Len Rix

Len Rix is a translator of Hungarian literature, noted for his translations of Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight and The Pendragon Legend and of Magda Szabó's The Door.

Personal life

Len Rix was born in Zimbabwe in 1942, where he studied English, French and Latin at the (then) University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1963 he won a Commonwealth Scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, where he read English. He worked as a lecturer at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and teacher of English at Manchester Grammar School (where he was also Head of Careers), before retiring in 2005 to live in Cambridge.

Translations

Len Rix's first published translation from Hungarian was of Tamás Kabdebó's Minden idők (A Time for Everything) (Cardinal Press, 1995), but he is best known for his renderings of Antal Szerb, especially Journey by Moonlight (Utas és holdvilág, 1937), reprinted several times since first issued by Pushkin Press in 2001. In 2006 his translation of Magda Szabó's The Door (Az ajtó, 1987) was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and awarded the 2006 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.

Bibliography

Literary works translated from Hungarian

• A Time for Everything (Minden idők), by Tamás Kabdebó), Cardinal Press, 1995
• Journey by Moonlight (Utas és holdvilág), by Antal Szerb), Pushkin Press, 2001
• The Door (Az ajtó), by Magda Szabó), Harvill Secker, 2005
• The Pendragon Legend (A Pendragon-legenda), by Antal Szerb), Pushkin Press, 2006
• Oliver VII (VII. Olivér), by Antal Szerb, Pushkin Press, 2007
• The Queen's Necklace (A királynő nyaklánca), by Antal Szerb), Pushkin Press, 2009
• Love in a Bottle (Szerelem a palackban), by Antal Szerb, Pushkin Press, 2010
• The Third Tower (A harmadik torony), by Antal Szerb, Pushkin Press, 2014

Other translations

• "A Martian's Guide to Budapest", by Antal Szerb, The Hungarian Quarterly, No. 180, Winter 2005
• "In the Footsteps of the Gods" (from the early journalism of Sandor Marai), The Hungarian Quarterly, No. 185, Spring 2007

Other publications

• "Shakespeare's Meaning in 'The Merchant of Venice'", University of Rhodesia 'Studies in Literature' Series, No 7, 1974
• "Charles Mungoshi's 'The Coming of the Dry Season'", Mambo Review of Contemporary African Literature, November 1974
• "Some Recent Criticism of Doris Lessing", Zambezia, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1977
• The Selected Works of Arthur Shearly Cripps, Mambo Press, 1976 (co-editor, responsible for Introduction and Bibliography)
• Rhodesian Literature in English: A Bibliography (with Pichanik et al.), Mambo Press, 1977
• "The Subtle Art of Antal Szerb", The Hungarian Quarterly, No. 186, Summer 2007
• "In Praise of Translation", The Hungarian Quarterly, No. 193, Spring 2009

Poetry

• Anthologised in Rhodesian Poetry Nos 11 (1972-3), 12 (1975) and 13 (1976-7)
• Anthologised in 25 Years of South African Poetry, New Coin, Grahamstown, 1980
• Individual poems in Two Tone (Rhodesia), New Coin (South Africa), Staple, Iota, The Interpreter's House (UK), and The New Hungarian Quarterly (Hungary)

External links

• Interview with Hungarian Literature Online
• Article on Great Zimbabwe
• Translation of Antal Szerb's "A Martian's Guide to Budapest" in Hungarian Quarterly (2005)
• Guardian review of Journey By Moonlight
• The Independent review of The Pendragon Legend