Calvin Synod Herald, 1973 (73. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1973-08-01 / 8-9. szám

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CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

With mute embarce he came, not with a trumpet-call of fright.

He came not in the blaze of noon but in tumultous night.

These eyes that were so vain are blind. My youth was ceased to be, but him, the radiant I behold for all eternity.

Finally The Hymn of Love. This is a paraphrase of 1 Corinthian 13, the melody is from the csángók, the easternmost tribe of Hungarians, a folk-song, written for the concert stage by Dezső Keresztury and Tamás Bárdos.

Andrew Hamza --------------------------------------SÁNDOR PETŐFI —POET FOR EVERYMAN

Hungarians all over the world are celebrating this year the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sándor Petőfi (1823-1849), national hero and the most popular writer in the 700-year history of Hungarian letters. To mark the important occasion, the Hungarian Cultural Foundation (P.O. Box 364, Stone Mountain, Ga. 30083) has published a 350-page book on the writer, comprising an introductory study and English versions of his poetry and prose by Anton N. Nyerges. It is the most extensive work of its kind available in English.

Sándor Petőfi is still a well-loved name 150 years after his birth because his works express in the language of the people the fondest social and political desires of their hearts. This is well illustrated by a poem entitled The 19tli Century Poets:

When everyone alike can share in the basket of abundance, when everyone alike has a place at the table of human rights, when the light of the intellect shines in the window of every home, then we can say — stand still, for this is now the Canaan.

The translator writes in his Introduction: “Petőfi is the seed of his people’s continuity, and his works are the portable means of their integrity and identity. He is the poet of revelation, who holds engagement in the batttle against the forces of evil and oppression as the way to truth. At the calm center is The Being, and on earth a happy family life.”

Some of his loveliest lines on family life are from The Winter Nights:

Let him bless God who is blessed himself with a happy family and a cheerful home. What happiness now in a good warm room and in that room a friendly group.

Now everyone’s house is a fairy palace when there is wood to lay on the fire, and words that commonly float on air now settle in the very seat of the heart.

And some of his most striking lines on The Being are from the messianic narrative poem — The Apostle:

He passed illions of stars and reached . . . and reached . . . not the limit of infinity but the center.

And he stood before the Being

who governs the worlds

with a glance,

whose essence is light

and in the radiance of whose eyes

planets and moons revolve around the suns.

Petőfi’s best-loved poems are on the theme of love. He died on a battlefield of Transylvania at the age of 26 years leaving behind a wife and small son. One of the most popular of his love lyrics begins as follows:

There’s a tremor of the twig when a humming bird alights, there’s a tremor of the soul when the memory of you lights.