Azernews.Az

BAKU – A novel by renowned Hungarian writer Magda Szabo, translated by Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced for life in Hungary for killing an Armenian serviceman, will be presented at the Fund for Aid to Youths at 3.00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 9.

The presentation is being organized by the publisher of the "Qapi" ("The Door") novel, AssA-Irada news agency, and supported by the Azerbaijan Writers Union’s Bureau for Literature Promotion and AzerNEWS English language weekly.

"The Door" is the first book translated from Hungarian into Azerbaijani. The main characters of the psychological drama are women, including its Hungarian author.

The book’s editor, General Director of AssA-Irada news agency, Fazil Guney (Abbasov), termed Safarov’s work as a major contribution to Azerbaijani literature.

"During the Soviet times samples of other nations’ literature were translated into our language mainly from Russian," Guney says. "Translations from the original source were allowed only for works translated into Russian. Translation of books that have not been translated into Russian was indirectly prohibited, and no publishing house or censor would accept them. And Magda Szabo was one of the writers whose works were banned at the time in her own country by the communist regime. Moreover, she and her husband lost their jobs at the time."

Guney termed the fact that Azerbaijani officer Safarov learned Hungarian not at the university but in prison as "irony of fate". He said that "it is not every man’s call to glorify and present to his nation a writer of a country which cast you behind bars and handed down a much more severe punishment than you deserved."

"It would be very hard to learn the language of any nation that you don’t love and respect, and to translate its writer’s work. The job that Ramil has successfully done shows that he’s got a good heart."

Safarov, 34, was handed down a life sentence without the right to a parole for 30 years on charges of killing Armenian serviceman Gurgen Markarian, who insulted the Azerbaijani flag during a NATO course in Budapest. The Azerbaijani public condemned the Hungarian court’s harsh sentence, which was pronounced in April 2006 after a lengthy trial.

Safarov hails from Jabrayil, one of Azerbaijan’s regions that are under Armenian occupation. He witnessed torture committed against his countrymen and was among those Azerbaijanis who were ousted from their homes during the brutal war with Armenia in the early 1990s.

20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under Armenian occupation since the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a lengthy war. Up to a million Azerbaijanis were displaced in the war that claimed some 30,000 lives. Efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Magda Szabo (1917-2007) is a great Hungarian writer known far beyond her country. Her first book, "Lamb", was published in 1947, followed by "Back to the Human" in 1949. The book received the Baumgarten Prize, but it was reclaimed for political reasons at the time. Szabo is also the author of such popular novels as "Fresco" and "Abigail". She has been honored with awards in Hungary and a number of other countries. Her books have been published in 43 countries. She was conferred with French literary prize Prix Femina Etranger in 2003 for "The Door" novel.

This article is published under a project of the Foundation for State Assistance to the