Márton Simon
- Hungary -
MÁRTON SIMON is a Hungarian poet, performer, and translator. He is the author of five poetry collections and one spoken word album. Songs for 3:45 AM (Dalok a magasföldszintről) was his first poetry collection in 2010. Simon is a proud MacDowell fellow, and has received a Makói Medal award, a Móricz Zsigmond Literary Fellowship, a Visegrád Fund Literary Fellowship, and the Horváth Péter Literary Fellowship, which celebrates the best Hungarian writer below 35.
His work has been translated into German, Polish, Turkish, Romanian, and Bulgarian. English translations of his poems by Tímea Sipos have appeared in Waxwing, Michigan Quarterly Review, Duende, Hungarian Literature Online, Trafika Europe and Modern Poetry in Translation, among others. Songs for 3:45 AM was first published in English with The Offending Adam Press in 2021.
In 2024 he started his own independent publishing label, Okapi Press. He has an MA in Japanese Studies. He lives with his wife and daughter in Budapest, Hungary.
“The trajectory of Márton Simon’s poetry is unpredictable. While his first volume explored, among other things, the possibilities of articulating subjective poetry, Polaroids was more concerned with the continuation and redefinition of the poetic form of fragments and haiku, and even the boundaries of lyrical traditions. In contrast, the long poems of Fox Wedding emphasised ambiguity as the most prominent theme. And now, his volume Éjszaka a konyhában veled akartam beszélgetni [‘I Wanted to Talk to You Last Night in the Kitchen’] seems to have altered his varied poetic interests. The latest volume is, in fact, a fine-tuning of the oeuvre, building specifically on the mode of expression introduced in Fox Wedding.”
(Botond Pinczési, Kulter.hu)
“There is much to discuss regarding the poetry of Márton Simon. I am not referring to the cliché that he is undoubtedly the most successful author of the middle-generation of contemporary Hungarian poetry, but rather to aspects such as his incredible influence on the generation that emerged (i.e., first published works) in the mid-2010s, and the relationship of his poetry to the poetic aspirations of his contemporaries. While I am not at leisure to discuss these important aspects in this piece, I maintain that the characteristic of Simon’s poetry to be analysed here may be crucial in addressing both of these blind spots. His new volume Éjszaka a konyhában veled akartam beszélgetni indeed offers an opportunity to examine the poetic techniques that have proven lasting in his oeuvre, now spanning four volumes, and which are deeply embedded in the discourse surrounding the themes of renewed subjectivity, sensitivity, and intimacy. But there is more: Simon’s (new) subjectivity not only outlines the position of his own poetry (in an exaggerated way, of course), but his aforementioned impact also largely lies in the fact that the poetics he represents has become a virtual paradigm for young authors who have taken their first hesitant steps towards literature since the publication of Polaroids. It has, in fact, become the gateway drug for many of us.”
(Gergő Körösztös, Litera.hu)
“Not resorting to garish colours or wild effects, Márton Simon’s subject matter is dominated by the detailed, descriptive, and analytical nature of personality. Good heavens, how terribly distant another person – a mother or a partner sleeping in the next room – can be. It is in this distance that Simon observes and measures, in this distance that he seeks the place and meaning of things, in this distance that he seeks to find a home or some kind of sustaining certainty. Undoubtedly a heroic endeavour, and not one that promises victory – or indeed, it is certainly not victory that is promised – yet he goes about his task with such discipline. But discipline takes, seeks, and possesses. Simon’s discipline, however, has nothing to do with order, nor with the desire for order, the need for transparency, or the wish to differ from a chaotic world. His is a gaze that seeks to interpret the absence, not to fill it or eradicate it.” – This is how László Darvasi presented Márton Simon’s poetry at Litera in 2010, just before the publication of his first volume. Darvasi also pointed out in his presentation that “even the most personal grief is searching for form” in Simon’s poems. And this search for form often results in texts where the scenarios, depicted in a few lines, cancel each other out in such a way as to convey distinctive emotions and strong moods. All this, as Darvasi observes, occurs not through garish colours or wild effects. I think that, in addition to revealing in his poems the experience of the everydayness of our times, this may be a second reason why, for many people, Márton Simon’s poetry acts as a gateway drug to contemporary poetry.
(Bálint Modor, Litera.hu)
Poetry
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Jesus and the Dinosaurs / Jézus és a dinoszauruszok
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/ A világ legkoszosabb poharai
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While the Rice Cooks / Amíg a rizs megfő
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Don’t Write Anything Above It / Ne írjál fölé semmit
