Freud and the celestial juggernaut includes poems from Iván Kovács’ earliest efforts to the present, mostly in English, but also several poems written in Afrikaans. A selection of translations also appears in this collection, among them the works of Hungarian poets, four poems by NP Van Wyk Louw, and one poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated from the German.
Hungarian-South African Iván Kovács’ active engagement with poetry started in his high school days and has remained with him throughout his life. His poems have appeared in South African literary journals, both in English and Afrikaans, and he has translated several Hungarian poets into English, publishing a selection of them as An anthology of Hungarian verse. He translated a Hungarian novel by Jenő Heltai, The cardsharp and the magician, into English, as well as NP Van Wyk Louw’s Raka from Afrikaans into English. He has also written two non-fiction books on esoteric thought and practice – The path to higher states of consciousness and Pioneers of Tibet.