Stephen Sisa : The Spirit of Hungary

Hungary is a land where East and West, North and South meet and clash. On the fields of the great Hungarian lowlands, on the heaths of the Sarmata plain, the garden culture of Holland seems to have been transplanted. The Roman remains and baroque residences of the Trans-danubian district bathe in a sunshine which reminds one of Italy. In Transylvania, the Hungarian Scotland until the Treaty of Trianon, churches marking the eastern frontier of Gothic art face the western outposts of Greek orthodoxy, the religion of the Rumanians. But this variable scenery is formed into a wonderful unity by the semicircle of the Carpathians; the interdependence of nature and people has created a peculiar atmosphere, an identity of mood which pervades the diversity of local color.

The people who inhabit this territory are, of course, of stock as variable as the countryside. The Hungarians of the Conquest of Ugrian and Turkish origin settled on Slav and other strata of population; in the course of history, they united both eastern and western blood in their veins. After a century of hesitation, the Hungarians broke away entirely from their eastern relatives, and faced physical destruction to become the champions of Christianity. When Hungary turned westward, she felt the magnetism both of the Germanic North and the Latin South and actually became the melting pot of all these forces, merging the Hungarian and the European spirit in a truly national culture.

The fountain head of Hungarian culture is, however, the Latin culture of Christianity, which in Hungary was at first but a provincial variety of international ecclesiastical literature. But the forms of Hungarian reality soon became discernible. In the legends of Saint István and St. Imre () in the eleventh century we can barely discern Hungarian colors in the conventional figure of the 'Christian saint." On the other hand, the legends of Saint László and Saint Margit in the twelfth century breathe the atmosphere of a (Christian) Hungarian world.

The Latin Gestae show old pagan traditions interwoven into the courtly ground-texture of secular legends dealing with the origin of the nation. The three great Gestawriters, Anonymus (twelfth century), Simon de Kéza (thirteenth century) and Mark de Kált (1358), kept up this tradition, but clothed it in a form which was in harmony with the European mind.

While this Latin literature survived because it belonged to an exceptionally cultured upper class, the ancient oral poetry of the Hungarian people was driven back into a

sub-literary region where most of it was lost. The literary remains of the thirteenth century, the chief of which are a funeral oration and a verse lamentation to the Virgin, prove that even in the first centuries after the adoption of Christianity, the Hungarian language was in general use for ecclesiastical purposes.

The Renaissance

The Hungarian precursors of the Renaissance were the kings of the Anjou dynasty (fourteenth century) who originally came from Naples. The Renaissance reached its apex at the court of Matthias (1458-1490), who was the first to raise Hungarian secular culture to European significance. He maintained connections with the leading humanists of the day; his library, the Corvina, enjoyed European repute. The first Hungarian printing press was established during his reign in 1472; his official historian of the court, Bonfinius, wrote the first history of Hungary which attracted the attention of Europe; his environment produced Janus Pannonius (Bishop of Pécs), the Hungarian poet with whom the whole of the West became acquainted. This witty and satirical, brilliant humanist was the first Hungarian whose mind had been possessed by books and who longed to escape to the West from his country over which approaching tragedy cast an ever-increasing gloom.

In 1526 came the battle of Mohács which, for centuries, put an end to the position of Hungary as a Great Power, a position which she had enjoyed during the Middle Ages. Darkness swallowed not only the codex literature, which perished in the flames of the monasteries burned by the Turks, but also, the splendor of the Renaissance Court.

In the sixteenth century, Janus Pannonius found a complement in Bálint Balassi (1551 - 1594), the Hutten and Ronsard of Hungary. In Balassi's writings erudite Renaissance lyricism is expressed in tender and musical Hungarian, and his poetry is full of the sad colors of a belated age of chivalry, the life of the Hungarian border fortresses. But his religious poems, struggling with God and the Infinite, anticipate the restless ferment of the Reformation.

In the second phase of humanism, attention gradually turned towards the North. The Hungarian adherents of Erasmus attended German and Dutch universities, which began to lay more emphasis on the remodelling of Christianity, than on the rebirth of the ancient world. The struggle of Protestantism and Catholicism made the dismembered country the battle ground of opposing religions for centuries.

