Gábor Devecseri und die ovidschen Metamorphosen

Abstract

The paper is dealing with the works of Gábor Devecseri (1917–1971), who was one of the most prominent and eminent translators of ancient literature in Hungary. The special focus is on the Ovidian tradition: Devecseri published his translation of Metamophoses in 1964. The first part of the paper demonstrates his methodology tracing his translation strategies with the special regards to the translations from the 19th century. The author bases on the manuscripts and documents (mostly the textual variants of translations) conserved in the manuscript collection of the Petőfi Literary Museum (Budapest). The second part examines the influence of the translation of Metamorphoses on Devecseri’s poetry and novel writing techniques. The Ovidian elements are especially helpful for Gábor Devecseri to modulate his authorial relations to the cultural memory, to the questions of identity, and to the dialogue between photograph and text.

Keywords

• translation
• hungarian literature of the 20th century
• gábor devecseri
• ovid
• metamorphoses