ESZMÉLET
Földtől eloldja az eget
a hajnal s tiszta, lágy szavára
a bogarak, a gyerekek
kipörögnek a napvilágra;
a levegőben semmi pára,
a csilló könnyűség lebeg!
Az éjjel rászálltak a fákra,
mint kis lepkék, a levelek.
2
Kék, piros, sárga, összekent
képeket láttam álmaimban
és úgy éreztem, ez a rend -
egy szálló porszem el nem hibbant.
Most homályként száll tagjaimban
álmom s a vas világ a rend.
Nappal hold kél bennem s ha kinn van
az éj - egy nap süt idebent.
3
Sovány vagyok, csak kenyeret
eszem néha, e léha, locska
lelkek közt ingyen keresek
bizonyosabbat, mint a kocka.
Nem dörgölődzik sült lapocka
számhoz s szívemhez kisgyerek -
ügyeskedhet, nem fog a macska
egyszerre kint s bent egeret.
4
Akár egy halom hasított fa,
hever egymáson a világ,
szorítja, nyomja összefogja
egyik dolog a másikát
s így mindenik determinált.
Csak ami nincs, annak van bokra,
csak ami lesz, az a virág,
ami van, széthull darabokra.
5
A teherpályaudvaron
úgy lapultam a fa tövéhez,
mint egy darab csönd; szürke gyom
ért számhoz, nyers, különös-édes.
Holtan lestem az őrt, mit érez,
s a hallgatag vagónokon
árnyát, mely ráugrott a fényes,
harmatos szénre konokon.
6
Im itt a szenvedés belül,
ám ott kívül a magyarázat.
Sebed a világ - ég, hevül
s te lelkedet érzed, a lázat.
Rab vagy, amíg a szíved lázad -
úgy szabadulsz, ha kényedül
nem raksz magadnak olyan házat,
melybe háziúr települ.
7
Én fölnéztem az est alól
az egek fogaskerekére -
csilló véletlen szálaiból
törvényt szőtt a mult szövőszéke
és megint fölnéztem az égre
álmaim gőzei alól
s láttam, a törvény szövedéke
mindíg fölfeslik valahol.
8
Fülelt a csend - egyet ütött.
Fölkereshetnéd ifjúságod;
nyirkos cementfalak között
képzelhetsz egy kis szabadságot -
gondoltam. S hát amint fölállok,
a csillagok, a Göncölök
úgy fénylenek fönt, mint a rácsok
a hallgatag cella fölött.
9
Hallottam sírni a vasat,
hallottam az esőt nevetni.
Láttam, hogy a mult meghasadt
s csak képzetet lehet feledni;
s hogy nem tudok mást, mint szeretni,
görnyedve terheim alatt -
minek is kell fegyvert veretni
belőled, arany öntudat!
10
Az meglett ember, akinek
szívében nincs se anyja, apja,
ki tudja, hogy az életet
halálra ráadásul kapja
s mint talált tárgyat visszaadja
bármikor - ezért őrzi meg,
ki nem istene és nem papja
se magának, sem senkinek.
11
Láttam a boldogságot én,
lágy volt, szőke és másfél mázsa.
Az udvar szigorú gyöpén
imbolygott göndör mosolygása.
Ledőlt a puha, langy tócsába,
hunyorgott, röffent még felém -
ma is látom, mily tétovázva
babrált pihéi közt a fény.
12
Vasútnál lakom. Erre sok
vonat jön-megy és el-elnézem,
hogy' szállnak fényes ablakok
a lengedező szösz-sötétben.
Igy iramlanak örök éjben
kivilágított nappalok
s én állok minden fülke-fényben,
én könyöklök és hallgatok.
1934 első fele
Attila József
Consciousness
1.
The dawn dissevers earth and skies
and at its pure and lovely bidding
the children and the dragonflies
twirl out into the sunworld's budding;
no vapor dims the air's receding,
a twinkling lightness buoys the eyes!
Last night into their trees were gliding
the leaves, like tiny butterflies.
2.
Blue, yellow, red, they flocked my dream,
smudged images the mind had taken,
I felt the cosmic order gleam--
and not a speck of dust was shaken.
My dream's a floating shade; I waken;
order is but an iron regime.
By day, the moon's my body's beacon,
by night, an inner sun will burn.
3.
I'm gaunt, sometimes bread's all I touch,
I seek amid this trivial chatter
unrecompensed, and yearn to clutch,
what has more truth than dice, more matter.
No roast rib warms my mouth and platter,
no child my heart, forgoing such--
the cat can't both, how deft a ratter,
inside and outside make her catch.
4.
Just like split firewood stacked together,
the universe embraces all,
so that each object holds the other
confined by pressures mutual,
all things ordained, reciprocal.
Only unbeing can branch and feather,
only becoming blooms at all;
what is must break, or fade, or wither.
5.
Down by the branched marshaling-yard
I lurked behind a root, fear-stricken,
of silence was the living shard,
I tasted grey and wierd-sweet lichen.
I saw a shadow leap and thicken:
it was the shadow of the guard--
did he suspect?--watched his shade quicken
upon the heaped coal dew-bestarred.
6.
Inside there is a world of pain,
outside is only explanation.
