Until recently she was senior editor at Corvina Books, Budapest. Since 1982 she has been teaching translation, writing and literature at Budapest’s ELTE University.

Her latest translations include Péter Esterházy’s Celestial Harmonies and István Örkény’s One Minute Stories and More One Minute Stories. She has also authored two books on translation, Angol Fordítóiskola (with I. Bart and K. Klaudy), and Hunglish Into English.

A Modern Guide for Modern Students. Her play translations into Hungarian, including A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia and Arthur Miller’s The Ride Down Mount Morgan, have enjoyed successful runs on the stages of Budapest. Having guest edited the special Hungarian Issue of Words without Borders, she is now editor at The Hungarian Quarterly.

1. Where did you grow up?

Long Beach, New York, by the boardwalk and the sea and just a short train ride from the Big Apple, Saks Fifth (later Lord & Taylor), and MOMA.

2. If you could be an expat anywhere in the world, where would you choose?

Amsterdam. When I’m there, I feel like a fish back in the water. Just my size. Just my temperature. And lifestyle. And tolerance. Normalcy. Aesthetics.

3. What would you miss most if you moved away from Hungary?

Gino’s Pizza in Long Beach. For some unfathomable reason that shall have to remain one of God’s little mysteries, I always stop there for a slice on my way from Kennedy Airport to my parent’s home. No Hungary, no pizza.

4. Friends are in Budapest for a weekend - what must they absolutely see and do?

The usual sights, definitely. Budapest is breathtaking. But they would also have to suffer through a tour of the city’s eclectic and art nouveau architecture, and like it.

5. What is your favourite food?

First course: Lobster Bisque; second course: Lobster stuffed with green asparagus spears; third course: Layered lobster patties with pungent chilli-papaya sauce.

6. What is your favourite sport / form of exercise?

Dancing the rumba, the samba, the cha-cha-cha and that good old rock-and-roll!

7. What is your favourite place in Hungary?

In winter, my apartment in Szent István park. In summer, the terrace of my apartment in Szent István park. Indubitably.

8. What career other than yours would you love to pursue?

(“Do I have to answer that?”) I’d love to be a choreographer, a furniture designer, a composer, a screenplay writer, or a dramaturge or theatrical director. Or failing all that, a gardener à la Voltaire. Or a beautiful china cup. (“Are you kidding?” “No.”)

9. What’s a job you would definitely never want?

Anything involving numbers would kill my spirit, and anything that’s 9 to 5 job would kill my sex drive.

10. Where did you spend your last vacation?

Morocco. I can still smell the spices in the tagines and on my skin.

11. Where do you hope to spend your next one?

If it’s in the summer, see Question #7 above. If not, Rome and Venice and Florence and Naples and Taormina and Bruges and Paris and the Côte d’Azure and Barcelona , and Lisbon, and…

12. What was your favourite band, film, or hobby as a teen?

Elvis and the Beatles (and Vance-Perkins-Hyland’s itsi-bitsy yellow polka dot bikini), A Night at the Opera, and writing letters to friends in the style of famous writers.

13. Apart of temptation what can’t you resist?

Temptation.

14. Red wine or white?

Beer.

15. Book or movie?

Book. Movie. Book. Movie. Okay, on a desert island, a book (Shakespeare? Joyce?) – and a movie (A Night at the Opera? Casablanca?).

16. Morning person or night person?

Used to be a night person and lovin’ it. Then I was told it’s unhealthy, if not downright lethal. So I stopped staying up past midnight, but could never manage to rise and shine with the birds. So now I’m waiting for Szendi Gábor to prove that staying up late is the next best thing to taking 10,000 international units of vitamin E every day.

17. Which social issue do you feel most strongly about?

The rapid proliferation of stupidity. It is a social issue! We all have a moral obligation to be intelligent.

18. Buda or Pest side?

Another obvious question. Pest, of course. (“Where’s Buda?”)

19. Which achievement in your life are you most pleased about?

Survival. And maybe the English translation of Péter Esterházy’s Celestial Harmonies. And feeling – when I allow myself to feel it – that perhaps I’ve made a difference in the lives of some of my students. – And survival.

20. What would you say is your personal motto?

This is not the best time to ask me. I’ve just run out of mottos.

Photo courtesy Tibor Zsitva