ABSTRACT:
Several collections of the poetry of Sándor Weöres, one of the greatest Hungarian poets ever have been translated into many European languages. However, one of his most significant pieces of work, a lyrical novel entitled Psyche (1972) is almost impossible to be translated owing to its references to the Hungarian language, poetry, literary history and canon formation typical of the turn of the 18 th and 19 th century. The life story and poetry of the fictitious Psyche, a rebellious poetess is a documentary fiction interwoven with a mythical story-line, which was rewritten and adapted to the filmic language of Narcissus and Psyche (1980) by Gábor Bódy. In my presentation I aim at summarizing to what extent the film can be considered as the counterpart of the original text, and how the conventional elements of narrative structures (i. e. the characters, plot patterning, setting, point of view and temporality) differ in the two kinds of artwork. And finally, we will draw the conclusion that anyone interested in the original piece of work by Sándor Weöres should learn the Hungarian language.
