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Timeless Nation |
CHAPTER 21
(Prose rendering of the first verse of "Shepherds Dance")
I wish I had woken up sooner. I have just heard the angels voice telling us that Jesus was born in a humble stable. Now I want to go there, hoping to see Little Jesus. Come, dear friend, let us go our old shepherd friend will play the flute. We shall entertain Jesus and Mary while you catch a lamb.
(Recorded in Pest county, Central Hungary).
(Extracts in prose from "Gloria . .")
Gloria in excelsis wake up, shepherds, wake up!
Today your Lord was born in Bethlehem.
You find Him in a humble stable there. . .
(Recorded in Northern Hungary).
(Variant of the carol "Herdsmen. .")
Herdsmen, when in Bethlehem, they were
Tending herds in the night on the fields,
Gods angels appeared before them.
With great fear their hearts grew heavy.
I bring you good news, dont be afraid,
For today was born your Lord and Saviour.
(Recorded in the Jasz district, Great Plain).
(Variant of the carol "Kirje. .")
Kyrie, Kyrie, Little Baby,
Little Prince of Bethlehem,
You became our Saviour,
You have saved us from damnation.
There is no cover on Jesus bed
The poor Dear must be cold!
He has no warm wintercoat,
He has lost His little lamb.
Little Jesus, golden apple,
The Holy Virgins His mother.
She swaddles Him with her own hands
Rocks His cradle with her own feet.
(Recorded in a Great Plain village).
(Variant of "Shepherd ..")
Shepherds, wake up,
Lets go at once
To the town of Bethlehem
To the humble, little stable!
Lets go, lets not tarry,
Lets get there tonight,
To pay our respects to our Lord.
(Recorded in Zala county, Transdanubia).
(From: "A Beautiful Rose):
She could find no shelter in the town,
They will have to stay in the desert,
Oxen and the ass stand around the manger,
They look down on Little Jesus.
if I were your cradle I would rock you gently,
I would not let you catch cold,
I would cover you and look after you,
I would serve you, my Master.
(Recorded in a Great Plain village).
(Another carol with the same theme):
0, if you had been born
In our town, Bicske,
In Hungary you would have found
A warmer home and better people
(Recorded in Komarom county, Transdanubia).
(Extracts from a "Bethlehem play"):
(All): Bethlehem, Bethlehem,
In your vicinity
Mary arrived and went
Into a humble stable.
There she was sitting
Like a forsaken turtle dove,
Making ready for the blessed birth.
(The Angels): Gods Lamb is crying,
There she is who takes pity on Him.
The Holy Mother is rocking Him:
Aye, aye, aye, Jesus, sleep!
(Mary): Dont cry, my sweet,
Thou art my ornament!
Beautiful lullaby they sing,
The heavenly host, aye, aye, aye, sunshine of my soul.
(Joseph): Alas, this manger is very hard,
My dear Son, alas, Thou art cold.
There is no shelter here against cold
Except Saint Josephs cloak.
Aye, aye, aye, Jesus, sleep!
(Recorded in Sopron county, Transdanubia).
Our Gracious Lady,
Great Patron of our nation,
Being in great, dire need,
We address you thus:
Do not forget in her peril
Hungary, our beloved country,
And us, poor Hungarians!
CHAPTER 22
(Extracts from the address given by Louis Kossuth in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1852. He looks back on the achievements of Hungarys freedom struggle in 1848-1849 then appeals for American moral and political support for Hungarys continued struggle to regain her independence)
" In Hungary (before 1848) the people of every race were equally excluded from all political right from any share of constitutional life. The endeavours of myself and my friends for internal improvement for emancipation of the peasantry for the peoples restoration to its natural rights in civil, political, social and religious respects were cramped by the Habsburg policy. But the odium of this cramping was thrown by Austria upon our conservative party: and thus our national force was divided into antagonistic elements.
