritual content and the emotional cohesion have somewhat been lacking, yet without these a structure of this size cannot be kept together for long. If we do not want it to fall apart, we have to fill it with intellectual and spiritual content. This is the greatest challenge European politicians, and above all the cultural policy-makers, are currently facing, and this is what I am working on myself.

 

Q: What are you working on in terms of the intellectual and spiritual content?

A: Empires and powerful nations from history have all had a firm and resolute belief in a mission to fulfill, their leadership having a full legitimacy from the whole of the society. This legitimacy has made possible the articulation of grand goals which were accepted, or at least were not challenged, by the majority of the community.

This is not so in Europe today.

What are regarded as European virtues and qualities are not arranged in a coherent and common set of established values that could form a moral, spiritual and intellectual supporting fixture for the Union.

I do not think that any one person would be capable of changing this situation. But I do think that the only way to lead us to achieve this goal is having as many people as possible take part in invigorating the cohesive forces in this amorphous mass exposed to disintegration. Is there anything capable to convey these values and qualities than culture?

Art and Culture


 

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