Hungarian Puritanism

The smooth Latin stylists of the Court were replaced by stern, rough preachers; Hungarian ecclesiastical style, which had been schooled on Latin, was now filled with the living force of the popular language. In 1590, after a long line of precursors, the first complete Hungarian version of the Bible was finished. In the first decades of the seventeenth century, ecclesiastical oratory and theology reached their first classical heights in the works of Péter Pázmány (1570-1637), the Hungarian Bossuet, the greatest clerical representative of the Baroque spirit.

The secular spirit of the Renaissance loosed the layers which had previously hidden the world of the peasants. The genial enjoyment of the life of early humanism was clouded over by the severity of Hungarian Puritanism; the gloomy and awkward chronicle songs became the documents of Hungary's deadly struggle.

The greatest achievement of the secular poetry of the age, the majestic epic of Count Miklós Zrínyi, the Obsidio Szigetiana, remained isolated, but popular epic poetry found its best expression in the narrative poems of István Gyöngyösi (1629-1704). In this way, in the form of oral tradition there developed two great currents of Hungarian secular literature: the lyric tradition, starting from Balassi, and epic poetry, following the footsteps of Gyöngyösi.

Under the Habsburgs

At the end of the seventeenth century the military power of the West drove the Turks back to the Balkans; from this time onwards the struggle for national independence was directed against the new conqueror, the House of Habsburg. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the powers of the Hungarian people were united for a historical moment by Ferenc Rákóczi; but his war of independence, the memory of which has been preserved in the martial lyrics of the kuruc era, was doomed to failure. At the end of the century, Hungary was submerged in the vast empire of the Habsburgs, and in language and literature again became foreign. The clergy wrote in Latin, the aristocratic elite generally in French; but the literary language of the citizen class was chiefly German.

However, a national reform movement was started by young aristocrats, who again connected the country with the blood-circulation of Europe. The impressions they absorbed in foreign courts, libraries and from collections, nurtured these aristocrats working for Hungarian regeneration. It was no mere chance that the first great literary figure of this process was György Bessenyey (1747-1811), a guardsman under Queen Maria Theresa; Bessenyey organized his literary group from this circle. This class was the mediator of the enlightenment, the biedermeier, the German classical spirit, and later of the national popular romanticism of Herder, which was to play an important part in the development of literature.

In was discovered that, under the surface of foreign languages, Hungarian literature had been living its indestructible life, rich in spite of provincialism, bound by innumerable ties to the peasants, in the circles of the middle class. At the end of the eighteenth century all schools of Hungarian literature, whether they imitated Latin, French, or German models, or clung to indigenous examples, joined in the great national reform movement which created the national Hungary of modern times and, together with it, the most characteristic representative of this new spirit: independent national Hungarian literature.

The center of importance of the new literature was transferred to belles-lettres, practiced by a coterie of writers living by their pen. Opposing currents of taste mingled in the circle of writers who assembled in Buda-Pest. István Széchenyi. the political leader of this age who had received his education in England, laid the foundations of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1825, The National

Theatre, the editors of the periodicals, newspapers and books, organized a Hungarian reading public. Criticism, which judged by fixed principles, set up a hierarchy of values in the new literature.

All this would have been impossible but for the passion for organization of a marvellous pioneer, Ferenc Kazinczy (1759-1831), the greatest letter-writer of Hungarian literature, who first united isolated endeavors into a complex whole and rejuvenated the language with newly created, modern words. Kazinczy was, nevertheless, only a brilliant eclectic in a disorganized period; the real spirit of the new age is manifested in the works of the great poets.

