Nobel László Krasznahorkai appeals to read that “it is always a way”

“ Ndon't forget to read a book. It is always a path,” said the author of “The Tango of Satan”, at the end of a conversation with musician Pedro Abrunhosa, in the context of the literary festival Babell, in which he even adopted the sunglasses of his interlocutor to avoid the sun.

In front of a filled Gomes Teixeira Square, Krasznahorkai explained, in his native Hungarian, in response to a question from Abrunhosa, which avoids the final paragraphs because he wants to recover the use that “normal people” make of the language, joking that the latter will be put by God, as he has often said over the years.

As an example a hypothetical statement of admiration and love, the Hungarian writer stated that these are things that cannot be said “in short sentences”.

“ We need to follow a flow, this is how normal people talk”, said, according to the instant translation provided by the organization, according to this combining the work of professionals with the support of artificial intelligence, which did not always make intelligible the phrases of the writer.

László Krasznahorkai explained that the vernacular use of language is due to the need to want to express very important things.

In a conversation that went from the creative methods of the writer to the idea of sending the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to a space mission, Krasznahorkai was pleased to leave the Budapest government of Viktor Orban, but warned: “It seems that we are a family that now want some rest. If there was a dictator in the country we must remember that there may be others”.

With a 'Praça dos Lions' filled and among the public were the president of the City Hall of Porto, Pedro Duarte, and his alderman of Culture, Jorge Sobrado, compliments were heard to the city, the Portuguese and the Livraria Lello, not one of the most beautiful in the world, but "the most beautiful". Krasznahorkai, Abruñosa offered a vinyl by Carlos Paredes.

Instigated to list writers who most admire, László Krasznahorkai said he was unable to choose only one and referred to multiple names, from a historical scope that went from Dante to Thomas Mann, Thomas Pynchon and Fernando Pessoa, noting, as to the latter, that “People must be read at the right time”.

The 72-year-old Hungarian writer – who was to be present at the Folio festival in Óbidos last year, before canceling for health reasons – has two books published in Portugal (“Herscht 07769” and “The Tango of Satan”, both for the Iron Horse, the latter having had a previous edition by Antigona), which led Pedro Abrunhosa to appeal for more works of the writer to be edited on national territory, since he had to order from Brazil “The Return of the Baron of Wenkheim” and “The Melancholy of Resistance”.

The Babell festival, organized by the Livraria Lello Foundation in partnership with the Municipality of Porto, commissioned by Rui Couceiro, ends on Monday after six days of conversations, conferences, exhibitions and book launches, among other initiatives.