Poetry
Himfy szerelmei
Not translated into English
Sándor Kisfaludy · 1807
Opening lines
Mint az őzek az erdőben,
A halak a vizekben,
Madarak a levegőben,
A méhek a kertekben:
Like the deer in the forest,
The fish in the waters,
Birds in the air,
The bees in the gardens:
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from mek.oszk.hu
Synopsis
Under the mask of Himfy, the poet sings of a proud beauty who refuses him her favours, at once kindly and cruel. The narrative proceeds through twenty cantos, each followed by ten short songs in which the lover voices his lament, in stanzas of twelve lines. Rejected, he flees the company of men for solitude, then goes to seek death in the tumult of the wars against Napoleon.
Context
The first part, “A kesergő szerelem”, appeared in Buda in 1801 without the author's name, under the name Himfy alone. The 1807 volume, also published in Buda, brings together a second edition of this part and a new part, “A boldog szerelem”. The author had begun these verses during his captivity, then made them the song of Róza Szegedy. The book at once became the favourite reading of the manor houses of the nobility, and no Hungarian book had yet enjoyed such success. The stanza he invented, eight lines then four, has since been called the Himfy stanza.
Who it is for
Very short songs, in a stanza that the author invented for them; no French or English translation in volume form has been located.
Prizes and reception
A bookshop success without precedent in the Hungary of its time, and one of the peaks of Hungarian poetry of the early nineteenth century.