The world's your scab, the outer stain,
your soul's the fever-inflammation.
Jailed by your heart's own insurrection,
you're only free when you refrain,
nor build so fine a habitation,
the landlord takes it back again.
7.
I stared from underneath the evening
into the cogwheel of the sky--
the loom of all the past was weaving
law from those glimmery threads, and I
looked up again into the sky
from underneath the steams of dreaming
and saw that always, by and by,
the weft of law is torn, unseaming.
8.
Silence gave ear: the clock struck one.
Maybe you could go back to boydom;
walled in with concrete dank and wan,
maybe imagine hints of freedom.
And now I stand, and through the sky-dome
the stars, the Dippers, shine and burn
like bars, the sign of jail and thraldom,
above a silent cell of stone.
9.
I've heard the crying of the steel,
I've heard the laugh of rain, its pattern;
I've seen the past burst through its seal:
only illusions are forgotten,
for naught but love was I begotten,
bent, though, beneath my burdens' wheel--
why must we forge such weapons, flatten
the gold awareness of the real?
10.
He only is a man, who knows
there is no mother and no father,
that death is only what he owes
and life's a bonus altogether,
returns his find to its bequeather,
holding it only till he goes;
nor to himself, nor to another,
takes on a god's or pastor's pose.
11.
I've seen what they call happiness:
soft, blonde, it weighed two hundred kilos;
it waddled smiling on the grass,
its tail a curl between two pillows.
Its lukewarm puddle glowed with yellows,
it blinked and grunted at me--yes,
I still remember where it wallows,
touched by the dawns of blissfulness.
12.
I live beside the tracks, where I
can see the trains pass through the station.
I see the brilliant windows fly
in floating dark and dim privation.
Through the eternal night's negation
just so the lit-up days rush by;
in all the cars' illumination,
silent, resting my elbow, I.
1.
The dawn dissevers earth and skies
and at its pure and lovely bidding
the children and the dragonflies
twirl out into the sunworld's budding;
no vapor dims the air's receding,
a twinkling lightness buoys the eyes!
Last night into their trees were gliding
the leaves, like tiny butterflies.
2.
Blue, yellow, red, they flocked my dream,
smudged images the mind had taken,
I felt the cosmic order gleam--
and not a speck of dust was shaken.
My dream's a floating shade; I waken;
order is but an iron regime.
By day, the moon's my body's beacon,
by night, an inner sun will burn.
3.
I'm gaunt, sometimes bread's all I touch,
I seek amid this trivial chatter
unrecompensed, and yearn to clutch,
what has more truth than dice, more matter.
No roast rib warms my mouth and platter,
no child my heart, forgoing such--
the cat can't both, how deft a ratter,
inside and outside make her catch.
4.
Just like split firewood stacked together,
the universe embraces all,
so that each object holds the other
confined by pressures mutual,
all things ordained, reciprocal.
Only unbeing can branch and feather,
only becoming blooms at all;
what is must break, or fade, or wither.
5.
Down by the branched marshaling-yard
I lurked behind a root, fear-stricken,
of silence was the living shard,
I tasted grey and wierd-sweet lichen.
I saw a shadow leap and thicken:
it was the shadow of the guard--
did he suspect?--watched his shade quicken
upon the heaped coal dew-bestarred.
6.
Inside there is a world of pain,
outside is only explanation.
The world's your scab, the outer stain,
your soul's the fever-inflammation.
Jailed by your heart's own insurrection,
you're only free when you refrain,
nor build so fine a habitation,
the landlord takes it back again.
7.
I stared from underneath the evening
into the cogwheel of the sky--
the loom of all the past was weaving
law from those glimmery threads, and I
looked up again into the sky
from underneath the steams of dreaming
and saw that always, by and by,
the weft of law is torn, unseaming.
8.
Silence gave ear: the clock struck one.
Maybe you could go back to boydom;
walled in with concrete dank and wan,
maybe imagine hints of freedom.
And now I stand, and through the sky-dome
the stars, the Dippers, shine and burn
like bars, the sign of jail and thraldom,
above a silent cell of stone.
9.
I've heard the crying of the steel,
I've heard the laugh of rain, its pattern;
I've seen the past burst through its seal:
only illusions are forgotten,
for naught but love was I begotten,
bent, though, beneath my burdens' wheel--
why must we forge such weapons, flatten
the gold awareness of the real?
10.
He only is a man, who knows
there is no mother and no father,
that death is only what he owes
and life's a bonus altogether,
returns his find to its bequeather,
holding it only till he goes;
nor to himself, nor to another,
takes on a god's or pastor's pose.
11.
I've seen what they call happiness:
soft, blonde, it weighed two hundred kilos;
it waddled smiling on the grass,
its tail a curl between two pillows.
Its lukewarm puddle glowed with yellows,
it blinked and grunted at me--yes,
I still remember where it wallows,
touched by the dawns of blissfulness.
12.
I live beside the tracks, where I
can see the trains pass through the station.
I see the brilliant windows fly
in floating dark and dim privation.
Through the eternal night's negation
just so the lit-up days rush by;
in all the cars' illumination,
silent, resting my elbow, I.
(1934)
Translated by Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner
(Source)
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