József Attila:
As a child who’s sorry
he’s being put to bed,
and pleads for another story
(to ward off the dead of night),
the heart longs for your light.
He doesn’t know what to say:
(A story from you or for you to stay.)
So, stay! And before you go
tell us all you know.
Even if we heard it before,
Tell it again, tell it more.
Tell us now more than ever
how we must stick together,
be worthy of each other.
You know the poet never lies,
he's either truthful or he dies.
Tell us what can ignite our art
in this great, gloomy dark.
Let us light one another tonight
like Castor lit Madame Chauchat.
No noise can drown you out.
Tell us about reality. About beauty.
Tell us about longing. About agony.
We just buried poor Kosztolányi.
He was devoured by cancer
as a dictator devours humanity.
So much terror without reason
lurking on a dark horizon.
How will they unleash their poison?
How long will they let you speak?
We are with you. We are not weak.
We are men and we will remain men.
And women, women - free women.
And what is more we are all one.
So, sit down please, Thomas Mann.
Begin your story, and we will listen,
happy to see a true European.
Translated by Peter Hargitai
“Attila József Selected Poems” iUniverse, Inc. 2005
