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Simpson, Louis: A nyugati világhoz (To the Western World in Hungarian)

Portre of Simpson, Louis
Portre of Kálnoky László

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To the Western World (English)

A siren sang, and Europe turned away
From the high castle and the shepherd’s crook.  
Three caravels went sailing to Cathay
On the strange ocean, and the captains shook  
Their banners out across the Mexique Bay.

And in our early days we did the same.  
Remembering our fathers in their wreck
We crossed the sea from Palos where they came  
And saw, enormous to the little deck,  
A shore in silence waiting for a name.

The treasures of Cathay were never found.  
In this America, this wilderness
Where the axe echoes with a lonely sound,  
The generations labor to possess
And grave by grave we civilize the ground.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://www.poetryfoundation.org

A nyugati világhoz (Hungarian)

Szirén dalolt, s feledett azután
Európa várat, pásztorbotot.
A tengeren, hol Kína az irány,
szállt három gálya, s zászlót bontatott
Mexikó öblén át a kapitány.

Mi is ezt tettük egykor. Visszajárt
apáink képe s mind e küzdelem.
Palosz felől szeltük a tengerárt,
s láttuk, állva a kis fedélzeten,
a nagy partot, mely némán névre várt.

Sosem lettek meg Kína kincsei.
Amerikában, melynek vadona
a fejszék árva hangját elnyeli,
vagyonért küzd nemzedékek sora,
s a talajt sírról sírra műveli.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationK. L.

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