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Heaney, Seamus: A galagonyalámpás (The Haw Lantern in Hungarian)

Portre of Heaney, Seamus

The Haw Lantern (English)

The wintry haw is burning out of season,

crab of the thorn, a small light for small people,

wanting no more from them but that they keep

the wick of self-respect from dying out,

not having to blind them with illumination.

 

But sometimes when your breath plumes in the frost

it takes the roaming shape of Diogenes

with his lantern, seeking one just man;

so you end up scrutinized from behind the haw

he holds up at eye-level on its twig,

and you flinch before its bonded pith and stone,

its blood-prick that you wish would test and clear you,

its pecked-at ripeness that scans you, then moves on.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature

A galagonyalámpás (Hungarian)

Tél galagonyája nem évszak-égő,

kisembereknek kis fény, tüske morca,

tőlük se vár mást, csak önbecsülésük

csöpp kanócát, hogy óvják, ki ne hunyna:

nem vakít el megvilágosodással.

 

De néha, mikor zászlós a lehelet,

Diogenész alakját veszi fel:

ahogy keresi az egy igaz embert –

rögtön érzed, hogy a vesédbe lát:

fölemeli a galagonyalámpást,

és megrezzensz az érett figyelemtől,

véred veszi, tisztáz is talán,

szúrós szeme fürkész – de odébbáll.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://irc.sunchat.hu/vers/

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