Bratislava, December 14, 2019
The bestselling Slovak writer Jozef Banáš, whose books have been published in 13 languages, now ranks himself among translators. The largest Slovak publishing house Ikar has presented his translation of the essay Before The Storm written by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig. Slovakia is thus the first country beside Zweig’s home country Austria where this still rather unknown essay has been published. The Austrian journalist Franz Eder has introduced the book to the present audience. „As if Jozef Banáš has sensed that the time is ripe to spread these warning words. It seems symptomatic that the great humanist Zweig himself succumbed to war chasing and became part of it. To translate such a complicated language as Zweig’s is a master work. One needs to congratulate on this Jozef Banáš.”
Stefan Zweig wrote the essay originally titled Vor dem Sturm in 1915 and it was published more than 100 years later by the Austrian publishing house Edition Roesner in Krems in 2018. Jozef BBaáš found this text while doing research for his novel about Milan Rastislav Štefánik „I Shall Prevail”. „They were peers. Zweig supported the monarchy while Štefánik fought for its disintegration. The essay shows clearly that the two had totally different opinions on many of the events which in the end led to World War I, mainly on the status of Slavic nations in the monarchy,“ says the bestselling author whose books can be bought in German, Czech, Polish, Ukrainian and Hindi languages.
„Having read the essay Vor dem Sturm it was clear to me that I had to translate it. This text is a warning. With concern I realised that it was mainly the German and Austro-Hungarian media whose anti Slavic and anti Russian engagement led to World War I”, says Jozef Banáš.