# Iron/Wass Age



## Fabio Flavio

Hello friends!

I am still struggling with the text of that interesting book titled "The Exile and Return of Writers from East-Central Europe" by John Neubauer, Borbála Zsuzsanna Török (Eds.), A Compendium,  De Gruyter, 2009 Berlin.

Mind you, the work I am reading is an English translation of the German original.

The text I am having difficulties trying to understand is this (page 571):

"Hence, Bálint Ablonczy rightly speaks in an interview with Márkus of a "Wass-korszak" (Iron/Wass Age) that starts with the startling survey. "

The background of this is: back in Hungary a survey was done with television-voting, which placed 3 novels written by Albert Wass among the top one hundred works ever written. 

Then comes up this (probably Hungarian) expression: "Wass-korszak" which is shown in the text as this puzzling "Iron/Wass Age"). 

I am inclined to think that this should mean "Wass´ Iron Age", but this is hardly clarifying as well. 

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

Fabio


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## Cagey

I think the Hungarian forum would be better equipped to explain the meaning of the Hungarian expression.

It is difficult for an English speaker to comment on it, as we don't know what it means.

(I could move this to the Hungarian forum for you, if you wish.)


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## entangledbank

The Hungarian for 'iron' is _vas_ in modern spelling, so Wass is an old or Germanized spelling of it. It's a pun in Hungarian, not in English.


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## Fabio Flavio

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for your comments, which were quite helpfull. 
I guess that the meaning of the expression is that "this is the time for Wass", meaning that he is enjoying a lot of popularity in Hungary. 

Thank you very much!

Kind regards,

Fabio


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## GreenWhiteBlue

Fabio, you are missing the point: apparently, in Hungarian the term for the historical era called "the Iron Age" seems to be pronounced in much the same way as you would say "The Age of (Albert) Wass".  Thus, it is a pun in Hungarian -- but not in English.


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## Fabio Flavio

Dear friend,

You are certainly right. Difficult to find an equivalent pun in another language, isn´t it?

thank you for your reply!

Kind regards

Fabio


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## Zsanna

GreenWhiteBlue said:


> Fabio, you are missing the point: apparently, in Hungarian the term for the historical era called "the Iron Age" seems to be pronounced in much the same way as you would say "The Age of (Albert) Wass". Thus, it is a pun in Hungarian -- but not in English.


 
I can confirm this.
I cannot say it would be a well known/widely used term/pun before some research.


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## francisgranada

Fabio Flavio said:


> ... Difficult to find an equivalent pun in another language, isn´t it? ...


An exact equivalent would be, of course, difficult to find ... But we can invent one for illustration, e.g. in Portuguese.

Let's suppose, that once upon a time, there lived a Brasilian writer whose name was _Alberto Ferro Pereira de Moraes_. Now let's say, we are speaking about him and we call (figuratively) the period, when he was popular or important for some reasons, as "_idade do Ferro_" ... (the "Iron Age" or the "Age of [Alberto] Ferro") 

(_Alberto Ferro Pereira de Moraes_ has probably never existed ... it's only an example of mine ...)


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## Fabio Flavio

Dear Friends,

I thank you very much for your kind replies and the time you´ve taken to help me out.

Your explanations have confirmed my assumption that basically (if we abstract the pun, which is indeed nearly impossible to be reproduced in another language) the idea was to say that "it was Wass´s time".

Once again, thank you very much!

Kindest regards,

Fabio


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## Fabio Flavio

Hello Zsanna! 

I am very happy with your contact. And your explanations, and help, which have been very useful for me.

Thank you!


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## Ateesh6800

Fabio Flavio said:


> *I guess that the meaning of the expression is that "this is the time for Wass", meaning that he is enjoying a lot of popularity in Hungary.*



_This is it._ The message is that _"Wass is getting popular and may experience a revival"_. In fact, he has dozens of new public sculptures all over Hungary and Transylvania.

The term *Wass-korszak* is indeed a pun on *vaskorszak* (_iron age_); the two are expressed exactly the same way.

This is much the same technique as is used by rapper *Chino XL* in this verse:

*"(I) studied more Shakespeare than any African shakes a spear at..."*

It's just being witty by using the etymology of the name *Wass* (_vas_) and *Shakespeare *(_shake + spear_). It does not necessarily mean that the historical iron age has anything to do with Wass or that Shakespeare has anything to do with spears. But it's witty and entertaining. 

There is one twist to it, though: "korszak" is often used with leading political figures like "Horthy-korszak", "Kádár-korszak", "Ratkó-korszak", etc. So using the term "Wass-korszak" is, on the one hand, a pun; on the other hand, it resonates with people in the sense that although he was persecuted by political powers in, e.g., the Ceaucescu-korszak, his time has now come. That could be called Wass-korszak, even though we rarely use "korszak" with poets or literary figures.

*A.*


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## Fabio Flavio

Hello Ateesh6800!

Thank you so much for your quite interesting explanation!
Kindest regards,

Fabio


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