Fraternity-Testvériség, 1952 (30. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1952-12-01 / 12. szám

TESTVÉRISÉG

9

In the active March days of 1848, which had their counterpart in western Europe as a reaction to the Holy Alliance, Petofi’s public significance grew. He and his friends met in Café Pilvax in Pest where they discussed everything under the sun, but chiefly what steps should be taken to free Hungary from the Austrian yoke. On the fateful day of March 15th, standing on the steps of the National Museum, in the presence of a huge crowd, Petőfi declaimed his stirring poem, “Talpra Magyar” (Rise, Magyar), which was the first printed document in Hungary to reach the public without the imprimatur of the censor. He became more and more involved in the struggle for liberation; the fiery oratory of Lajos Kossuth, the political leader of the nation, and Petofi’s poems accomplished wonders in awakening the people to their rights. But in his search for truth and justice well before these critical days, Petőfi had his forebodings. His poem, “Egy gondolat bánt engemet” (One thought torments me), was written in 1847, and it is generally considered as his testament to humanity.22

One thought torments me: that I lie Upon a featherbed to die!

Slowly wither, slowly waste away,

Flo wer like, the furtive earthworm’s prey;

Like a candle slowly to be spent In an empty, lonely tenement.

No death like this, my Lord Divine,

No death like this, be ever mine!

Let me be a tree through which the lightning flashes, Or the tempest plucks up the roots and smashes;

Let me be a rock from mountain rent asunder. Hurtled to the gorge by skyearthshaking thunder .. . When once they rise, all fettered folk Who’ve had enough of chain and yoke,

With faces red and banners red, in line Emblazoned there this sacred countersign:

“World Liberty!”

Exultantly,

Their exultations ring from East to West,

When tyrants come to battle with their best;

My life, let me yield On the battlefield!

’Tis there that the blood of youth shall flow from my heart,

And when, from my lips, last paeans of joy but start, Let them be drowned in the clatter of steel,

In the roar of the guns, in the trumpet’s peal,

And through my still corpse

Shall horse after horse

Full gallop ahead to the victory won,

And there shall I lie to be trampelled upon.—

’Tis there they shall gather my scattered bones, When once the great day of burial comes ...

With solemn, muffled drumbeats for the dead,

With sableshrouded banners borned ahead,

One grave for all the brave who died for thee,

O sacrosanct World Liberty!

There is a wealth of data concerning Petőfi, and the sources used in this essay are but a

22 Sixty Poems by Alexander Petőfi. Translated by E. B. Pierce and E. Delmár. With an introduction by Joseph Reményi. Budapest-New York. 1948, pp, 30.

small part. Since his death much has been written about him in Hungary and abroad, and various editions of his works have been published. By the turn of the century a million copies of his poems were sold. This was an unheard of occurrence in the publication of Hungarian poetry. Statues of him were erected in Budapest, Segesvár, Pozsony and Miskolc; there is a bust of Petőfi in the Cleveland Public Library and one in a public garden in Buffalo. In Italy, in the city of Rimini, there is a Petőfi street. A literary society of Hungarian national importance, the Petőfi Társaság, was named for him. Mór Jókai was its first president. Edited by Sándor Endrődi and Zoltán Ferenczi, the Petőfi Könyvtár (Petőfi Library) was established, consisting of thirty booklets dealing with his life and work. Two writers, Lajos Bartók and Tamás Szana, organized the Petőfi Muzeum. A complete edition of his works in six volumes, edited and annotated by Adolf Havas and prefaced by Jókai, appeared in 1896. Monographs, critical essays and hundreds of articles by prominent Hungarian writers and scholars described his position within the orbit of Hungarian and world literature. Pál Gyulai, János Arany, Ágost Greguss, János Erdélyi, Mór Jókai, Ferenc Salamon, Jenő Péterfy, Frigyes Riedl, Géza Voinovich, Lajos Baróti, János Horváth, Aladár Schöpflin, Endre Ady, Gyula Földessy, Dezső Szabó, Gyula Farkas, Miklós Krémer, György Bartók, László Németh, and other Hungarian men of letters extolled his national and universal significance. Zoltán Ferenczi wrote a three volume biography of him; in recent times Gyula Illyés’ Petőfi contributed to the biographical literature of the poet. Gyula Krudy’s portrayals of Petőfi and his family are blendings of facts and fancy. Ferenc Herczeg wrote a play about Petofi’s wife; Tamás Szana wrote a biography of her; so did Lajos Hatvány. The poet’s letters were collected by Ferenc Badics; his letters written as a child were collected by Gyula Sebestyén. Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum, a comparative literature periodical, published from 1877 till 1890 in Kolozsvár, Transylvania, had a column entitled “Petőfiana”, which served the cultivation of his poetry. The bibliography of his poems set to music, some by Ferenc Liszt, contains the names of 184 composers and 510 compositions. His poems were translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, the Scandinavian languages, Finnish, Russian, Estonian, Polish, Hebrew, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and other languages. In 1909 a book appeared in Budapest which contained Petofi’s lyric, “Reszket a bokor”, in thirty-two languages, including Chinese and Gypsy. There are English