Gabor G. Gyukics, Jan Castro, and Michael Castro read from "A Transparent Lion," the poetry of Attila József.

MARCH 8, 2 PM

Bowery Poetry Club

Gabor G. Gyukics, Jan Garden Castro, and Michael Castro read from A Transparent Lion, new English translations of the poetry of Attila József -- accompanied by the Kraakovians jazz trio.

In Hungary the name Attila József (April 11th, 1905–December 3rd, 1937) is today a synonym for "poet of the 20th century," as in the Romantic age the name Sándor Petőfi had been. József's restless spirit, his life rich in political turns, the craving for love that so often led him to despair, and his decision to commit suicide, all these lurk in the depths of his works. Friend of Thomas Mann and Arthur Koestler, acolyte of Villon and Baudelaire, in Eastern Europe József has become an iconic representative of the poet who resists the state.

A founding member of the Hungarian Communist party, purged by the Stalinists for excessive radicality, in the mid 1930s József came out as a syndicalist anarchist.