His Excellency, József Bencze, the Ambassador of Hungary in the Philippines, and Mr. David Ambrus, Deputy Head of Mission, visited ADNU on 12 December 2019.

The purpose of the visit was the signing of the memorandum of agreement between Ateneo de Naga University and the Embassy in Hungary in Manila. The agreement will enable both parties to produce an anthology of classical and contemporary poetry in Hungarian available in Filipino. ADNU Press Deputy Director Kristian Cordero facilitated the event.

Fr. Wilmer Tria, the university press director believes that these on-going projects with foreign embassies and the Ateneo de Naga Press is a good sign for the university to continue its mission to promote mutual and cultural activities beneficial to our common good. He said, “As director of the university press often described as ‘the small powerhouse outside Manila,’ we are happy that the Embassy of Hungary has honored us with this project. Now, you too can be called as co-rebels. Rebellion against the tyranny of market driven platforms, rebellion against ignorance and strangeness, rebellion against alienation. It is our hope that with this book which we are about to do, we may be able to bring each other’s countries for a deeper mutual understanding that can be gleaned though our literature especially through our poetry.”

The project is tentatively title “Mga Tipaklong sa Kampana” (Grasshoppers on the Bell) based from the short poem of László Nagy (1925-1978). Nagy is a Hungarian artist, poet, and translator. He is also In this anthology, which will be co-edited by Cordero and another Palanca-award winning poet, Enrique Villasis, around fifty Hungarian poets will be made available in the national language including the classic poets like Sándor Petőfi (considered as their “Jose Rizal”).