Two small languages

The first known translations from Dutch to Hungarian were made in the context of the Protestant Reformation. For centuries, the Dutch Republic was one of the favourite locations for Hungarian Calvinist theological students, who could not study in the Habsburg dominated Kingdom of Hungary. These students, who often spent years in various universities of the Republic – Franeker, Utrecht, Leiden, Groningen to name just a few – learnt Dutch and frequently translated devotional and scientific works from Dutch to Hungarian. The first known translation from Dutch was made from a catechism written by Philips of Marnix van Sint Aldegonde (1540-1598) by Albert Szenczi Molnár (1574-1634), published around 1637 in Kassa (today Kosice, Slovakia). In this was many theological tractates originally written in Dutch or translated into Dutch from German or English, found their way to a Hungarian public in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, became popular and were reprinted for many generations of readers.
In the 19^th century the protestant contacts between the Netherlands and Hungary still constituted the most important cultural bridge between the two languages, which also formed the context of the translation of literature. From the 18^th century on, the Stipendium Bernardinum scholarship made it possible for generations of Hungarian protestant scholars to study at the University of Utrecht. Several significant mediators of literature in the 19^th century were members of the literary circle around the Dutch theologian, poet and writer, Nicolaas Beets (1814-1903). Beside theological tractates and shorter literary works, Zsigmond Nagy (1860-1922) made a masterful verse translation of the tragedy Lucifer (Hungarian publication in 1913) written by the most important playwright of the Dutch renaissance, Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679). Károly Szalay (1859-1938) translated an extensive anthology of Dutch poetry into Hungarian under the title Holland költőkből [From Dutch poets] (1925). A third member of the group, Géza Antal (1866-1934) translated mainly historical and philosophical works – such as Robert Fruin’s work on the Dutch Revolt –, but occasionally also excerpts from the prose and poetry of his Dutch wife, the novelist Adele-Opzoomer, alias A.S.C. Wallis (1856-1925). She in turn became an important translator of Hungarian literature into Dutch. All of these scholars translated directly from Dutch and were what we could call multi-mediators, since beside their role as translators they published widely on Dutch literature for Hungarian public and vice versa. Zsigmond Nagy was the author of the chapter on Dutch literature in the four volume Egyetemes Irodalomtörténet (Universal Literary History, 1903-1911, ed. Gusztáv Heinrich), while Antal was the author of the largest part of the articles on Dutch literature in the three volume Világirodalmi lexikon (Encyclopaedia for World literature, 1931-1933, ed. Lajos Dézsi).

From the middle of the 19^th century a growing number of Dutch and Flemish literary works was translated by professional translators for the literary market. However, the bulk of these was translated indirectly, using an existing translation in an intermediary language, mostly German, sometimes French or English. In the case of publications in daily or weekly papers, periodicals the translators are often unnamed, or only indicated by initials. The writings of the Flemish author, Hendrik Conscience were very popular and frequently translated. The earliest known work to be translated into Hungarian was his novel De loteling [The conscript] published as a serial in the daily paper Budapest Hírlap in 1855. Five novels from Louis Couperus were published in Hungarian, the earliest of these was Noodlot [Fate] first published in 1892. The most frequently published authors around the turn of the century were, however, Multatuli and Herman Heijermans. Multatuli’s Max Havelaar was first published in 1905 and would be retranslated during the twentieth century by four different translators, every time indirectly. The dramatic oeuvre of Herman Heijermans was extensively translated, retranslated and performed in the whole of Hungary.   

The interbellum period constituted a golden age of translation, since cultural contacts between Hungary, The Netherlands and Belgium were very intense, due to the humanitarian child relief project called “The Children’s Train Humanitarian Action”. The interest in Hungary for Dutch literature and in The Netherlands and Flanders for Hungarian literature increased visibly, and translations flourished. An important role was played in this literary transfer of popular middle brow literature by the Hungarian-Dutch writer and translator couple László Székely and Madelon-Lulofs Székely, who collaborated on translations to and from Dutch. Székely translated intensively from Dutch, including authors such as Piet Bakker, Jan de Hartog, Antoon Coolen, but he also translated the books of his wife. Beside the lasting popularity of Heijermans and Multatuli, the most frequently translated Dutch writer of this period was Jo van Ammers-Küller, known for her feministic and historical themes, but also for her affinity with the German national socialist movement. The first translations of the works of Johan Huizinga, who’s oeuvre attracted much attention among the Hungarian intellectuals, were also made in this period. The translation of his most prominent book, The Waning of the Middle Ages (A középkor alkonya) appeared in 1937 translated indirectly from the English translation by Antal Szerb.

The period after the second World War was marked by the strong influence of communist ideology in the selection of literature to be published in Hungary, which also had visible effects on the translation of Dutch literature. The influence of ideology became less pronounced in the later years of the period. In the fifties and sixties, the most frequently translated author was the communist Theun de Vries, who also visited Hungary and wrote enthusiastic reports on the achievements of communism. Six of his novels were translated into Hungarian in the fifties, sixties and seventies, he was the guest of honour of the Book Festival of 1958. Many of these were translated by Erzsébet F. Solti, who also maintained a warm and friendly correspondence with the Dutch author and comrade for years. F. Solti was also the translator of The Diary of Anne Frank, which first appeared in Hungarian in 1958. Béla Szondi (1909-2007) originally a translator from German, was also asked to translate for Theun de Vries and learnt Dutch in order to give a high-quality translation of the novel, Moergrobben into Hungarian. Later Szondi translated works from Simon Vestdijk, Louis Paul Boon, Jos Vandeloo, Ivo Michiels, Maarten ’t Hart and received the Martinus Nijhoff prize for his translations in 1990. Two other major Hungarian translators received the Martinus Nijhoff translation prize, Erika Dedinszky (1981) and Judit Gera (2001). Judit Gera was and is not only the most prolific literary translator in the 20^th and 21^st centuries (see profile here) but has also trained generations of literary translators as professor of Dutch Studies at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.

The past thirty years have been characterised by a growing interest in Dutch literature in Hungary and a professionalisation of the publishing and translating activities. This is partly due to the important involvement of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Flanders Literature (in the past Fonds voor de Letteren and Nederlands Literair Productie- en Vertalingenfonds, since 2010 Nederlands Letterenfonds and Literatuur Vlaanderen, respectively), who play an active role in the field, through distributing information, providing diversity, funding, communication, supporting translators and promotion. Alongside Judit Gera a new generation of excellent literary translators has emerged: Tamás Balogh, Miklós Fenyves, Andrea Rádai, Orsolya Varga, Szabolcs Wekerle, to name only a few. The Gondolat publishing house initiated a series of Dutch Literature edited by Judit Gera and the L'Harmattan publishing house has a series of Older Dutch Literature, edited by Anikó Daróczi and Orsolya Réthelyi. An important role in the field of translation is played by the Pagony publishing house for children’s and young adult literature (see profile here), who have a special affinity with Dutch literature. The combination of these factors has made Hungary into one of the countries with the largest number of annual literary translations from Dutch in the Central European region in the past years, with an average of fifteen books per year.