Poetry
Berzsenyi Dániel versei
Not translated into English
Dániel Berzsenyi · 1813
Opening lines
Romlásra indult hajdan erős magyar!
Nem látod, Árpád vére miként fajul?
Nem látod a bosszús egeknek
Ostorozó kezeit hazádon?
Once mighty Hungarian, you have set out towards ruin!
Do you not see how Árpád's blood degenerates?
Do you not see the scourging hands
Of the angry heavens upon your homeland?
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from mek.oszk.hu
Synopsis
Odes, epistles and elegies in ancient metres, in the manner of Horace, written by a landowner who lives far from any town. The ode “A magyarokhoz” reproaches his compatriots for their decadence and sets against the ruin that threatens the nation the strength of a free soul and a free people; other pieces speak of the approaching winter, in “A közelítő tél”, or of the farewell to the Kemenesalja region.
Context
The author had been writing since the age of twenty and hid his verses. In 1803, the pastor János Kis caught him writing and sent a few pieces to Ferenc Kazinczy, who encouraged him; in 1808, Berzsenyi sent Kazinczy, through Kis, an entire collection of seventy-seven poems. The volume appeared in Pest in 1813, and an enlarged edition, prepared by Mihály Helmeczy, followed in 1816. In 1817, Ferenc Kölcsey published in the Tudományos Gyűjtemény a review of unjust severity, which wounded the author so deeply that he almost stopped writing verse.
Who it is for
Short odes, in ancient metres and with a vocabulary nourished by Latin; no French or English translation in volume form has been located.
Prizes and reception
Its author's only collection, praised for the grandeur of its thought and the concise vigour of its expression.
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