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Radnóti Miklós: The bull (Mint a bika in English)

Portre of Radnóti Miklós

Mint a bika (Hungarian)

Úgy éltem életem mostanig, mint fiatal bika,
ki esett tehenek közt unja magát a déli
melegben és erejét hirdetni körbe rohangat
s játéka mellé nyálából ereszt habos lobogót.
És rázza fejét s fordul, szarván a sűrű,
repedő levegővel és dobbantása nyomán
gyötrőt fű s föld fröccsen a rémült legelőn szét.

S úgy élek mostan is, mint a bika, de mint
bika, aki megtorpan a tücskös rét közepén
és fölszagol a levegőbe. Érzi, hogy hegyi erdőkön
az őzbak megáll; fülel és elpattan a széllel,
mely farkascsorda szagát hozza sziszegve, -
fölszagol s nem menekül, mint menekülnek
az őzek; elgondolja, ha megjön az óra, küzd
és elesik s csontjait széthordja a tájon a horda -
és lassan, szomorún bőg a kövér levegőben.

Így küzdök én is és így esem el majd,
s okulásul késő koroknak, csontjaim őrzi a táj.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://users.atw.hu

The bull (English)

Hitherto, I lived the throbbing life of a youthful bull
bored in the noonday heat among pregnant cows in the field,
running around in unending circles declaring his powers
and waving amid his game a foaming flag of saliva.
He shakes his head and turns with the splitting, thick air on his horns
and behind his stamping hooves the tormented grass and earth
spatters widely about the terrified green pasture.

And still I live like a bull, but a bull that suddenly stops
in the heart of the meadow singing with crickets, stops nostrils lifted
and sniffing the air. For he senses that far in the mountain forests
the roebuck too stops and listens and lightly flees with the wind,
the hissing wind that carries the stench of a distant wolf pack –
thus the bull snorts, but he will not escape like the deer
and considers that when his time is to come, he will fight and fall
and his bones will be scattered about in the district by the horde –
and slowly and sadly the bull bellows through the fat air.

 Thus I will struggle and thus I will fall when the hour is come,
and the district will treasure my bones for reminders to future ages.



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

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