Zsuzsa Takács

Photo by Péter Peti

Zsuzsa Takács (b. 1938) is the doyenne of contemporary Hungarian poetry (see WLT, Sept. 2015, 46–47). She started publishing in the early 1970s. Her volumes address both private and historical traumas, the impotence of empathy and language when faced with the suffering of the creature—of a beloved person, or one’s own. She lives in Budapest.

January 2018

The Pillar of Salt

After deciding to end it all, a woman takes a final subway ride. Z, the story writer, decided to end her diary. What is more, with an eye on approaching Christmas, she would adorn it with s...
November 2016

Five Poems

Open book on a bed. Photo by Steve Petrucelli 9:40 a.m. / Venipuncture The way they step on one another’s heelsuntil a spindle-legged woman with dyedhair trips in the queue, and all sticktheir nec...
November 2016

The Gardens of Kammer Castle

Gustav Klimt, Allée in the Gardens of Schloss Kammer, 1912, oil on canvas. Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria / Artothek / Bridgeman images Ride the tram through...
September 2015

Two Poems

Egon Schiele, Portrait of Wally Neuzil, 1912, oil on wood (32 x 39.8 cm). © 2015 Leopold Museum, Wien, Austria. www.leopoldmuseum.org/en/leopoldcollection/masterpieces/33 On Vision Wally...