János Pilinszky (1921–1981) was a unique and compelling voice among the generation of European poets whose work bore first-hand witness to the horrors of war. The distinction of his poetry, as Ted Hughes argues, is both spiritual and artistic: ‘the desolation of [his] vision is equalled by its radiance’. The depth and power of Pilinszky’s poetry are forcefully recreated in these memorable versions by János Csokits and Ted Hughes. The Desert of Love is a revised edition of their earlier selection of his magnetic, intense and haunting poems.

The added memoir by Pilinszky’s close friend and associate Ágnes Nemes Nagy gives a major living Hungarian poet’s view of his achievement.