The UK poets worked from plain text word-for-word English translations of the Hungarian poems. A few of them are featured here. Try a translation or version of your own – and send them to converginglines@britishcouncil.org if you're pleased with the result.'

Our first translation is a collaboration between Polly Clark and Péter Rácz. You can read more translations including those by Antony Dunn and Owen Sheers by using the left-hand links or clicking here.

Here is what Polly had to say about Péter's poem:
Péter Rácz’s poem is an attempt to get inside the mind of a mentally simple man who lives a life which follows a very regular pattern. To re-create in English the language of this man I decided to take out the ‘I’ and to allow a stream of consciousness in the poem, which then tightens towards the end of the poem when the speaker talks of the path he has created. The defining word to me in this poem is ‘proper’: though this man lives a limited life he dreams of creating something real and definite and proper is the word I felt he would use. I have made this word the title and made it the focus of the end of the poem.

A Horváthék dossziéból by Péter Rácz

tocsogok a papucsomba’
ki a budiba
odatocsogok a viaszkos
vásznas asztalhoz
mert megéheztem anya
mosogat ott majd ezen
fogunk enni mert bent
nicshely görnyedt a háta
meg az enyém is hajlott
de nincsen asztmám
meg tüdőbajom se nics
kész csoda volna
itt a friss levegőn ni most meg
tocsoghatok a farakáshoz
mert beleakadt a kutya lánca
kitocsogok a szabadba
mert nem bírom bent
a levegőt éjjel háromszor
öt méteren nem fulldok
de nem bírom ketten vagyunk
egyszer ki is megyek
már egész ösvényt gyalogoltam
ki a füvön a kapuhoz meg vissza
szólni fognak hogy ne ott járjak
de akkor nem lesz kitaposva
nem lesz ott semmi
most legalább van ösvény
néhány méteren szép

Here is the literal translation of Péter's poem:

From the Horváth File by Péter Rácz

I squelch/splash in my slippers
out to the shitter/loo/john
I squelch/splash to
the oilclothes table
because I got hungry mom
washes dishes on that
we’ll eat because inside
there’s no room her back is stooped/humped
mine is bent too
but I got no asthma
no no consumption
it would be short of wonder
here in the fresh air now again
I can/must squelch/splosh to the woodpile
because the dog’s chain got stuck
I squelched/sploshed outdoor
because I can’t bear/stand inside
the air at night in four by
six yards not that I choke
but I can’t bear/stand there’s the two of us
so I go out
I’ve trodden/walked a proper footpath
out through the grass to the gate and back
they will tell me I shouldn’t walk there
but then it will not be trodden
there will be nothing there
now at least there is a footpath
through a few yards quite nice

Proper by Péter Rácz
Translation by Polly Clark

slipper squelch
to the shitter
splash
to the oilcloth table
hungry now
mum wash dishes on that
outside eat no room inside
mum’s back stoop ugly hump
mine too
but no asthma
no death-cough
always outdoors no wonder
splash now
to woodpile
dog chain got stuck
squelch out door
can’t stand air inside at night in four by
six yards, nearly choke
on the two of us
so go out
to proper footpath I have trodded
out through the grass to the gate and back
they will tell me I shouldn’t walk there
but then it will not be trodded
there will be nothing there
now at least there is a footpath
a few yards, proper nice.