Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/291

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

THE FRIENDS OF GYU LAY 277 fests infinite care. Th oughts of crystalline purity in forms of crystalline symmetry constitute his poetry. His Vi n­ tage Day is one of the most charming of idylls. The poet, in a distant land, is thinking of the home of his parents. It is a great day to-day, that of the vintage. The happy family is seated at dinner in the shade of a large pear-tree. The lips of his two littie sisters are redder than ever with the j uice of the sweet purple grapes. In the course of a playfui dispute one of them begins to sulk, and dectares that she does not wan t any dinner. While the father breaks the neck of a wine flagon, one of the labourers fires his gun into the air as a salute, and the woman and ch ildren cry out though more arnused than startled. The father bids the labourer draw near and offers him a glass of wine, though he may guess from the way in which th e labourer's hat is tilted on his head that this is not the first glass he has tasted to-day. The hills re-echo with laughter and the songs of merry labourers. Only u pon the mother's brow is there a cloud, as she thinks of one wh o i3 far away. CHARLES SZÁ SZ (1829-1906) is the third member ot the littie group, and a real poet, though not of the first rank. His best poems are perhaps those which he wrote after the •death of his young wife, who was a tal ented poetess. Szász became very actíve as a translator, and his translations incJude several of Shakespeare' s plays and of Tennyson' s poems. His numerous prose works are chiefly devoted to the spreading amongst others of his own great kno wledge of literature . The fourth of the group was LADISLAS ARANY (1844- 1898), the son of John Arany. He was a satirical epic poet, but he soon gave up writing poetry, perhaps because he did not find his talent strong enough to