Mészáros Tibor (szerk.): Once I lived, I, Sándor Márai. Patterns from a globetrotting Hungarian's life (Budapest, 2004)
Once I lived, I, Sándor Márai
masses...Trades can be learned, but a vocation can only be acquired through complete self-sacrifice... But if one takes a role in the world, then one must give up much that is trivial, the pathos of national consciousness. Hungarians must examine their true state amongst the nations, they must measure their strength." He was widely attacked for this piece, both by teachers and politicians. He wrote Embers in the same year. The novel, which is now world-famous, argues that one can only defend oneself from the world by withdrawing from it. The novel is built on two parallel monologues, and has a dense and enigmatic atmosphere. The originality of its structure lies in the "woodlike" density of its atmosphere: it is not the external actions that count, but the inner mental processes. The Bourgeois of Kosice is a play that raises moral questions. Can a writer identify with his time? Can he fight enemies attacking his homeland? The opening sentence of the play became a watchword and well represents the writer's ideal of patriotism and Europeanness combined: "Always go West. And never forget that you came from the East." He was fiercely criticized by the far-right for articles (largely book reviews and reports) that he had written in 1919 under the left-wing dictatorship of the time. The response he made to these attacks well reflects Máraí's attitude. "I never went either to the extreme left or the extreme right. Rather, I stayed on the road paved for me by my origins and conviction. This is proven by the fact that Radio Moscow - as I heard myself and as an official transcript will prove - in March 1942 fiercely attacked me, by name, for my bourgeois and anti-bolshevist attitudes." In any case, he was made a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in this same year. His 1943 works continue the trend towards deeper introspection, about searching for ways of surviving. The cause of this could have been the serious neuritis that had him in hospital during the first half of the year. Despite his nearly unbroken successes - winning a prize from the Academy - his inner crisis only deepened. His desire to hide is shown by newspaper articles he wrote under the pseudonym Caliban. Book of Herbs is a work written against illness, war and loneliness. Its strength is its aphoristic expression, the diversity of the themes and the apt, wise advise it offers. "Only service, which makes us turn to other people, can give value to life...You are a person, so you must live like a person among people." The final epigram of the book is a confession. MASAI SÁNDOR 14
