Eventually, when I gather my courage to sit down to it, they will become a "book", that is I plan to put them in a folder and also do more. I apologize to those who don't understand Hungarian, please believe me these are really wonderful poems. I have found English translations but they don't always do justice to the originals.
Kihímeztem a legkedvesebb verssoraimat, és illusztráltam is őket. A minták egy része
ingyen minta volt, vagy magyar népi motívum, vagy valamilyen könyvből számazik, néhányat én terveztem (átterveztem).
Here is what I have so far:
Eddig ennyi készült el:
József Attila: Reménytelenül (részlet)
In English:
excerpt from Without Hope by Attila József
Upon a branch of nothingness
my heart sits trembling voicelessly,
and watching, watching, numberless,
the mild stars gather round to see.
(Translated by Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner)
See the whole poem, and some more here:
Nagy László: Ki viszi át a szerelmet
WHO WILL CARRY LOVE OVER by László Nagy
My soul if at last for ever sinks,
who will love the cricket- violins?
Who’ll breath flames on frosty branch?
on rainbows who’ll be forever stretched?
Who will love crying the rock- hips
silently, to become soft lumped fields?
Who’ll coddle, coming out of walls, these
fountains of hair, arteries?
And for ruined believes whose force
will build cathedrals out of curse?
My soul if at last for ever sinks,
who will deter hawks over the seas!
Who will with his teeth, in high tide,
take Love over to the other side!
(Traslation by Peter Szabo)
Well, this next one is not really poetry, it is a Hungarian folk song, the text is what I sang in the alto in the Kodály rendition.
Ez nem igazán költészet, magyar népdal, méghozzá a Kodály feldolgozásnak az alt szólama.
Csokonai Vitéz Mihály: A Reményhez (részlet)
excerpt from To Hope by Mihály Csokonai Vitéz
With jonquil and with daffodil
you planted all my garden,
and introduced a chattering rill
to be my orchard's warden;
you did bestrew my laughing spring
with many a thousand flowers,
the scents of Heaven did you fling
to perfume all its hours;
...
Depart from me, O cruel Hope!
Depart and come no more;
for blinded by your power I grope
along a bitter shore.
...
I see the meadows overcome
with dark consuming blight;
the vocal grove today is dumb;
the sun gives place to night.
(Translated by Watson Kirkconnell)
See the whole poem here:
This is the album I bought to put them in but it still needs a nice cover and I couldn't figure out yet what to stitch on it.
More to follow, watch this place! :D