Besides, the idea of Panslavism and of national rivalries, raised by Russia and fostered by Austria, diverted the excitement of the public mind from the development of common political freedom. And Hungary had no national army. Its regiments were filled with foreign elements and scattered over foreign countries, while our own country was guarded with well disciplined foreign troops. And what was far worse than all this, Hungary, by long illegalities, corrupted in its own character, deprived of its ancient heroic stamp, Germanized in its salons, sapped in its cottages and huts, impressed with the avoidable fatality of Austrian sovereignty and the knowledge of Austrian power, secluded from the attention of the world, which was scarcely aware of its existence, Hungary had no hope in its national future, because it had no consciousness of its strength, and was highly monarchial in its inclinations and generous in its allegiance to the King..."
(This logical, unemotional analysis of the deeper causes of Hungarys defeat in 1848-49 from an address given in English to an American audience compares interestingly with a highly emotional speech given to the Hungarian Parliament in July 1848. On this occasion Kossuth, the Finance Minister of the first Hungarian government, asked for an appropriation to enable the government to set up a national defence force of 200,000 soldiers (Cf. Chapter 19). The following are the introductory and concluding sentences of the speech):
"Gentlemen, in ascending the Tribune to call upon you to save the country, I am oppressed with the greatness of the moment; I feel as if God had placed in my hands the trumpet to arouse the dead, that if sinners and weak, they may relapse into death, but that if the vigour of life is still within them, they may waken to eternity. The fate of the nation at this moment is in your hands; with your decision on the motion which I shall bring forward, God has placed the decision on the life or death of Hungary "
. . (After having explained the need for a strong defence force, he concluded:) ". .. I here solemnly and deliberately demand of this House, a grant of 200,000 soldiers and the necessary pecuniary assistance.
(When Kossuth reached this part of his speech, Paul Nyary, the leader of the opposition, stood up, and raising his right hand, as if in the act of taking an oath, exclaimed: "We grant it . ." As one man the deputies repeated the words of Nyary. Kossuth continued with a voice trembling with emotion):
"(Gentlemen). . . you have all risen to a man, and I bow be fore the generosity of the nation, while I add one more request: let your energy equal your patriotism, and I venture to affirm that even the gates of hell shall not prevail against Hungary "
(Hollister, W.C. "Landmarks " J. Wiley and Sons New York, 1967; Headley: Life of Kossuth, quoted in "Hungary and its Revolutions" by E. 0. S., London, G. Bell, 1896).
CHAPTER 23
(From: S. Petofi: "National Song):
Magyars, up! your country calls you!
Break the chain which now enthralls you.
Freemen be, or slaves for ever.
Choose ye, Magyars, now or never.
For by the Magyars God above
We truly swear
We truly swear the tyrants yoke
No more to bear!
(Tranl. by W. N. Loew, From: "Hungarian Poetry").
"The bush is trembling. . .
The bush is trembling for
A bird alighted upon it,.
My soul is trembling for
You have come into my mind,
My lovely little girl,
Of this world you are
The brightest diamond.
(Transl. by Paul Desney).
(From: "Ill be a tree..."
Ill be a tree if you are its flower,
Or a flower, if you are the dew;
Ill be the dew, if you are the sunbeam,
Only to be united with you.
(Transl. by E. F. Kunz).
(From: "Autumn is here, here again. . .":)
Darling, sit down by my side,
Sit and make no sound,
While my song departs over the lake
Like a whispering wind.
Slowly place your lips to mine,
If kiss me you would deem?
So as not to awaken Nature
And so disturb its dream.
(Transl. by Paul Desney).
("The cottage door. .")
The cottage door stood open wide,
To light my pipe I stepped inside,
But, oh! behold, my pipe was lit,
There was indeed a glow in it.
But since my pipe was all aglow
With other thoughts inside I go,
A gentle winning maiden fair
That I perchance saw sitting there,
Upon her wonted task intent
To stir the fire aflame, she bent;
But, oh! dear heart, her eyes so bright
Were shining with more brilliant light.
She looked at me as in I passed
Some spell she must have on me cast.
My burning pipe went out, but oh!
My sleeping heart was all aglow.
(Transl. by C. H. Wright. From Hungarian Poetry").
(From: "The Hungarian Plaln":)
What, 0 ye wild Carpathians, to me
Are your romantic eyries, bold with pine?
Ye win my admiration, not my love,
Your lofty valleys lure no dream of mine.
