Poetry
Twenty Years Later
Húsz év múlva
János Vajda · 1876
Opening lines
Mint a Montblanc csucsán a jég,
Minek nem árt se nap, se szél,
Csöndes szívem, többé nem ég;
Nem bántja újabb szenvedély.
Like the ice on the summit of Mont Blanc,
Which neither sun nor wind can harm,
My quiet heart no longer burns;
No new passion wounds it.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from hu.wikisource.org
Synopsis
The speaker compares himself to the snow covering the summit of Mont Blanc, which neither sun nor wind touches: his calmed heart no longer burns, no new passion disturbs it. Around him, a myriad of stars vie in coquetry and brilliance and bend their rays toward him, without ever melting him. But it happens, on a calm night, that he finds himself dreaming, alone, and the tone of the poem changes.
Context
The poem dates from 1876 and carries the subtitle “Gina emlékkönyvébe”, for Gina's album: Zsuzsanna Kratochwill, whom the author had loved twenty years earlier and to whom he had already devoted two cycles, “Szerelem átka” and “Gina emléke”. Other poems of remembrance would follow, among them “Harminc év után”. The four stanzas form two halves, the second opening on a conjunction that reverses the argument, and the image of Mont Blanc opens and closes the poem. Ady called his elder the man of Mont Blanc.
Who it is for
Four stanzas sustained by a single image; an English translation by Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner can be read in the online anthology Babel.
Prizes and reception
The poem that represents the whole of its author's lyric work, and from which Ady took the nickname he gave him.
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