Gyorgy Szondi refused to take the position of Hungarian Ambassador to Bulgaria in 1990.

"I did not want all those protocol duties, that would get in the way of my work," he said. However, he now finds himself with diplomatic status, obtained through the position of director of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Sofia.

He applied for this position two years ago. "I see that I can be useful at this position with my knowledge." This is what Szondi says drives him in life - to be of use to people. "Before taking this position I used to work to popularize Bulgarian culture in Hungary. Now it's the opposite - I work to popularize Hungarian culture in Bulgaria." He has already done a lot in both directions.

In 1974, he completed his first translation of a Bulgarian work into Hungarian - the novel "Antichrist" by Bulgarian classic writer Emilian Stanev. While translating, Szondi met the author a few times. "He gave me lessons in the Bulgarian national spirit. He became my spiritual father," said the Hungarian scholar.

With that translation, Szondi won the yearly award of the Hungarian Writers Association in 1975. He received the award four more times, all for translations of Bulgarian literature. "Most difficult for translation was a compilation of authors from the period of the Bulgarian Renaissance," he recalled. He has also written scientific studies of the Bulgarian language, contributed to the writing of a textbook of Bulgarian for Hungarians, and even written and published two books of poetry in Bulgarian. At the end of the 1980s, Szondi also became the first foreign critic to write in-depth reviews of new Bulgarian literature.

Among his most loved jobs was the position of editor for Bulgarian literature at Europe, a Hungarian publishing house, from 1980-1990.

"That was time of discoveries, of pioneering," he said. At the publishing house, they used to receive annual lists of Bulgarian books available for translation, and the lists always included only the favourites of the rulers, recalled Szondi. He read their books and found none worthy of translation. Instead, they sought other Bulgarian authors to translate. "We found some true jewels. There were even cases of Bulgarian authors being published in Hungary first, and then in their home country," he said.

He has been working on a book about the history of Bulgarian literature from 1944 until the present day, but in the last five years has had little time to do that. While working as a director of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Sofia, he is following through on a number of other tasks.

Among these is his work as chief adviser at the Hungarian National Library for Foreign Literature, in which he takes great pride. He has been working there, when in Hungary, since 1975.

He also continues working, in his free time, as editor-in-chief of Naput, a Hungarian monthly magazine for literature and culture. He is currently spending most of his extra time working on the next issue, which comes out in about two weeks - it will be dedicated to the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian state. "I am like a horse with blinds," Szondi said. "I know nothing outside the area of Bulgarian and Hungarian literature."

His path to these specialties was the result of many hardships, a lot of hard work, and a hitch-hiking trip to Bulgaria in the summer of 1971.

"I am a child of the [Second World] War," he said. He was born in Austria in 1946, in a camp where his father was a prisoner of war and his mother was a refugee. Only three weeks after his birth, his parents were given the choice, and decided to return home. However, because his father had been an officer in the Hungarian army (an Axis power), once the Soviet Union took over, he was declared an enemy of the state. Although a very intelligent man, he was forced to be a manual labourer for the rest of his life.

For the same reason, Szondi was also tagged an enemy of the state, and in spite of his excellent grades, for some time he was not accepted into any good schools. After high school, he first worked to earn money for his education, at the uranium mines near his hometown Pecs. The pay was good, plus he had time to prepare for the university exam. "This job was a real psychological school - the mines had gathered all kinds of interesting people," he recalled.

When he finally got into university - in Budapest - he started a distance learning course in Hungarian philology and library studies, and again worked to support himself. "I delivered newspapers, and I had to get up at 3am every day," he said.

In a year, he became a regular student and took a course in Bulgarian language. The course grew into a second major, in Bulgarian philology, after his hitch-hiking trip abroad - a very popular thing then among Hungarians. He travelled to Bulgaria to attend a Bulgarian-language course. It took him a week to get from Rousse (on the Danube) to Sofia, because everybody who picked him up in their car insisted he would stay the night at their place. This was followed by a great time in Sofia. "This is when I loved Bulgaria and the Bulgarians," he said.

Bulgarians are different now, explained Szondi. Many are desperate, with no hope for the future. He has felt that in his meetings with ordinary people throughout the country. "During the last academic year, we had 39 events at 25 locations outside Sofia. And this year I even had five days of true vacation, which I spent in the Rhodopes and in the Troyan Balkan.

"Bulgarians, who are hard-working by nature, are not entrepreneurial enough - they still wait for others to do everything for them," Szondi said. "Maybe it's because they are used to the state doing everything for them or maybe it is because they see no use in trying to start anything. The state institutions here do not encourage entrepreneurship enough," he said.