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Márton <i>Simon </i>

Márton Simon

poet, literary translator

"Owing especially to his work Polaroids, the poetry of Márton Simon is an extraordinary success story. This holds true even when compared to the attention received by contemporary poems we consider popular."
— from the online literary magazine Olvass bele (Jeges-Varga Ferenc)

POLAROIDS

2014
"Haven’t read this book yet? You will absolutely adore it. You’ll adore it not only because you already know the poet, Márton Simon, from the tiny and not so secluded world of poetry slam. No, the Polaroids is a different world entirely. It presents damaged, haiku-like worlds in a generic and yet still very concrete form. At first, they might not even seem interesting, then they capture your thoughts, and at last they completely amaze you."
— from the online literary portal Kultúra és Kritika [„Culture and Criticism”] (Tamás Sipos)

POLAROIDS

2013
"The majority of the texts, as we have seen, are suggestive, dense, and enigmatic. As such, the collection cannot be simply skimmed through. We must dive in and adjust our pace to the slowly waving sentences. This effort, or more precisely, the calm abandonment of effort will be truly worth it. We will receive a long-lasting visual and linguistic experience, and, coincidentally, a conversation partner. Fortunately, our mood will not improve just by opening the book of Márton Simon, but we will understand our bad mood all the more."
— from the online art critics journal Revizor (Bálint Németh)

LEMON ELEGY

2021
"Márton Simon is an unbelievably fresh voice in contemporary literature. His poem titled Lemon Elegy is staggeringly current, faithfully conveying the anxious atmosphere of self- reflection generated during the COVID-19 lockdown."
— from the online literary portal Szófa (Eszter Wágner)

I WANTED TO TALK TO YOU IN THE KITCHEN AT NIGHT

2021
"There is much to talk about as far as Márton Simon’s poetry is concerned. Here, I am not referring to the cliché that he is undoubtedly the most successful poet of the mid-generation of Hungarian contemporary poetry. Rather, I mean to highlight his immeasurable impact on the generation starting their career (that is, publishing their first pieces) in the 2010s; and how his lyric poetry relates to the poetic aspirations of his contemporaries."
— from the online literary journal Litera (Körösztös Gergő)

FOX WEDDING

2018
"It is remarkable in the book how the poet matches things that do not match. The combination of sadness and beauty paints a picture that, perhaps unnoticed, has been right there in front of us all along."
— from the university student journal TéTéKás Nyúz (Kriszta Pál)

FOX WEDDING

2018
"Owing especially to his work Polaroids, the poetry of Márton Simon is an extraordinary success story. This holds true even when compared to the attention received by contemporary poems we consider popular."
— from the online literary magazine Olvass bele (Jeges-Varga Ferenc)

FOX WEDDING

2018
"...the poet is one of those rare contemporary artists that high schoolers read and enjoy. If you don’t believe it, the proof is the metamorphosis of Songs for 3:45 AM (2010) and Polaroids (2013); the slender books grow dog ears from too much handling."
— from the blog Könyvtárosbácsi olvasónaplója [„An Old Librarian's Reading Journal”] (Domonkos Győry)