József AttilaJózsef AttilaJózsef Attila

József Attila

József AttilaJózsef Attila

József Attila

 

A DUNÁNÁL

Attila József

trans. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth & Frederick Turner

BY THE DANUBE

József Attila


1


1

A rakodópart alsó kövén ültem,
néztem, hogy úszik el a dinnyehéj.
Alig hallottam, sorsomba merülten,
hogy fecseg a felszín, hallgat a mély.
Mintha szívemből folyt volna tova,
zavaros, bölcs és nagy volt a Duna.

On the wharf's lowest step where I was sitting
I watched a melon rind drift with the flow.
I scarcely heard, drowned in my meditating,
the chatter of the surge, the quiet below.
As if poured from the dark heart in my body
the Danube ran, as grand and wise and muddy.

Mint az izmok, ha dolgozik az ember,
reszel, kalapál, vályogot vet, ás,
úgy pattant, úgy feszült, úgy ernyedett el
minden hullám és minden mozdulás.
S mint édesanyám, ringatott, mesélt
s mosta a város minden szennyesét.

Like muscles of a working man - whoever
shovels, hammers, saws, works the brick-clay -
the turbid waves of the unending river
so crack, so tense, so slacken, so give way;
and motherlike it rocked and sang to me,
and washed the city's filth down to the sea.

És elkezdett az eső cseperészni,
de mintha mindegy volna, el is állt.
És mégis, mint aki barlangból nézi
a hosszú esőt - néztem a határt:
egykedvű, örök eső módra hullt,
színtelenül, mi tarka volt, a múlt.

And then a misty drizzle started splotching,
and then, as casually, it ceased to fall.
Yet still, as from a cavemouth I were watching
an endless rain, I gazed out at it all:
unchecked, the many-colored past fell by,
as does the indifferent water from the sky.

A Duna csak folyt. És mint a termékeny,
másra gondoló anyának ölén
a kisgyermek, úgy játszadoztak szépen
és nevetgéltek a habok felém.
Az idő árján úgy remegtek ők,
mint sírköves, dülöngő temetők.

The Danube simply flowed. As on a fecund
absent-minded mother's lap a child,
so played its little foam-floats, every second
rising in chuckles when it seemed she smiled;
on time's flood-tide they quivered, tilted, jarred,
like gravestones all akimbo in their yard.

József Attila


2


2

Én úgy vagyok, hogy már száz ezer éve
nézem, amit meglátok hirtelen.
Egy pillanat s kész az idő egésze,
mit száz ezer ős szemlélget velem.

I am made thus: what for a thousand ages
I've looked upon, now suddenly I see.
A flash, time's tally is wound up, the pages
a thousand ancestors have read with me.

Látom, mit ők nem láttak, mert kapáltak,
öltek, öleltek, tették, ami kell.
S ők látják azt, az anyagba leszálltak,
mit én nem látok, ha vallani kell.

I see what they could not in their distraction,
who delved, killed, kissed, wrought under time's duress.
And they, sunk in the matter-world of action,
see what I do not see, I must confess.

Tudunk egymásról, mint öröm és bánat.
Enyém a múlt és övék a jelen.
Verset írunk - ők fogják ceruzámat
s én érzem őket és emlékezem.

We know each other, as do joy and sorrow,
what's presentness for them is past for me.
They hold my pencil - we, together, borrow
this poem from their present memory.

József Attila


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3

Anyám kun volt, az apám félig székely,
félig román, vagy tán egészen az.
Anyám szájából édes volt az étel,
apám szájából szép volt az igaz.
Mikor mozdulok, ők ölelik egymást.
Elszomorodom néha emiatt -
-ez az elmúlás. Ebből vagyok. "Meglásd,
ha majd nem leszünk! ..." - megszólítanak.

My mother was a Kun,* my father Magyar
in part, perhaps Rumanian in full.
My mother's mouth gave me the sweetest nectar,
my father's mouth, the truth as beautiful.
If I but stir, they do embrace each other.
It grieves me sometimes when I think of how
time flies, decays. Such matter is my mother.
"You see when we are not! ..." they tell me now.

Megszólítanak, mert ők én vagyok már;
gyenge létemre így vagyok erős,
ki emlékszem, hogy több vagyok a soknál,
mert az őssejtig vagyok minden ős -
-az Ős vagyok, mely sokasodni foszlik:
apám - s anyámmá válok boldogon,
s apám, anyám maga is ketté oszlik
s én lelkes Eggyé így szaporodom!

They speak to me, my being's patrimony,
in this my weakness, thus I may be well,
recalling that I'm greater than the many,
each of my ancestors in every cell -
I am the Ancestor, in my division
I multiply, blithely turn dam and sire,
and they achieve their double parturition,
many times many making one self fire!

A világ vagyok - minden, ami volt, van:
a sok nemzedék, mely egymásra tör.
A honfoglalók győznek velem holtan
s a meghódoltak kínja meggyötör.
Árpád és Zalán, Werbőczy és Dózsa -
-török, tatár, tót, román kavarog
e szívben, mely e múltnak már adósa
szelíd jövővel - mai magyarok!

I am the world, what is and what is fading,
all nations that contend on hill and plain,
I die with every conqueror, invading,
and suffer with the conquered in their pain.
My heart swells with them, the past's helpless debtor:
Árpád, Werböczi, Dózsa, and Zalán,**
Rumanian, Turk, Slovakian, and Tatar,
gentle future of each Hungarian!

... Én dolgozik akarok. Elegendő
harc, hogy a múltat be kell vallani.
A Dunának, mely múlt, jelen s jövendő,
egymást ölelik lágy hullámai.
A harcot, amelyet őseink vívtak,
békévé oldja az emlékezés
s rendezni végre közös dolgainkat,
ez a mi munkánk; és nem is kevés.

... I must have work. Would it were task sufficient
that one confess the past. The ripples of
the Danube, that is future, past, and present,
fondle and hold each other in their love.
Our forebears' struggle, with its strife and slaughter,
remembrance melts and renders into peace:
our common labors now to set in order,
were pains enough to be our masterpiece.

* Kun: i.e. Cumanian, Hungarian of ancient Turkish descent.
** Hungarian and Bulgarian historical figures.

József Attila

József AttilaJózsef AttilaJózsef AttilaJózsef AttilaJózsef Attila

József AttilaJózsef AttilaJózsef Attila

József AttilaJózsef AttilaJózsef Attila

József AttilaJózsef AttilaJózsef Attila

He was one of the greatest Hungarian poets of the 20th century. Although his first poems were published when he was 17, real reknown became after his death. He was born in 1905 in Budapest in a really poor family. His father was a Roman or a Serbian man, but he left the family. His mother was a very poor washerwoman, and made her a symbol of the working class. He had 2 sisters. When he was 9, the 1st World War was broken out, so his family’s life became worse. When he was 15, his mother died. He worked ona board of a steamer on the Danube. Then he finished his schools so fastly. He learnt in the University of Szeged, but one of his teachers said, that he would never be a Hungarian teacher, so he stopped his school. Under his schoollife he tried to kill himself, because he felt himself very lonely. Then he learnt in the University of Wien, then in the Sorbonne. Then he came back to Budapest and entrolled for the University. In 1936, he became one of the cofounders of the review Szép Szó. He took his own life in 1937, because he was depressed. He died under a train. In his own poetry Attila József presented the intimate pictures of proletarian life. He immortalized his mother, the poor washerwoman, and made her a symbol of the working class. He created a style of melancholy realism, infused with irrationality, through which he was able to express the complex feelings of modern men and reveal his own faith in life’s essential beauty and harmony. He had many beautiful poems, and most of it were so sad and melancholic. He wrote poems for his mother, for his country.

As I wrote it, he worked on the board of a steamer on the Danube, and he learnt in Szeged, which is a city next to the Danube. So that’s why he loved the Danube. It was as melancholic as he were. He wrote a beautiful poem, about this river. This poem is one of my favourite poems. It’s so sad, but also beautiful. In this poem he said, that the nations always fought, and they needn’t have had to do it, the posterity have to stop the fights. The offsprings have to work for stopping these opposites. He wrote, that the Danube is the past, the present and the future, and it helps to make peace (because it links us) and to sort out our reconciles. And it’s our job, to live in peace, and solve the problems.

I think, that this poem express the whole subject, and the whole project that we do, and it helps to understand the substance of the project. The Danube links us, so we have to take full advantages of this link. And if we do it, we could live in peace with together.

Agnes Pongracz Berze Grammar School, Gyongyos

Marton László József Attila-szobra (1980) a Parlamentnél látható.