Down where the prairies billow like a sea,
Here is my world, my home, my hearts trite fane,
My eagle spirit soars, from chains released,
When I behold the unhorizoned plain.
Upwards I mount in ecstasies of thought
Above the earth, to cloud-heights still more near,
And see, beneath, the image of the plain,
From Danube on to Tisza smiling clear.
Stampeding herds of horses, as they run,
Thunder across the wind with trampling hoof,
As lusty herdsmens whoops resound again
And noisy whips crack out in sharp reproof.
Far, far away, where heaven touches earth,
Blue tree-tops of dim orchards tower higher,
Like some pale fog-bank, and beyond them still
A village church projects a simple spire.
Fair art thou, Alfold, fair at least to me!
Here I was born, and in my cradle lay.
God grant I may be buried neath its sod,
And mix my mouldering cerements with its clay!
(Transl. by W. Kirkconnell. From: "Hungarian Poetry").
(From: "One Thought torments me. . . ":)
One thought torments me: that I lie
Upon a featherbed to die!
Slowly wither, slowly waste away,
Flowerlike, the furtive earthworms prey,
Like a candle slowly to be spent
In an empty, lonely tenement.
My life, let me yield
On the battlefield!
Tis there that the blood of youth shall flow from my heart,
And when, from my lips, last paeans of joy but start,
Let them be drowned in the clatter of steel,
In the roar of the guns, in the trumpet's peal,
And through my still corpse
Shall horse after horse
Full gallop ahead to the victory won,
And there shall I lie to be trampled upon.
(Transl. by E. B. Pierce and E. Delmar).
(From: "Bor the Hero" by J. Arany:).
Shadows of the dying day
On the quiet valley fell, Bor, the Hero rode away
"Sweet and fair one, fare thee well,"
Wind-swept branches stir and strain,
Lo! a lark is singing near,
Bor, the Hero rides amain,
Silent falls the maidens tear,
Whither wends that soaring flight
Darkness mingles earth and sky
"Daughter, haste, thy troth to plight!"
There is none to make reply.
Darkness mingles earth and sky,
Ghostly shapes the forest fill,
There is none to make reply,
"Come!" Tis Bor that whispers still,
Spirit lips a chant intone,
Ghostly whispers stir her mood,
"My dear spouse, 0! mine alone,
Take me wheresoeer you would,"
Near the fane of hoary stone
Gleams a light transcending day,
Spirit lips a chant intone,
Festal robes the priest array.
With a light transcending day,
Ruined aisle and altar shine,
Festal robes the priest array,
"Now, Beloved, thou art mine."
Darkness mingles earth and sky
Hark! frightened owlet cried!
Cold in death, the altar nigh,
Lay the young and lovely bride.
(Transl. by C. H. Wright. From: "Hungarian Poetry").
(From: "The Bards of Wales":)
Edward the king, the English king,
Bestrides his tawny steed,
"For I will see if Wales" said he,
"Accepts my rule indeed."
"In truth this Wales, Sire, is a gem,
The fairest in thy crown:
The stream and field rich harvest yield,
And fair are dale and down."
"And all the wretched people there
Are calm as man could crave;
Their hovels stand throughout the land
As silent as the grave."
Edward the king, the English king,
Bestrides his tawny steed;
A silence deep his subjects keep
And Wales is mute indeed.
The castle named Montgomery
Ends the days journeying;
The castles lord, Montgomery,
Must entertain the king.
"Ye lords, ye lords, will none consent
His glass with mine to ring?
What! Each one fails, ye dogs of Wales,
To toast the English king?"
All voices cease in soundless peace,
All breathe in silent pain;
Then at the door a harper hoar
Comes in with grave disdain:
"Harsh weapons clash and hauberks crash,
And sunset sees us bleed,
The crow and wolf our dead engulf
This, Edward, is thy deed!"
"Now let him perish! I must have"
(The monarchs voice is hard)
"Your softest songs, and not your wrongs!"
In steps a boyish bard:
"The breeze is soft at eve, that oft
From Milford Haven moans;
It whispers maidens stifled cries,
It breathes of widows groans.
