This website is using cookies

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on this website. 

Pratt, E. J.: A díjnyertes macska (The Prize Cat in Hungarian)

Portre of Pratt, E. J.

The Prize Cat (English)

Pure blood domestic, guaranteed,
soft-mannered, musical in purr,
The ribbon had declared the breed,
Gentility was in the fur.

Such feline culture in the gads
No anger ever arched her back--
What distance since those velvet pads
Departed from the leopard's track!

And when I mused how Time had thinned
The jungle strains withing the cells,
How human hands had disciplined
Those prowling optic parallels;

I saw the generations pass
Along the reflex of a spring,
A bird had rustled in the grass,
The tab had caught it on the wing:

Behind the leap so furtive-wild
Was such ignition in the gleam,
I thought an Abyssinian child
Had cried out in the whitethroat's scream.

 
1935



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationKiss Balázs grafikája

A díjnyertes macska (Hungarian)

Fajtiszta állat, szavatolt,
Dorombolása dallamos,
A szalagján: őse ki volt,
A bundája pompázatos.

Hátát nem húzza föl soha,
Minden lépése oly finom -
És talpa, a bársony-puha
Rég nem jár leopárd-nyomon.

S az Idő kiirtotta benne
A dzsungel-ösztön sejteket,
S az ember keze megnevelte,
Hol múlt veszély leselkedett.

Láttam: a forrás tükre mellett
Hogy elhaladtak emberöltők,
A fűben madár szárnya rebbent,
A macska karmai megölték.

E titkos-vad ugrás mögött
Felgyulladt valami sugár,
Úgy tűnt: egy abesszin kölyök
Hangján sikolt föl a madár.



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

minimap