Magyar Hírek, 1984 (37. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)
1984-09-15 / 18-19. szám
ATTILA JÓZSEF By the Danube I. On the bottom step that from the wharf descends I sat, and watched a melon-rind float by. I hardly heard wrapped in my destined ends, To surface chat the silent depth reply. As if it flowed from my own heart in spate, Wise was the Danube, turbulent and great. Like a man's muscles bending at his toil, Hammering pitching, leaning on the spade, aSo bulged and then contracted in recoil Each wave that rippling in the current played. It rocked me like my mother, told me a wealth Of tales, and washed cmt all the city's filth. And drops of rain began to fall, but then, As though their fall, had no effect, they stopped. Yet still, like one who stayed at the long rain Out of a cave, my gaze I never dropped Below the horizon. Endlessly to waste, Drably like rain fell all bright things, the past. The Danube just flowed on. And playfully The ripples laughed at me as I reclined, A child on his prolific mother’s knee Resting, while other thoughts engaged her mind. They trembled in time’s flow and in its wake As tottering tombstones in a graveyard shake. II. I am he who has gazed a hundred thousand years On that which he now sees for the first time. One moment, and fulfilled all time appears In a hundred thousand forbears eyes and mine. I see what they could not because they must Drag hoes, kill and embrace, for this enrolled, And they, who have descended itUo dust See what I do not, if the truth be told. We know each other as sorrow and delight. I, in the past, they in the present live. They hold the pencil in the poem I write. I feel them and evoke what they now give. III. My mother was Cumanian, and half Szekler My father half Rumanian or entire. The nurture from my mother’s mouth was nectar ~ And from my father’s lips the truth was pure. When / stir, they embrace. Then, soon or late, This makes me sad. This is mortality. Of this I am made. Such words as these, just wait Until we are no more—they speak to me. They speak to me, for now I am they, robust Despite whatever weakness marie me frail, And I think back that I am more than most: Each ancestor am I, to the first cell. I am the Forbear split and multiplied To make my father and my mother whole; My father and mother then in turn divide, and so I am made one, a single soul. I am the world; all that is past exists; Where nations hurl themselves against each other, With me in death the conqueror's victory lasts, In me the anguish gnaws of those they smother. Árpád, Zalán, Werbőczy, Dózsa, Turks, Tartars, Rumanians, Slovaks, storm this heart. If in great depths a quiet future lurks, It owes the past, to-day’s Hungarians, part. I ward to work. Enough of conflict goes Into that need which must confess the past. The Danube’s tender ripples which compose Past, present, future, hold each other fast. The battle which our ancestors once fought Through recollection is resolved in peace, And settling at long last the price of thought, This is our task, and none too short its lease. Translated by VERNON WATKINS The part played by Hungarians in scientific and technical progress ARCHEOLOGICAL" FINDS IN A TROLLEY A cousin of my mother, Károly Ballai was a man of many colours; he was an historian, and a writer, but he also acted as secretary, and later general secretary, of the trade-association of Budapest hoteliers and licenced victuallers. When he died in 1947, an old trolley was left in his place, that defied any attempts at opening it. His daughter-inlaw decided to get rid of this rickety piece of furniture last year but her son found it too heavy, something clattered in it, so he broke it open. A marvellous treasure came to light from its depths. Well, neither gold, nor silver, but time-yellowed, old documents. For instance the very first set of books of the Gundel firm for the years 1869 — 77, with the hand-writing of my grandfather, János Gundel. There was also his naturalization certificate, his last will and testament in his own hand-writing, and a dayrecord of the Viennese Beer House in old Király utca, the first restaurant of the Gundel dynasty, showing the quantities and prices of meals served that day, a menu of the Municipal Concert Hall from 1877, a wine-card of the Hotel Archduke Stefan from 1896, two admission tickets to the 1867 coronation of Francis Joseph, and many other things. János Gundel leased the Hotel Archduke Stefan in Budapest between 1889 and 1904. The old building still stands opposite the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It offered a home in the capital city to Ferenc Deák, in his day, and also to Lajos Kossuth’s mother during the Revolution. In 1848 this hotel housed the ministries of justice, industry, commerce, and agriculture. One of its rooms was a Honvéd army recruiting office, Sándor Petőfi volunteered there. This is how Kálmán Mikszáth described the Archduke Stefan (mentioning himself by his family name): “Gypsies were not there to continually scrape their fiddles, so those, who wanted to talk went to the Archduke Stefan in the evening . . . The only time there was more din when the academicians, or the Kisfaludy Society, held their banquets. Companies of earnest scholars, elderly gentlemen grown sick of revelry, used to sip Gundel’s famous wines there . . . One of the most interesting relics is the ‘Mikszáth room’. It had been the gathering place of a highly cohesive, liberal political clique, which dined there each day for almost a decade. Gundel had the place built for Mikszáth and his company. It consisted of three nice, pleasant bays. The walls were decorated with pictures of characters of Mikszáth’s works, and a portrait of Mikszáth . . . Almost every noted figure of our public life frequented the room, but the conversation was usually dominated by Dezső Szilágyi. Kálmán Tisza, János Kemény and Mór Jókai often dined here. Klapka, who lived in the hotel, and died there also, often came in before the debates on the church and state issue.” Two menus of this famous hotel survived, one dated 1890, and the other 1891. Although my father, Károly Gundel, published a page in his book, The Art of Hospitality, who would have thought that the original would turn up? In spite of the then still rudimentary refrigeration technology, the menu offered oysters and pineapple parfait, ten kinds of fresh water and sea fish, followed by hare, wild-boar, deer, grouse, pheasant, partridge, snipe, quail and 16 varieties of cheese. But I rather stop listing them, 1 had my fill even reading them. I.MRE GUNDEL Zsigmond Kisfaludy Strobl; Portrait of Károly Gundel (Courtesy Museum of Commerce and Catering, Budapest) A symposium arranged by the World Federation of Hungarians, The Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Federation of Technical and Scientific Societies Hungarian professionals in general, have made outstanding contributions to the progress in science and technology. Scientists and engineers in Hungary today are well aware of these thanks to the international exchange of information, and are proud of the significant achievements of their one-time compatriots abroad. Similarly, Hungarians abroad have shown a keen interest in Hungary’s scientific and technological progress, as well as in the achievements and the working conditions of their Hungarian colleagues. This gave rise to a demand, that has already been voiced by several people both in Hungary and abroad, that a forum be established in Hungary to help strengthen the ties of mutual interest. Motivated by bilateral professional and human interests, the World Federation of Hungarians, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Federation of Technical and Scient ific Societies decided to organize a Conference in Budapest on: “The role of Hungarians in the scientific and technical progress.” The Conference is planned for August 4-9th, 1986. In order to provide facilities consistent with the quality and the professional standard of the event, the premises of the Technical University of Budapest (Budapest Institute of Technology) have been selected to house it. Participants will be given the opportunity to express their views and present their work and results in their respective professional and scientific fields by putting up posters or possibly giving lectures. At the same time the Organizing Committee will arrange an exhibition of instruments, products and technical publications, also at the Technical University of Budapest. In addition to other printed matter, a publication including reprint of the posters on display and of the lectures will be issued to give an overall picture of the Conference. Further details will be provided at a later date. The attendance fee for the conference will be US S 150, covering the usual personal costs and incidentals throughout the event (reception, invitation cards, posters and publications). The organizers of the Conference hope that this initiative will find a favourable response and that the Conference will be a first and popular forum for Hungarian scientists and engineers. Intending participants should notify MTESZ Organizing Bureau H-1055 Budapest Kossuth tér 6-8, Hungary 63