Ye maidens bear no captive babes!
Ye mothers rear them not!"
The fierce king nods. The lad is seizd
And hurried from the spot.
"No more! Enough!" cries out the king.
In rage his orders break:
"Seek though these vales all bards of Wales
And burn them at the stake!"
in martyrship, with song on lip,
Five hundred Welsh bards died;
Not one was movd to say he lovd
The tyrant in his pride.
"Ods blood! What songs this night resound
Upon our London streets?
The mayor should feel my irate heel
If aught that sound repeats!"
Each voice is hushd; through silent lanes
To silent homes they creep.
"Now dies the hound that makes a sound,
The sick king cannot sleep."
"Ha! Bring me fife, drum and horn,
And let the trumpet blare!
In ceaseless hum their curses come
I see their dead eyes glare.
But high above all drum and fife
And trumpets shrill debate,
Five hundred martyrd voices chant
Their hymn of deathless hate.
(Transl. by W. Kirkconnell. From: "Hungarian Poetry").
(From: "The Death of Buda", Canto Six: The Legend of the Wonder Hind").
The bird flies on from bough to bough;
The song is passd from lip to lip;
Green grass grows oer old heroes now,
But song revives their fellowship.
Across the waste now faintly come
The sounds of distant fife and drum;
In darksome loneliness they seem
Like heavenly music in a dream.
Here mystic state the fairies keep,
Along the wilderness they dance,
Or neath the cloudy vapour sleep,
And revel in the vast expanse.
No man is near, but there are seen
Earths maids of fair and noble mien;
The daughters of Belar and Dul,
Apt students in the fairy school.
A test severe they must endure,
Must hold enslavd in amorous chains,
To hapless fate nine youths allure;
While fancy-free each maid remains.
Tis thus they learn the fairy art,
To yield false hopes heart-piercing dart;
Each eve recount the feats of day,
Then dance the darksome hours away.
(Transl. by F. D. Butler. From: "Hungarian Poetry").
(From: "I lay the lute down " )
0 my orphaned song, what thing art thou?
Perhaps the spectre of departed lays
That issues from the tomb with pallid brow
To whisper down the graveyards grassy ways?.
Art thou a coffin garlanded with flowers?
A cry of anguish in a wilderness?
Youth of my soul, bereft of golden hours,
Ah, whither hast thou strayd in thy distress!
I lay the poets lute down. Dull as lead,
It irks the hand. And who still asks for song?
Who can rejoice in flowers that are dead?
Who seeks their mouldering fragrance to prolong?
If men destroy the tree, the bloom it bore
In shrivelling beauty perishes anon.
Youth of my soul, returning nevermore,
Ah, whither, tell me, whither hast thou gone!
(Transl. by W. Kirkconnell. From: "Hungarian Poetry").
(Extracts from I. Madach: "The Tragedy of Man").
(Scene One:)
Lucifer (to God):
A corner is all I need,
Enough to afford a foothold for Negation,
Whereon to raise what will destroy
Thy World
(Scene Three:) (Adam and Eve have just been expelled from Paradise)
Eve (to A dam): I am making such an arbour
As we had before, and so can conjure up
The Eden we have lost
(Scene Eleven: Eve looks at a grave:)
Eve: Why dost thou yawn before my feet, grim Death?
Dost thou believe I fear thine awful gloom?
The dust of Earth is thine. But not the breath
Of radiant life. Ill shine beyond the tomb!
While Love and Poetry and Youth endure,
Upon my homeward way I still will go.
My smile alone the ills of Earth can cure
(Scene Thirteen: Adam, though disgusted with the frustrations of mankind, realises that he has a task to perform:)
Adam: Though Science may redeem the Earth, in time
It too will pass away, like everything
Which has fulfilled its end. But the Idea
Which gave it life, again will rise triumphant.
(Scene Fifteen: Adam, having seen in his dream the tragedies and frustrations of human history, decides to prevent it all by committing suicide:)
Adam: Before me is that cliff below the gulf.
One jump, the last act, the curtain comes down,
And I say: the comedy has ended
Eve; . . . I am a mother, Adam
(Adam falls upon his knees and turns to the Lord again, but he still fears for the future:)
Adam: . . . My heart on high Ill set!
