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Nádor Tamás
KIS MAGYAR VERS

Wass Albert:
ÜZENET HAZA

Babits Mihály:
ÚJ MYTHOLOGIA

Tamás Nádor
A SMALL MAGYAR POEM
Translation :
georgeroberts, the minor

A SMALL MAGYAR POEM
by Tamás Nádor
Translation : georgeroberts, the minor

To be a Magyar, just here,
is:
A sweet morsel, a gulp of fresh dew,
A breath of fresh air.

To be a Magyar,
is:
Welcoming, parting,
Working, resting,
Bearing and burying.
No more than elsewhere. Yet,
So much more and so other.

To be a Magyar,
is:
To savour the words' first rhythm,
Just as they slam the door behind you,
Or on your own daring,
As we mourn our parting sound.
Deny it as you may,
You still count in the sweet familiar,
Even in your dreams.

To be a Magyar,
is:
In the fleeting thoughts,
Same as, yet so other.
To drift in Magyar dreams.
To arise in heat and sink in despair,
And yet not to run.

To be a Magyar,
is:
To sing the verses, to know the wisdom
And to hear the Bartók melodies,
To taste Radnóti's sweet romances.
The taste of Márai, the echoes of Babits in the wind.
To soar with Karinthy and to land with Bolyai.

To be a Magyar,
is:
To bless the loaf with the cross,
And  seeking God on a  Sunday,
Singing the Calvinist psalms or the Khaddish, the Lord's Prayer,
Or just to see sunrise as the cock calls the morn in Ostoros.

To be a Magyar,
is:
To save Saint Steven's arm,
Or King Mathias' justice,
The wisdom of Bethlen,
The smarts of Széchenyi,
The burning heart of Kossuth. 

To be a Magyar,
is:
To tend the graves of our mothers, fathers, forbears
To mark their tracks with blue forget-me-nots.
To sooth their pain of living. 

To be a Magyar,
is:
To know the blue of the Danube that is no more,
The zig-zags of the white foamed Tisza,
Where the giant fish hid once. 

To be a Magyar,
is:
To sow stardust and reap rich ears of wheat,
To leave the smoke filled cities,
But return in resignation, to stay on. 

To be a Magyar,
is:
To smack the flavours of stuffed cabbage,
The rich aroma of the bean soup full of smoked hamhocks.
To know that no matter how tempting is a red apple, over there,
It is here, where sweetest the Jonathan.

In a word:
To be a Magyar is no different
From being Roman, Greek, German, Japanese, Basque, Israeli
or even Andorran.
It is what we are as men and women that counts:
Our humanity.
Nothing more and nothing less.