Thursday, June 16, 2005
The Fantastic Life of Csath Geza
In this short story Peter Esterhazy (a contemporary Hungarian literary
giant) writes about Geza Csath’s exploits. Csath is an early-20th c. writer
(one of my long-time favorites) & heroin-addict doctor & womanizer.
"In heaven, at a cool little party, naked on a pink, curvy cloud, in blood,
wounded, iodinated, 'in jewels of the night,' with make-up and IV, with
appendages, ‘face burned,’ ‘no title,’ in helmet, with metal needles in his
chest, in milk and talcum powder, in magnesium, in his Eastern European
mass-made suit that suggests equality, playing with apt and productive
awkwardness with his tie-on-a-rubber-string: Tibor Hajas bowed to Geza
Csath: Well, I am Tibor Hajas, born from an intellectual family in 1946,
1968 and 1990 in Budapest, Eastern Europe and the United States of America.
[They start watching a soccer game and Csath cracks a joke about Judgment
Day.]
They start laughing, God gets mad. Csath! Hajas! Upon resurrection you come
to see me with your grade book. But those two, instead of meekly coming to
their senses (as I or you would), they sneakily take advantage of the
information gap provided by the Sacred Trinity, Csath seeks and finds
patronage from the Son, and Hajas from the Holy Spirit, while they goof
around with God, reminiscing about the good old times back there on Earth.”
Peter Esterhazy: The Fantastic Life of Csath Geza
mutilated by my late-night translation
giant) writes about Geza Csath’s exploits. Csath is an early-20th c. writer
(one of my long-time favorites) & heroin-addict doctor & womanizer.
"In heaven, at a cool little party, naked on a pink, curvy cloud, in blood,
wounded, iodinated, 'in jewels of the night,' with make-up and IV, with
appendages, ‘face burned,’ ‘no title,’ in helmet, with metal needles in his
chest, in milk and talcum powder, in magnesium, in his Eastern European
mass-made suit that suggests equality, playing with apt and productive
awkwardness with his tie-on-a-rubber-string: Tibor Hajas bowed to Geza
Csath: Well, I am Tibor Hajas, born from an intellectual family in 1946,
1968 and 1990 in Budapest, Eastern Europe and the United States of America.
[They start watching a soccer game and Csath cracks a joke about Judgment
Day.]
They start laughing, God gets mad. Csath! Hajas! Upon resurrection you come
to see me with your grade book. But those two, instead of meekly coming to
their senses (as I or you would), they sneakily take advantage of the
information gap provided by the Sacred Trinity, Csath seeks and finds
patronage from the Son, and Hajas from the Holy Spirit, while they goof
around with God, reminiscing about the good old times back there on Earth.”
Peter Esterhazy: The Fantastic Life of Csath Geza
mutilated by my late-night translation
