Alexander Lenard (; ;

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, 9 March 1910 – Dona Emma, Brazil, 13 April 1972) was a Hungarian physician, writer, translator, painter, musician, poet and occasional language instructor. He was born in

, Hungary and died in Dona Emma, in the state of Santa Catarina,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. He is best known as the Latin translator of

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-th ...

's '' Winnie the Pooh'' ('' Winnie Ille Pu''). He wrote non-fiction and translated fiction and non fiction in German, Latin, Hungarian, Italian and English.

Life

Lenard was born in the family of Jenő Lénárd (1878-1924) and Ilona Hoffmann (1888-1938), he was the first son in their family. In 1920 the Lénárd family moved from Hungary to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. His first studies were private lessons at home because he couldn't stand being at school. In 1920-1921 he began his study at Wiener Theresianum (a board school in Vienna) where he was hungry and cold, and the few days at home at weekends were a real happiness to him.Siklós:Von Budapest bis zum Tal am Ende der Welt Sándor Lénárds romanhafter Lebensweg
Retrieved on 16 Jan 2018 He didn't stay long in this school, because their family moved to

Klosterneuburg Klosterneuburg () is a town in the Tulln District of the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Frequently abbreviated to Kloburg by locals, it has a population of about 27,500. The Stift Klosterneuburg ( Klosterneuburg Monastery), which was establish ...

and there he finished his studies in 1928. During his leisure time he practiced playing piano, rowing, swimming and running. Lénárd conducted his medical studies at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. He continued studying in the university till 1936 and had a good relationship with the professors and his fellow students; with some of them, the likes of Karl Adams and Egon Fenz, he had contacts till his death. During the 1930s, he travelled to Greece, Denmark, England, the Czech Republic, France, and Turkey. In 1936 he married Gerda Coste, who gave birth to their son, Hans-Gerd. After the 1938 "Anschluss" with Germany, he escaped to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. There is no notice if he had obtained his certificate in medicine, because literature and poetry were more attractive to him. His staying in Italy he described as a very productive time for his poetry. At the beginning of the World War II he attempted to join the French Army in Basel as a volunteer but failed to do this. During World War II, he escaped the attention of the Fascist regime by leaving no "paper trail" (such as identity card or ration card). He survived by trading his medical services for food and shelter. His leisure hours were spent in the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

, reading texts in Latin until it became a colloquial language to him. He met his second wife, Andrietta Arborio di Gattinara from a noble Italian family, in 1942. His brother Károly presumably died in 1944 in a Nazi labour camp (

Arbeitslager ''Arbeitslager'' () is a German language word which means labor camp. Under Nazism, the German government (and its private-sector, Axis, and collaborator partners) used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially durin ...

) while his sister settled in England. After the end of the war, his second son, Giovanni Sebastiano, was born in Rome. In 1952, he emigrated to Brazil, where in 1956 he took part and earned some money in a São Paulo television programme called ''The Sky is the Limit'', answering questions about J. S. Bach. Later he settled in the Dona Emma valley, where he bought a small farm with a house he made "invisible" by surrounding it with his favourite trees. He treated the local population medically until his death in 1972.

Work

While in Brazil, he tutored the children of a local residents in Latin, and they expressed the wish for something interesting to read. In response, he translated ''Winnie the Pooh'' into Latin, for which he combed the classics for idiomatic expressions used during ancient times. He was working on this translation for about 7 years and could not find a publisher to have this work edited. And at last he published the first copies by his own money. Privately printed, the book gradually reached larger audiences until it became an international best-seller. He also wrote (

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

and

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

), and non-fiction such as musical,

culinary Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking, and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs or ...

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and medical essays and studies. two of his original books have been published in English – ''The Valley of the Latin Bear'' (1965), and ''The Fine Art of Roman Cooking'' (1966).

