Conditions for Participation in the International Poems’ Competition

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birthday of the great Hungarian poet, Sándor Petőfi in 2023, a Poems Competition dedicated to this meaningful anniversary will be organized in cooperation of the International Organization of Turkic Culture TURKSOY with the Lekitelek Public Highschool of Hungary.

1. The fundamental condition for each contestant to participate in the competition is to translate Petőfi’s short but deeply meaningful poem entitled “Freedom and Love” (Szabadság szerelem) and be able to translate at least one other poem by the famous poet into his/her mother tongue.
2. Sándor Petőfi’s poems have been translated into Russian, Turkish, English, and French amongst others. If they wish, candidates may either make use of these existing translations or directly rely on the original Hungarian version thereof to translate the poem into their own mother tongue.
3. The competition is open for participation for both, professional as well as amateur poets from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan. There is no age limit imposed to candidates willing to participate in the competition.
4. Only one participant from each country will win the Grand Prix of the competition.
5. The Grand Prix awarded to the winner of each participating country will be 2000 (two thousand) US Dollars.
6. The deadline for applications to participate in the competition is December 16^th, 2022.
7. Names of Prize Winners of the competition will be announced to the public on January 20^th, 2023.
8. Prizes will be handed over to their winners on March 15^th, 2023 in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Prize winning poets will be hosted in Budapest by the Organizing Committee of the competition

Contestants are kindly requested to translate the poems refered to above and send their translations as a “Microsoft Word” document to petofiturk@gmail.com by December 16^th, 2022 the latest. Please note that documents sent later than this date will not be accepted.  

Poems’ translations submitted for participation in the competition will be examined by the Experts’ Commission which will be set together under the auspices of the Authors’ Union  and select the prize winning translations. One diplomat in charge of cultural affairs from each Embassy of Hungary in the countries concerned will be included in the afore-mentioned Experts’ Commission.

We wish the best of success to all candidates who will participate in the competition refered to in the above which we will be holding in commemoration of the famous Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi.