Hungarian Poetry Day 2024

In Hungary, we celebrate Poetry Day every year on April 11. This date is the birthday of Attila József, a well-known (and recognized) Hungarian poet.

I like poems. Whether do I understand them? – I can’t judge this myself. I think I do some of them. Rather, I think that understanding poems is a little bit over-mystified… or maybe I’m just too simple-minded in that regard. Of course, there are works that, like some other works of art, need to be tasted, and there are times when I search after supposed or real poetic references. As I grew older, I developed some positive feelings not only towards drier wines, but “drier” poems as well… although this damned-blessed contemporary (written more likely in prose, with no punctuation, in no form, with no melody) poetry – like overexplained wine – still has a hard time sliding down my gullet… maybe one day I’ll grow up to that too. I wish that everyone can find poem(s) suitable for their current mood, regardless of whether there is a poetry day or not!

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Let me share here two of my (not Hungarian) favourites:

Emily Dickinson

The farthest Thunder that I heard

The farthest Thunder that I heard
Was nearer than the Sky
And rumbles still, though torrid Noons
Have lain their missiles by —
The Lightning that preceded it
Struck no one but myself —
But I would not exchange the Bolt
For all the rest of Life —
Indebtedness to Oxygen
The Happy may repay,
But not the obligation
To Electricity —
It founds the Homes and decks the Days
And every clamor bright
Is but the gleam concomitant
Of that waylaying Light —
The Thought is quiet as a Flake —
A Crash without a Sound,
How Life’s reverberation
Its Explanation found —

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Cophtisches Lied

Geh, gehorche meinen Winken,
Nutze deine jungen Tage,
Lerne zeitig klüger sein:
Auf des Glückes großer Waage
Steht die Zunge selten ein;
Du mußt steigen oder sinken,
Du mußt herrschen und gewinnen,
Oder dienen und verlieren,
Leiden oder triumphieren,
Amboß oder Hammer sein.