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Radnóti Miklós: The witness (A „Meredek Út” egyik példányára in English)

Portre of Radnóti Miklós
Portre of Ország-Land, Thomas

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A „Meredek Út” egyik példányára (Hungarian)

Költő vagyok és senkinek se kellek,

akkor se, hogyha szótlan dünnyögök:

È - È - È - sebaj, hisz énekelnek

helyettem kandi ördögök.

 

S higgyétek el, higgyétek nékem el,

joggal legyez az óvatos gyanu!

költő vagyok, ki csak máglyára jó,

mert az igazra tanu.

 

Olyan, ki tudja, hogy fehér a hó,

piros a vér és piros a pipacs.

És a pipacs szöszöske szára zöld.

 

Olyan, kit végül is megölnek,

mert maga sosem ölt.

 

1939. június 1.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://mek.niif.hu/01000/01018/

The witness (English)

I am a poet, and I would be rejected

even if I fell silent in disgrace,

È - È - È - but lots of devils

are happy to sing in my place.

 

I have provoked, believe me, every caution,

suspicion sniffing after me like a sleuth!

I am a poet destined for the stake,

a witness who tells the truth.

 

A poet – one who notes what he has seen,

that snow is white and blood and poppies red

and that the poppies’ downy stems are green.*

 

I know at last my own blood shall be spilled

for I have never killed.

 

* Red, white & green: the Hungarian tricolour



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationThomas Ország-Land

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