As Babits or Attila József

After Rafi´s first volume, “A Marvel Thrown to the Ground ” was released, I tried to find the channels through which his poetry could reach more people, especially those who are receptive to his kind of poetry and his way of looking at things.
What was his way of looking at things? – one could ask. Who actually was our late friend, Rafi?
I promised Ove Berglund that he would have to translate the work of a Hungarian poet with Roma roots, emphasis on Hungarian. But one, who still provides insights into the Roma society. Not by depicting a sociological image, but merely by showing who his people are, what their thoughts and their hurts are.
So, we started with the Roma Center in Stockholm. We showed up, the two rough-translators and Ove Berglund and met the person in charge, the director, a writer too, but mainly a singer. We explained to him what we were up to, and also that Ove would like to recite some of Rafi´s poems in the Roma Center. The answer was a polite „yes”. Ove was invited, he described the poet and recited some of his poems. But they never contacted him again, and apparently, they didn´t really considered Rafi as one of them. At least, that was my feeling. Then we contacted the Roma newspaper in Sweden; they also wrote about him, but only half-heartedly, their lack of enthusiasm was obvious.
After this, since we, the National Library of Sweden received requests from book fairs to present Roma authors, I sent them some of the sample copies I had received from Ove. Sometimes I got them back at the end of the event, and if not, I was happy that someone was interested and took the book home. But there was no feedback ever. And when it comes to the subject of the Roma – it seems that times are changing, this is not a hot topic right now.

Translation: Zsuzsanna Tódor, Proofreading: Gabriel Farkas
Mail to Tamás Gergely: gergely90@hotmail.com