Language and Literature paper by Sohar, Paul
The Sad Recent Past and Uncertain Future of the Szeklers of Transylvania
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
The peace treaty after WWI aimed to break up the Austro-Hungarian Empire to its constituent nations, but somehow the traditionally Hungarian Transylvania was attached to Romania, and suddenly in 1920 the ethnic Hungarians there – Szeklers, as they are known— found themselves in minority in Romania. They were not only dispossessed of their country but their identity; nationalist policies were soon put into practice to force assimilation with the majority. This process only intensified under rule of the communist dictator Ceaucescu who –in contrast to the generally multicultural Soviet Union –wanted to abolish ethnic cultures in the guise of “proletarian internationalism”. The cultural shock of the Hungarian community in Transylvania was vividly dramatized in their poetry already starting in the 1920’, but it reached its high point under the particularly repressive Ceaucescu regime. Hungarian poets all through history were regarded as beacons leading the nation in adverse situations, and it was only natural that the struggle for ethnic cultural survival forced this special role on the poets of Transylvania. Paul Sohar proposes to give voice to three of these poets in his translation from books already published or about to come out, quoting Sándor Kányádi from Dancing Embers (Twisted Spoon Press, 2002), In Contemporary Tense (Iniquity Press, 2014) and Behind God’s Back (Ragged Sky Press, 2016), Géza Szőcs from Liberty, Rats and Sandpaper (Iniquity Press, 2017) and Arpád Farkas from Tunnels in the Snow (Magyar Naplo, 2018). In effect, the talk will explore history and future prospects through the eyes of poets who live in Transylvania.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Paul Sohar drifted as a student refugee from Hungary to the U.S. where he got a BA degree in philosophy and a day job in chemistry while he continued writing and publishing in every genre, including thirteen volumes of translations such as Dancing Embers, his first Sándor Kányádi translations from the Hungarian (Twisted Spoon Press, 2002). His own poetry: Homing Poems (Iniquity Press, 2006) and The Wayward Orchard, a Wordrunner Press Prize winner (2011). Other awards: first prize in the 2012 Lincoln Poets Society contest and a second prize from Rode Island Writers Circle prose contest (2014). Latest translation volumes: Silver Pirouettes (TheWriteDeal 2012) and In Contemporary Tense (Iniquity Press, 2013) in addition to a bilingual (English/Spanish) Sándor Kányádi volume (Under the Southern Cross, Ragged Sky Press, 2015). Prose works: True Tales of a Fictitious Spy published by SynergeBooks in 2006 and the collaborative novel The Club at Eddy’s Bar (Phaeton Press, Dublin, Ireland, 2014). Theater experience: contributed the lyrics to a musical G-d is Something Gorgeous produced in Scranton PA 2007 and has had four one-act plays published by One Act Depot in Saskatchewan, Canada, 2013 and 2014. Magazine credits include Agni, Gargoyle, Kenyon Review, Rattle, Poetry Salzburg Review, Seneca Review, etc. He often lectures at AHEA and MLA conferences and at Centennial College, NJ. Sohar’s translation work has been recognized in the form of prizes such as the Irodalmi Jelen Translation Prize (2014), Toth Arpád Translation Prize and the Janus Pannonius Lifetime Achievement Award (both in 1916, Budapest, Hungary). sohar.paul@gmail.com