Arany János - Győrei Zsolt (szerk.): The trill of the nightingale (Budapest, 2019)

I - „And when he bores he starts anew” - The Captive Stork (Thomas Cooper)

When autumn comes to hill and dell,

The storks have all long bid farewell,

Save one, who’s left alone to dwell.

His wings once proud Are fetters now,

Which chain him to his prison cell.

The cranes have not departed, true, but soon they take their farewell too.

He wont glance skyward, still he hears Their calls, their trills Across the hills,

Notes too familiar to his ears.

A time or two he’s made a try To spread his crippled wings and fly

And they would lift him, skyward borne He’d rise once more,

Take flight and soar,

Had not they been so cruelly shorn!

Were you to wait the winter through,

Your feathers would not grow anew,

Poor stork, and if they grew once more Ill-hearted men Would come again

And clip them as they did before.

12

13