Madách Anniversary at the National Library of Foreign Literature

The National Library of Foreign Literature commemorated the 200th anniversary of Imre Madách's birth and the 140th anniversary of the premiere of The Tragedy of Man with an exhibition and conference.

The participants of the conference on Madách's literary translators and life's work, which took place on 28 September 2023, and the guests of the exhibition opening were welcomed by János Csák, Minister of Culture and Innovation. In his speech he emphasized that Imre Madách's work is the best modern parable of human existence and progress, which was able to summarize the changes and hardships that human beings have been subjected to in the history of mankind during the modern age, while human nature has not really changed.

In his welcome speech, Dávid Rózsa stressed that it is good to be a speaker of a language whose linguistic and poetic achievements can be read in many languages. "The Tragedy of Man is a work of art that has been translated 113 times, has appeared in print in 216 editions, and is perhaps being translated somewhere in the world at this very moment."

The conference organiser, Dr Ildikó Sirató, researcher at the Theatre History and Music Collection and curator of the exhibition, opened the conference with a presentation on The Tragedy of Man's journey into world literature.

More pictures from the event