Márai the Wanderer creates interest with its description of Old Košice

The stylish Intermezzo cafe on Bočná street is filled with experts and beginners on Sándor Márai. Peter Havasi, a young actor from the Thalia Theatre, read interesting passages of his books in English and Hungarian.

The actor chose passages from the Book of Herbs and from Košice Errands. “I chose the passages myself. If anyone had a special request, I read them their favorite part.” Márai  sometimes had a tendency to be poetic. Like any writer, he liked to deal with decisions. The passages from the Book of Herbs also sounded philosophical, where he focused on himself, but his life’s wisdom can be taken as concise lessons for others. “Can we teach somebody to love their homeland? No.” The author drew a consistent distinction between the homeland and the state. “We love the state for our personal gain, it gives us something. But not the homeland.”

In the next section, we learn when we have the right to force a change in our life situation. Again, the main theme is the love of the homeland, with his restless nature and circumstances forcing him to travel. “Being a foreigner is like being disabled. You should stay in your homeland. Stay where life has placed you, fulfill your obligation. But – if that does not correspond to your character, leave. But on the inside of each change, you remain the same.”

Márai was known for his accurate descriptions, which he presented simply and factually. He made use of these in Košice Errands, which sounded like a nice travelogue of Old Košice. First, he focuses on the feelings he experiences when returning to the region. “This is the only city in the world with which I have a personal relationship.” He specifically focuses on the the Marian Court in the Old Town, he doesn’t miss Katova Bašta (Executioner’s Bastion), walks along the Hornád, the Čermeľ valley or Bankov. He is concerned about the ethnic transformation of the city. “Košice might become like Graz, with Hungarian residents. I’d rather it stayed as Košice.”

Some of the audience were coming across Márai for the first time. “I wanted to try some of the events that are happening in the city today. A friend recommended I try Márai, I haven’t read him yet. Apparently he is compared with the German writer, Mann,” said Rasťo. For those interested in the work of Sandor Márai it should be noted that those of his books that have not yet been published in the Slovak language will come out as part of the ECOC project.