Magyarázni (pronounced MAUDE-yar-az-knee) is an attempt to ‘teach’ the reader Hungarian, and is constructed as an abecedarian, with a pronunciation guide at the beginning, a word for each letter of the Hungarian alphabet which is ‘explained’ by the poem, and finally a set of learning activities that functions as a conclusion. The work is utterly useless if the reader’s goal is to learn Hungarian. Instead, the poems attempt to convey the feeling and experience of growing up with a parent who came to Canada from Hungary as a refugee and who was dedicated to maintaining their cultural identity, the experience of participating in cultural activities in an immigrant community, and the ambivalent feelings one can develop toward their parent’s culture. In order to further mimic a teaching tool, the manuscript is written in the second person, instructing the reader as to what they would do or feel in a particular situation.The visual poem “X” appeared in POETRY.A feature about this project has appeared in Jacket2: http://jacket2.org/commentary/beyond-floral-tradition-folk-art-hungarian-and-visual-poemThe visual poems appear in two colour and are inspired by traditional Hungarian folk art.
