Korniss Péter - Erdős Virág: Courtyards - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)
Some forty days later a raven-like bird came into sight. For long hours it described circles in the lazily rising fog, until utterly exhausted and matted it perched on the shining pin of an aerial. It made little steps to the right, to the left, it watched attentively. And then it disappeared all of a sudden. A tile near the base of the aerial worked loose the same day. It glided noiselessly down the roof, tilted over the eave and with a short and sharp splash entered the water in the basin. And it sank slowly to the bottom. On its way it frightened away tatters of a lace curtain, a cigar stump fallen to leaves and thin peels of plaster-work. On a protruding bough of the mountain ash a glassy brown piece of bacon skin gave a retarded jerk and, together with the string it was attached to, left the branch and fell flat on the wet rectangular granite slabs. A bit farther, in isolated patches, the yellow leaves of yard long grass were swaying like seaweed. When the tile landed flat on the bottom with a gentle thud, a coral red bell-button reeled forth in the whirl of thin mud and fine grains of debris. A shoal of troubled colourful fish, narrow stripes of plastic post box tags swarmed around it. A little later the basin calmed down and the water resumed the look of a motionless, shabby yellow mass. On the surface bits of broomcorn and spots of plumes and crumbs floated. The swollen carcass of a tabby-cat pressed to the pane streaked the water with an auburn pattern, while underneath the eaves the big orange letters of the fire-protection regulations fluttered on the soaked cardboard. In the meantime it started raining again and again, and dill sprinkled in beardlike tufts on the mirroring surface of the water. Some days later, in the lazily rising fog, a dovelike bird came in sight. Cltterly exhausted and matted, it perched on the dimly shining tin roof. It made little steps to the right, to the left, it watched attentively. At length, hardly perceptibly, the water started to ebb - and now it is slowly ebbing away. 28
