Liliom
Translated by Benjamin F. Glazer
Get it in Sphinx
Coming soon to iPhone and Android. Join the waitlist to hear when Sphinx opens.
The opening
THE PROLOGUE
An amusement park on the outskirts of Budapest on a late afternoon in Spring. Barkers stand before the booths of the sideshows haranguing the passing crowd. The strident music of a calliope is heard; laughter, shouts, the scuffle of feet, the signal bells of merry-go-round.
The merry-go-round is at Center. LILIOM stands at the entrance, a cigarette in his mouth, coaxing the people in. The girls regard him with idolizing glances and screech with pleasure as he playfully pushes them through entrance. Now and then some girl’s escort resents the familiarity, whereupon LILIOM’S demeanor becomes ugly and menacing, and the cowed escort slinks through the entrance behind his girl or contents himself with a muttered resentful comment.
One girl hands LILIOM a red carnation; he rewards her with a bow and a smile. When the soldier who accompanies her protests, LILIOM cows him with a fierce glance and a threatening gesture. MARIE and JULIE come out of the crowd and LILIOM favors them with particular notice as they pass into the merry-go-round.
The whole book is in the Sphinx app.
About this edition
- The words
- Benjamin F. Glazer's English translation, copied word for word.
- Copied from
- Left out
- The source library's header, footer and license, in 2 places
- The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 2 places
- Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers
- Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages
- Closing line ('END OF PROLOGUE' / 'THE CURTAIN FALLS') (8 blocks)
- Repeated structural SCENE label in the setting line; the scene number is the chapter heading
- Dash joining the repeated SCENE label to the setting