But, ah, the end! If that I could forget
The Lord: Man, I have spoken! Strive and unfalteringly, trust!
(Transl. by C. P. Sanger. From: Madach: "The Tragedy of Man", Ed. Pannonia, Sydney, 1953)
("ln Twenty Years", by Janos Vajda).
Like the ice that caps the peak of Montblanc,
That neither sun nor wind can warm, My quiet heart does no longer burn No new suffering can do it harm.
Around me the stars in their millions
Winking lead me on as they revolve
Scattering over my head their shine;
Even so, still l will not dissolve.
But sometimes on a quiet, quiet evening
As I slide alone into my dreams
Upon the enchanted lake of youth
Your swan-like form appears.
And when the rising sun arrives
Then my heart is again alight
Like Montblancs eternal snows
After a long winters night.
(Transl. by Paul Desney).
(From the last chapter of "The Dark Diamonds" by M. Jokai: Ivan, the owner of a coal-mine, finds the girl of his dreams working in his coal-mine)
The girl stood still on top of the coal. . . The next moment Ivan was at her side
"You are here! You have come back here!"
"I have been here, sir, for almost a year, and if you will keep me on, I should like to stay."
"You can stay, but only on one condition as my wife" cried lvan, pressing her hand to his heart.
Evila shook her head, and drew away her hand. "No, no. Let me be your servant, a maid in your house, your wifes maid. I shall be quite happy; l want nothing more . . . if you knew all, you would never forgive me."
"I know everything, and I can forgive everything."
His words proved that Ivan knew nothing. If he had known the truth, he would have known that there was nothing, nothing to forgive. As it was, he pressed his love to his heart, while she murmured:
You may forgive me, but the world will never pardon you."
"The world!" cried Ivan, raising his head proudly. "My world is here," laying his hand on his breast. "The World! Look around from this hill. Everything in this valley owes its life to me; every blade of grass has to thank me that it is now green. Hill and valley know that, with Gods help, I have saved them from destruction! I have made a million, and I have not ruined any one.. My name is known all over the world, and yet I have hidden myself here, not to be troubled with their praises."
"Oh, sir," she whispered, "if l do not die, I shall always love you, but I feel that I shall die."
As she spoke she fell back in a faint. Her brilliant colour faded to a wax pallor, her flashing eyes closed; and her body, which a moment before was like a blooming rose, crumpled lifeless, like an autumn leaf.
Ivan held her lifeless body in his arms.
The woman whom he had loved for so long, for whom he had suffered so much, was his, just as her pulse ceased to beat, just as she said: "I shall always love you, but I feel that l shall die."
But she did not die.
A diamond is a diamond for ever.
(Transl. by F. Gerard. From: "The Dark Diamonds". Corvina Press, Budapest, 1968).
(From: K. Mikszaths novelette, "The Gentry": a Budapest journalist has been a guest at a wedding attended by Hungarian-Slovak gentry in the northern county Saros. After the wedding he asks his friend about the luxury and pomp displayed by the guests)
"And those four-in-hands," I exclaimed, "the pomp, the splendour and brilliance, the Havana cigars and everything, everything?"
"So much eyewash. The four-in-hands were borrowed from one place; the trappings here, the first pair of horses there, the second pair from another place. "
"But this is sheer deceit!"
"Poppycock," Bagozy interrupted passionately. "Who would be deceived? Everyone knows that the other hasnt got four horses. These good boys, myself included, simply keep up fornm. . . beautiful, ancient form. Why, all this is so charming. . . This is the custom with us and customs must be respected at all costs. . . But as regards the merits of the case, even if the brilliance and pomp, the splendour and liveliness, the refined and easy manners, the joviality and aristocratic airs. . . the horses, the silver cutlery dont belong to one or the other. . . by all means they belong to somebody to all of us. These things happen to be scattered among us and whose business is it if, on certain occasions, we artificially pool them on one spot?.
(Transl. by L. Halapy. From: "Hungarian Short Stories", Oxford Uni. Press, London, and Corvina, Budapest, 1967).
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Timeless Nation |