Bibliography

Fiction

The valley of the Latin bear
- in English: Dutton, 1965, in Hungarian

: Magvető, 1967, in German (Die Kuh auf dem Bast): Stuttgart, 1963 * "A day in the invisible house" - in Hungarian
Egy nap a láthatatlan házban
: Magvető, 1969, in German (Ein Tag im unsichtbaren Haus): Stuttgart, 1970 * "The Cagliostro Case" * "The Great Bear drowns in the sea in Charleston" * "Roman stories" - in Hungarian

: Magvető, 1969

- in English: Dutton, 1966, in German (Die Römische Küche): Stuttgart, 1963, in Hungarian (A római konyha): Magvető, 1986 * My family-stories - in Hungarian (Csaladtorteneteim): Typotex, 2010 * Adventures of three modern Hungarian knights - in Hungarian

* Mussolini's "Liberation" - in Hungarian

* A Few Words About Winnie-Ille-Pu - in Hungarian

* ttp://mek.oszk.hu/kiallitas/lenard/irasok/manuscript/byz_eng.html The Byzantine Schnitzel- in Hungarian
A bizánci szelet - in: ''Magyar Nemzet'', 7 May 1966. p. 7

Non-fiction

In addition to his non fiction writing, Lenard authored essays and treatises on literary and medical topics.

Linguistic and literary

* The living Latin - in Hungarian

* Seven days in Babylon - in German (Sieben Tage Babylonisch): Stuttgart, 1964, - in Hungarian (Egy magyar idegenvezető Bábel tornyában): Typotex, 2003 * " Hello Sadness" and " A Certain Smile" - in Hungarian
"Jónapot búbánat" és "Egy bizonyos mosoly" - Ertekezés Francois Sagan regényéről - Kultura, February-March 1957. (Sao Paulo)
* The poems of Weöres Sándor - in Hungarian

* Walk on an old map of Budapest - co-author with Landy Dezso - in Hungarian

* The science and the piglet - in Hungarian

* Brazil - in Hungarian

* '' Winnie ille Pu'' - Latin translation of '' Winnie the Pooh'' by

, London, 1960. * ''Tristitia salve'' - Latin translation of ''

Bonjour Tristesse ''Bonjour Tristesse'' () is a novel by Françoise Sagan. Published in 1954, when the author was only 18, it was an overnight sensation. The title is derived from a poem by Paul Éluard, "À peine défigurée", which begins with the lines "Adieu ...

'' by Francoise Sagan, Stuttgart, 1964.

Medical

* About the Eugenics - in Hungarian
Az eugenikáról - Kortárs, 1985/2
* Giving birth without pain - in Italian (Partorire senza dolore - Casa Editrice Mediterranea, Roma, 1950) * The healthy and sick child - in Italian (Il Bambino Sano e Ammalato, óma 1950) * Controlling conception and the number of offsprings - in Italian (Controllo della concezione e limitazione della prole, óma 1947) * The medical office; contribution to the history of the medical ethics - in Italian (De officio medici; contributo alla storia dell'etica medica. omeTipografia della Bussola, 1947)

Poems

* Ex Ponto óma 1947 * Orgelbuechlein óma 1947 * Andrietta óma 1949 * Asche óma 1949 * Die Leute sagen óma 1949

Film portrayal

In 2009, the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

premiered Lynne Sachs's
The Last Happy Day
', an experimental retelling of Lenard's life story from the intimate perspective of his distant cousin turned filmmaker. The film features unpublished letters from the 1940s to 1970s written by Lenard to his relatives in the United States, as well as interviews and archival photos. A year after the film's debut, the ''Hungarian Quarterly'' published an essay by Sachs along with some of Lenard's letters.

Literature

In Robert Hellenga's 1998 novel ''The Fall of a Sparrow'' the latin inscription for a tombstone is taken from the death notice for Alexander Lenard.

References

External links

Lénárd Sándor Reference page from the MEK in mixed languages (Hungarian, German, English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenard, Alexander 1910 births 1972 deaths Hungarian emigrants to Brazil Hungarian male poets Hungarian medical writers English–Latin translators 20th-century Hungarian translators 20th-century Hungarian poets 20th-century Hungarian male writers 20th-century Hungarian physicians 20th-century writers in Latin Deaths in Santa Catarina (state)