Heathen Master Filcsik
Cleveland Ohio
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Heathen Master Filcsik,From the Magyar of KálmánMikszáth: Translatedby William N. Loew∴
Cleveland Ohio: Printed at TheClerk's Private Press - mcmx
[Pg iii]Introductory Note.
Through the kindness of William N. Loew, Esq., of the New York Bar, whohas generously placed the manuscript at our disposal, we are able tooffer a translation of one of the shorter stories by a living Hungarianwriter.
The Magyar literature offers a mine of gold to the translator, but onaccount of the difficulties of the language very few have explored it.With the exception of the great novelist, Maurus Jókai, the works of themajority of the first class authors are unknown to the average Americanreader.
The difficulties of the Magyar tongue have been referred to. It is theone great literary language of Europe that is of non-Aryan origin. It issyllabic agglutinative, that is, the word inflections are made up byadding syllables to the root word that is never lost. The verb isparticularly flexible and many of the tenses cannot be renderedadequately in English because they are constructed after a differentsystem. The fine distinctions possible for the Magyar verb can only befelt, and not translated. This will explain the seeming inconsisten[Pg iv]cyof the tenses in our story, where presents, futures, and perfects appearto be used indiscriminately, and yet the whole action has taken place inthe more or less remote past. In this way the translator has endeavoredto convey the vivid action of the original so far as the English verbsystem would allow him.
The author, Kálmán Mikszáth, is a follower of Jókai, but without thegreat master's originality. He has been called the "Mark Twain" ofMagyar literature, and is looked upon by his compatriots as theirleading humorist. He is a prolific writer of the feuilliton, thatpeculiar institution of the continental newspaper, and severalcollections of these have been published. Some of his works have beentranslated into English, but so far as could be learned, not this storyof "Heathen Master Filcsik." His subjects are drawn generally fromscenes relating to North Hungarian peasant life, and are told with adirectness that makes the action move along rapidly. He also uses thefolk lore in his works, the present tale being founded upon oldermaterial current in the country districts. Many of the details of hisstories are left to the reader's imagination; he touches only the highlights, the shadows must be given form by the reader himself. His humormanifests itself in the most unexpected ways, even in this grim story ofthe unforgiving cobbler, there are touches of a sly, suggestive humorthat brighten the otherwise sombre narrative.
Cleveland, Ohio,
March 17th, 1910.