VietNamNet Bridge – “This is a historic event in the relationship between Vietnam and Hungary!” said the counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in Hungary during the launching ceremony of a special issue on Vietnamese literature organised by the Hungarian Writers’ Association.

Counselor Nguyen Viet Phuc speaking at the ceremony. From the left: Chief editor Olah Janos, poet Falusi Marton, and artists Pikali Gerda and Szatmari Attila.

The launching ceremony was organised in November 2008 at the Vietnamese House (Edenkert). This was one among several activities to introduce foreign literature organised by the Hungarian Writers’ Association, organised every 3-4 weeks.

The November issue of Hungarian Diary (Magyar Naplo) magazine, themed “Literature of a Vietnam that has to cope with shocks of wars and globalisation”, was introduced at the ceremony.

In the past 20 years, the World Literature column of this magazine, according to chief editor Olah Janos and poet Falusi Marton, who edited the special issue about Vietnamese literature, mainly focused on European literature. Asian literature has been published several times in this magazine but this was the first time Vietnamese literature had appeared.

Counselor Nguyen Viet Phuc said the issuance of a special issue about Vietnamese literature in Hungarian Diary is a landmark in the cultural cooperation between Vietnam and Hungary.

This special issue was published under technical assistance of Nyerki Jozsef, who came to Vietnam in the early 1970s and worked in Vietnam for 13 years (he was Hungarian Consul General in HCM City). The Vietnamese Embassy in Hungary, the Vietnamese Association in Hungary and some Vietnamese translators who are living in Hungary also contributed to the issue.

Some short stories in the issue were read at the ceremony by two famous Hungarian artists, Pikali Gerda (from the Madach Theatre) and Szatmari Attila (from the Hungary Theatre).

After 13 years, Vietnamese literature once again appeared in a literary magazine in Hungary. In 1995, Ezredveg magazine released an issue on Vietnamese literature.

The Hungarian Writers’ Association plans to publish a collection of contemporary Vietnamese short stories in 2009, including stories by writers who were introduced in the above issue of the Hungarian Diary, for example Nguyen Huy Thiep, Bao Ninh, Nguyen Quang Thieu, Nguyen Minh Chau and Can Van Khanh.

(Source: NCTG)