A Galaxy of Literary Greats

These poets display marked individual personalities. Their works are connected often only by the atmosphere of the past. They undoubtedly show the influence of Western models, yet they form the first great constellation of the new Hungarian literature: The tragic grace of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, the most artistic poet of Hungarian rococo era, who smiles even at death; the glowing pathos and bleeding melancholy of the tragic Hungarian, Dániel Berzsenyi (1776-1836), stand on the dividing line of two worlds; classicism and romance vie with each other in the painful, longing idealism of Ferenc Kölcsey (1790-1838), the self-consuming, stifled revolt of József Katona (1792-1830), Shakespeare's greatest Hungarian disciple and the author of Bánk Bán. The Hungarian novel-reading public is captivated by the historical brilliance of its first favorite, Miklós Jósika (1794-1865), the Hungarian Walter Scott. Pál Gyulay (1826-1909) was an alert, watchful critic who codified the principles of taste of his time. Baron József Eötvös (1813-1874), the first master of the Hungarian social novel, becomes more and more absorbed in the philosophy of the state and in politics; Mór Jókai (1825-1904) the greatest storyteller of the age, the blue-eyed dreamer of the Hungarian thousand and one nights, withdraws into a world of illusion beautified by miracles. He became the most famous Hungarian novelist of international renown. Jókai produced more than a hundred novels, giving birth to no fewer than ten thousand characters! Jókai's novels fall into broad classes: those in which he undertook to portray and assess the traits of his countrymen, albeit none too critically, and essentially historic romances generously interspersed with patriotic fiction. Those novels he wrote during the era of suppression were vehicles of escapism for the public into the Hungarian past and thus offered hope and consolation in the spirit of "we shall overcome."

Among the great Hungarian writers of the age, Baron Zsigmond Kemény (1814-1875), represents the tyrannical control of "blood" by "judgment," writing fragmentary novels dominated by a darker Fate than that of the Greeks; János Vajda (1827-1897), the blind Hungarian Polyphemus. hurls rocks with terrible curses, regardless of whether he hits the great men of the age or the clever pirates; in the stern gray mystery-play by lmre Madách (1823-1864), Az Ember Tragédiája (The Tragedy of Man) that masterpiece of Hungarian philosophical poetry, the hopelessness of individual and national destiny is transformed into the tragedy of all mankind.

This was the classical period; order realized for a historical moment. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, great poetry became exhausted, but Hungarian narrative prose found its true note. Kálmán Mikszáth (1847-1910) expanded the anecdote to the short story and raised the lively, slipshod, but always expressive style of the country to literary rank; Géza Gárdonyi (1863-1922) elaborated on the idyllic elements of this style and created a new, intimate form of the historical novel', Ferenc Herczeg, the cultured poet laureate of the post-war era, raised it to the highest level of European realism. In the possession of this rich and subtle style, the exporters of Hungarian literature, with the gifted Ferenc Molnár at their head, conquered the markets of the great foreign capitals.

As bright as the light of these literary talents was, there rises among them a small group of even brighter stars, who are the giants of Hungarian literature: Sándor Petfi, János Arany, Mihály Vörösmarty and Endre Ady. More about them on the following pages.

Sándor Petfi

The poet by whose work the whole of Hungarian literature is generally measured is Sándor Petfi (1823-1849). There are deeper and more significant representatives of the Hungarian genius, but Petfi personifies its creative youthfulness. The age in which his poetry arose showed an extraordinary manifestation of the vital forces of the Hungarian people. With a wonderful effort, Hungary grasped the leadership of Eastern Europe, and became the example of these small nations; she was regarded as the pioneer of progress, nationalism, and liberty. Petfi lived with all his soul; in his own fervent personality he expressed and electrified the great ideas of the period. Few poets have been bewitched by only one type of scenery as Petfi was by the Lowland; but few expressed the character of scenery with the same wealth and plasticity. Petfi despite his Slovakian origin, wished to become the spokesman of the Magyar people, but he became the poet of the whole Hungarian nation. In his songs and in his popular epic, János Vitéz (Childe John), he collected the warmest colors of Hungarian popular imagination, at the same time, no one saw more clearly the destiny of his country.

In the immediacy of his lyrical realism, he dramatized the commonplace events of his everyday life, but he raised the motifs of family life, the love of children, parent and husband and wife by means of an almost Homeric fullness to the heights of "great poetry." He was a revolutionary phenomenon, for genuine youth is always revolutionary. It was not only the bold simplicity of his language, the realism and contemporary interest of his subjects, which gave his poetry this revolutionary character; we can see it in his political creed and human bearing too. His rise coincided with the growth of the Hungarian libertarian movement; he was among those who set the struggle for independence in the magnificent perspective of the "liberty of the nations." Petfi was the poet of reality; he expressed the historical current, not the final problems of the age. The most brilliant comet on the literary sky of Hungary, Petfi, at the early age of 26, vanished without a trace on the battlefield of Segesvár in 1849.

Hermann Grimm, the well-known German literary critic of the 19th century, placed Petfi among the five greatest lyrical poets of the world, along with Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe. The following quotes are from statements by renowned poets of the world about Petfi:

"Only Burns and Beranger could come near the poet Petfi. There is no one comparable to him in Germany. We, creatures of reflections, are only to be pitied when compared with such originality..." (Heinrich Heine)

"He is dead, but he has left a volume of poetry which contains the most beautiful lyric poems of the past forty years. Is he really dead? No, he disappeared only, like one of the graceful gods of the ancient Greeks. Nobody saw him returning and nobody has found his dead body either. And the whole Hungarian nation is convinced that the poet of soldiers did not die, he could return at any time..." (Giusue Carducci)

"Petfi is the world's greatest lyric poet. He who, to my mind, is more the representative spirit and soul of Hungary than any man has been of any country." (John H. Ingram, England)

"Petfi's poetic genius expresses all impressions with enchanting exquisiteness. His voice goes right to our hearts. This voice is overwhelming, inspiring and at times crushing, and we want to hear it again and again. The pinnacles of his crystal-clear poetry are displayed in such spheres of emotions. This is more than just art - this is the voice of God himself." (Bernard Thalás, France)

"We are aware of the fact that whenever our country and our culture was suppressed, so was Petfi also trampled upon." (Jerzy Jakubiuk, Poland)

"Petfi's 'Ode to the Nation' is an eloquent proclamation to and on all the world's oppressed peoples longing for freedom. It is also unparalleled in world literature." (Severei Nourmaa, Finland)

"Petfi is such a poetic individual and such a poetic giant that it would be highly rewarding to learn Hungarian if only to be able to read his poems in the original language." (Ludwig Uhland, Germany)

"He is the diamond link binding the Hungarian literature with the literature of the world.' (Jan Neruda. Czechoslovakia)

"In all my life, I have held Petfi's poetry to be a magnificent guide leading toward liberty and love for the Fatherland." (Mihai Beniuc, Romania)

Sándor Petőfi

At The End of September

Still in the valley bloom the garden flowers,

Still by our door the poplar-boughs are green?.

But do you see how yonder mountain towers

While to its summit with the winters sheen?

Still in my heart the summer sun is shining.

Still in its youth grow blossoms of the spring:

But see, with my dark hair grey threads are twining

As winter hoar-frost take their reckoning.

Life flies away, as falls the fleeting blossom...

Sit in my lap, dear wife, as now I crave!

You who now lay your head upon my bosom,

Will you to-morrow lay it on my grave?

Ah, tell me. if before you I should perish,

Will you spread out my shroud with mourning grim?

And, some day,. can some youth, that seeks to cherish,

Persuade you to forsake my name, for him?

Should you cast away your widow's veil,

Hang it upon my head-stone as a flag!

Up from the spirit world I shall not fail

To come at midnight, with me down to drag

That veil to wipe my tears for you, who swore

Yet lightly my fidelity forgot,

And hind my wounded heart that even there

Loves you forever and forgets you not.

Translated by Watson Kirkconnell

(In Hungarian:)

Szeptember Végén

Még nyílnak a völgyben a kerti virágok,

Még zöldel a nyárfa az ablak elött,

De látod amottan a téli világot?

Már hó tahará el a bérci tett.

Még ifjú szívemben a lángsugarú nyár

S még benne virít az egész kikelet,

De íme sötét hajam szbe vegyl már.

