Fraternity-Testvériség, 1955 (33. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1955-10-01 / 10. szám
14 TESTVEKISÉG THREE HUNQARIAN POETS BÁLINT BALASSA (1554—1594) By JOSEPH REMÉNYI Professor of Comparative Literature Western Reserve University (Continuation) What seems unreasonable in the retrospect (and history often seems so) was the only “reasonable” awareness of a sixteenth century Hungarian; what seems inhuman today, was then inhuman too, but to fight for its end was taken as a worthy cause. One can listen abstractly and perhaps impatiently to the stories of warfare, but for those to whom it was more than an impending danger, in fact a choice between life and death, it was impossible to ignore the paralyzing consequences of desolation and destitution. Balassa was able to voice delicate emotions. It must be stressed, however, that in a country in which there seemed little hope, life became an equivalent of the vicissitudes of war. He wrote and acted in accordance with this view. The poet was young, and in the search for happiness he sought to find it on the battlefield. Such an attitude explains his “Soldier song”:18 Soldiers! What men could be More blest on earth than we Here in the frontier command? For in the pleasant spring Merrily songbirds sing, Gaily on every hand! Sweet is the meadow rose, Sweet dew the sky bestows; What men know life like our band! News of the foe’s advance Makes all our pulses dance, Warms all our veins for the fray! Often for mere delight Comrades with comrades fight, Testing their strength in their play; He who, though wonded, still Smites with a hearty will, He is a hero, we say. Stern are the rules we use, Gladly our code we choose, Stark are the paths that we tread: Bloody the fierce attack; Wounded we give not back, Many a comrade lies dead. Oft is a man interr’d Only in maw of bird, Left to the vulture to shred. 18 Watson Kirkconnell, op. cit., pp. 35-36. 0 ye young warriors, Loyal from cap to spurs, Glorious band of the bold: Surely your noble name Growing in ample fame All the world over is told! God make you resolute, Rich as a branch with fruit, Ever your valor uphold! Balassa at times seems like an eagle circling over the battlefield, then again like a songbird stabbed by the pain and plight of man. He took hold of his material with the sure grasp of a poet; it is first of all this ability of his which accounts for his fame in Hungarian literature. If omission and selection are among the chief criteria of poetic art, Balassa exemplifies the validity of this principle. He wrote a drama, based on a play by Cristoforo Casteletti Ama- rilii; fragments remain, but they do not suggest dramatic talent. Besides Latin, he knew Italian, and had a working knowledge of German. His stanzaic ingenuity is proved by his being the originator of a strophe, named after him; it consists of nine lines of six or seven syllables, having two accents. The third, sixth and ninth lines rhyme with each other, while the other lines rhyme like closed couplets. His secular poems were first published in 1879 by Aron Szilády, with his introduction and annotations, under the title: Gyarmathi Balassa Bálint költeményei (The Poems of Valentine Balassa de Gyarmath). Among the disciples of his devotional poetry, besides Albert Szenczi Molnár, János Rimay, Péter Be- niczky, Miklós Zrínyi and László Amadé should be mentioned. Some were contemporaries, others lived in later centuries. Balassa’s recognition came in the nineteenth century. Several complete editions of his works have been published since then. Ferenc Kölcsey, the author of the Hungarian national anthem, paid him tribute in verse. Noted Hungarian critics and literary historians, such as Ferenc Toldy, Cyrill Horváth, Zsolt Beöthy, Károly Széchy, Lajos Dézsi, Albert Kardos, Sándor Eckhardt, György Király, Zsolt Alszeghy, Béla Zolnai and József Turóczi-Trostler, appraised his poetry with critical discrimination. Gyula Németh, the philologist and oriental scholar, drew an interesting parallel between Balassa’s poetry and Turkish poetry. There is a biography of Balassa by Pál Erdélyi. A few of his poems are translated into English, Italian and German, but he still awaits discovery by foreign critics and readers. IV. The Hungarian language (the best earlier poets such as János Csezmiczei, whose pen-name was Janus Pannonius, wrote in Latin) found in Balassa a gifted exponent. Through his poetry
