B is for Budapest: Featured Post Card for the A to Z Challenge.
I have tons of post cards that would fit the letter “B”, but several small floral postcards caught my eye. While many post cards feature famous landmarks or monuments, the old postcards I have from Budapest just feature beautiful illustrations of roses.
At first I was confused – why roses? After searching around online for a while, all I could find in reference to Budapest and roses is a reference to the Rózsadomb neighborhood, meaning “Rose Hill”. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the rose, but I was at least able to discern the publishing company through a little Google Translate magic: Képzőművészeti Alap Kiadóvállalata, meaning Fine Arts Publishing Company. From what I could find, the publishing company was very active in the late 1950’s through the early 1970’s.
But the real mystery is what is written on the back of the post card! I’ve tried to translate as best I can (thanks Google), but reading unfamiliar handwriting in a foreign language is not my strong suite. Despite (or because of) the poor translation, it certainly makes for a hilarious read!
English:
Dear Nicholas! Name Day stations using fallow land with love good health happiness. And always luckily proceed as life is beautiful days, the lovely little family get together with your life is very very happy! You really want to undergo persons worthy of a beautiful bunch of lovely person and Hungarian honey festivity, but not as strongly million meals potentially so nice in chocolate wells: Maris is but Uncle Jestia is a nit.
Hungarian:
Kedves Niklos! Névnapja alkal mubol ugar szeretettel kivanunk nagyon jo egeszseget boldog sagot. Es mindig szeren cservel jarjo eleto szep napjait, a kedves kis csaladja val egyutt legyen eletuk nagyan nagyan boldog!!! Szeretnenk szemelyessen at nyujtani egy szep csokor magyar persat es kedves unnep alkal mezbol, de mivel er nem keket seges igy millio szep csoko lyuk: Maris hanen Jestia bacsi es a serke.
So if you can translate Hungarian, please help me! I don’t even know how this person is related to my family – most of my mom’s relatives came from Poland, so the Hungarian/Budapest connection is throwing me for a loop. I’ll have to ask my mom if she knew of any relatives from Hungary. It will be fun to translate the rest of the post cards I have from Budapest, to paint a better picture of whoever is writing to Niklos!
Related articles
- Budapest Reconstructed (ailsackay.com)
- Bittersweet dreaming (lostandfoundinbudapest.wordpress.com)
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Categories: Hungary, Post Cards
Wander One Day 
I have something similar, well I was in Italy and I got a recipe from an Italian “mama”, now i’m trying to have someone to translate it because i don’t understand the handwriting and i cannot figure out some words 🙂
Isn’t it fun though?! It’s like a mystery. As soon as you can decipher it, half of the excitement is gone (though with a recipe, I suppose it opens a new door since you can finally make the meal!).
Hi Wonder,
Do you still need help with the translation?
Cheers
I jsut started using postcrossing.com to exchange postcards from around the world. Have you tried it?
Oh you are the best! Thanks for sharing the site – I’d never heard of it before but now I absolutely need to get involved. I had a bunch of pen pals when I was a kid, and it was so much fun to see that brief snippet of culture from somewhere new. This promises the same!
I really love your blog! I have traveled extensively and been to Budapest but don’t speak/read hungarian. I do like the translation about meals in chocolate wells just the way it is.
Thank you 🙂 I too enjoyed daydreaming about chocolate wells. Not everything was such a nice translation though, I kept misspelling one word that was translated as syphillis!
This is adorable! And what a unique and interesting A to Z theme! “syphilis” . Great translation. Stopping over from the A to Z challenge. Happy blogging!
Thanks for stopping by! I couldn’t click through to your blog though, it only links to blogspot.com. Please stop back and leave your link – it’s going to take me a while to make it through the ~2000 blogs on the list!
Gotta love google translation! Makes me laugh all the time. I’m seriously hoping you figure out the mystery of the Hungarian family friend. Isn’t it awesome how family history is?
It is awesome. My mom’s parents both passed away before I was born, so everything I know comes from my mom and a few of her surviving Polish relatives. The Hungarian link is still throwing me for a loop – I’ll figure it out one day! If my mom doesn’t know, the next step will be to ask my uncle – he’s a little older than my mom so maybe he knows.
Your post was interesting! I’ve been researching my family roots of late, and it has been a lot of fun discovering relatives I didn’t know I had. I wish you lots of luck on translating your post card, and finding out more info about your Hungarian relatives. 🙂
Thanks 🙂 Researching family roots is fun, but hard! Especially if they have common names. For example my mom’s relatives (and their Polish surnames) might not be too hard to find if I know where they lived, but my husband’s ancestors would be nearly impossible, since they have an incredibly common American last name.
That translation is hilarious. I hope you find someone to do a better job than Google. What a cool find.
I posted a translation for another post card that was written in Polish, and Google had about as much success as it did for this one. It’s great for single words, but throw them in a sentence and it all goes downhill. So far noone has stepped forward who speaks Hungarian, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
What a fun family mystery for you to solve. Maybe Google was spot on and this particular relative had a love of the surreal? ;p
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Let me know if you end up posting your Bluebonnet postcard – under W, perhaps, for wildflower?
~Tui
Maybe for T (Texas)! The hardest part of this challenge is picking what to write about. I have at least 4 or 5 options for every letter so far, so I’m trying to paint as broad a picture of my collection as possible. When we get to W, I’ll have to feature something from Poland, since I have quite a few post cards from Warsaw, Wroclaw, or other “W” places. They have text on the back in Polish too, but luckily someone has been able to help me translate those – Hungarian is another story!
the original Hungarian text is the following:
“Kedves Miklós!
Névnapja alkalmából igaz szeretettel kívánunk nagyon jó egészséget, boldogságot. És mindig szerencsével járja élete szép napjait a kedves kis családjával együtt, legyen életük nagyon nagyon boldog!!! Szeretnénk személyesen átnyújtani egy szép csokor magyar rózsát e kedves ünnep alkalmából, de mivel ez nem lehetséges, így milliószor csókoljuk: Mariska néni Jóska bácsi és a gyerekek.”
it is a very polite greeting letter for Miklós’s name day. 😉
Corrected Hungarian:
Kedves Miklós! Névnapja alkalmából igaz szeretettel kívánunk nagyon jó egészséget és boldogságot. És mindig szerencsével járja élete szép napjait, a kedves kis családjával együtt legyen életük nagyon nagyon boldog!!! Szeretnénk személyesen átnyújtani egy szép csokor magyar rózsát a kedves ünnep alkalmából, de mivel ez nem lehetséges így milliószor csókoljuk: Maris néni, Jestia bácsi es a gyerekek.
Translation:
Dear Nicholas! On the occasion of your nameday, with true love we are wishing you the best of health and happiness. And may you tread the days of your life with luck, together with your kind family in happiness. We’d like to present in person a nice bouquet of hungarian roses on this occasion but as it is not possible, we’re sending a million kisses: aunt Maris, uncle Jestia and the children.
Thank you so much for the translation! It does make a lot more sense than my poor garbled attempt via google translate. What a pleasant message!
And on the left side written sideways:
Ilonkát és Évikét is csókoljuk!
We’re sending our kisses to Ilonka and Évike as well!