A tél dere már megüté fejemet.

Elhull a virág, eliramlik az élet. . .

Ülj, hitvesem, ülj az ölembe ide!

Ki most fejedet kebelemre tevéd le,

Holnap nem omolsz-e sírom fölibe?

Oh mondd: ha elbb halok el, tetemimre

Könnyezve boritasz-e szemfödelet?

S rábírhat-e majdan egy ifjú szerelme,

Hogy elhagyod érte az én nevemet?

Ha eldobod egykor az özvegyi fátyolt,

Fejfámra sötét lobogóul akaszd,

Én feljövök érte a síri világból

Az éj közepén, s oda leviszem azt,

Letörleni véle könyimet érted,

Ki könnyeden elfeledéd hívedet,

S e szív sebeit bekötözni, ki téged

Még akkor is, ott is, örökre szeret!

János Arany

The works of János Arany (1817-1882) are the creations of a long life spent in reflection and careful work. He is the real artist of Hungarian literature, the unsurpassed master of language and form. He started his career with Petfi, under whose influence he wrote, in 1846, at the climax of the Hungarian reform period. His Toldi, the canonical example of the realistic epic, became the most radiant symbolical poem of Hungarian popular life.

Arany became a classical artist, a conscious, cultured writer, who renounced the romantic liberty of imagination in favor of poetical reality. While the poet suppressed his personal lyricism, he devoted an increasing attention and infinite care to the chiseling of the language. The ballads of Arany are masterpieces of his supreme command of form, psychology and style. When, during the absolutism, Hungarian poets were not allowed to freely express their sentiments, Arany found an outlet in allegory. This poet of duty and sensibility was past the prime of his manhood when he became the poet laureate of Hungary, at a time when the country was gradually regaining its consciousness. Arany knew well that the whole nation was watching him;. like Tennyson,. he tortured himself to attain an impossible perfection. His greatest conception, Buda halála (The Death of Buda), begun with the idea of creating a trilogy which was to unite the ancient legends of the country, remained as a result, a fragment. However, it is one of the greatest triumphs of Hungarian poetical language, a giant fragment embodying the tragic conception of the Hungarian mind.

In the shadow of approaching death, Arany withdrew more and more into solitude and discarded all the coats of mail which had protected him. His Indian summer vies with the poetry of Goethe's old age, but it is more torn, more suffering, more modern. The suppressed heart frees itself of the discipline of a great culture and responsibility,. and henceforth speaks only of its suffering, longing, and calm.

Mihály Vörösmarty

The struggle between instinct and will, imagination and reason, which, for the most part, remained hidden in Arany, is fully revealed in the works of Mihály Vörösmarty (1800-1855). In contrast to Hungarian common sense, often overemphasized, Vörösmarty represents the unfolding of Hungarian imagination. Reality plays a small part in Vörösmarty's work; imagination is everything. If there are eastern traits in Hungarian literature, they are the most evident in his works.

These eastern characteristics are manifested in Vörösmarty's complex, shifting lights, the magnificent, rich splendor of his language, the dissolution of the soul in the eternal currents of the universe. At the same time, there are few Hungarian poets who expressed with equal depth the Christian feelings of love, compassion, and nearness to God. Vörösmarty's Csongor és Tünde, the Hungarian A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which the struggle of desire and action, nothingness and love, is harmonized in wonderful music, preached the triumph of vital energy; the poet was carried away by the first breath of the reform age.

He was the first to become the poet of the whole nation, the example of active patriotism which also serves mankind. The restrained lyricism, dignified pathos and bashful tenderness of his manhood represent the finest embodiment of the noble ideals of the old Hungarian world. But, when he witnessed the destruction of all he had lived for, the poet's soul was seized with an apocalyptic fear. The poems which he wrote at the end of his life, with a distracted mind, survey the struggles of the human race from beyond the limits of existence. These last poems voice a dreadful disillusion, a note of terrible prophecies; they are fraught with the blood and suffering of a vast historical birth.

Stephen Sisa : The Spirit of Hungary