[Julie Steiner]

Three sections from "Zsivajgó természet" by Dezsö Kosztolányi (Hungary, 1885-1936)


VERSE TRANSLATION:

The Language of Insects


1. The Ant

Zealously ants work the soil.
Their bread, and their adventure, love of toil.
No turmoil
if summer’s mild: they see their winter corn won’t spoil.


2. The Wasp

Black-and-yellow assassin, dagger in hand:
tragic
wasp! Its quarrelsome, winged and nervous buzzing is:
magic!
Its red-hot, stabbed, live-coal wound’s anthropo-
phagic!


3. The Marbled White Butterfly (Melanargia Galathea)

Great musicians they are, birds.
I can’t sing, but I can see what can’t be heard.
When plants shoot bright sky-rockets, I need no word
to perceive the Universe whole, unblurred.
Nestless,
it flits this way onto its blooming prize:
a drunken, restless,
mute artist––offbeat likewise.


ORIGINAL HUNGARIAN, and ENGLISH PROSE CRIB
with details of versification (syllable count, rhyme scheme)

Zsivajgó természet
The Language of Insects


1. Hangya
The Ant

—Földmívelő a hangya. (7,A)
—Earth/soil-worker the ant [is].
—The ant is a farmer.

A szorgalom a kenyere s kalandja. (11,A)
The industriousness the bread-its and adventure-its.
Industry is its bread and its adventure.

Ha langy a (3,A)
If lukewarm/mild the
If the summer

nyár, nézi, hogy nő télre a kalangya. (11,A)
summer, looks-it, how grows winter-for the shock-of-corn-its.
is mild, it looks to see how its ears of corn are growing for the winter.


2. Darázs
The Wasp

—Feketesárga gyilkos, tőr kezében: (11,A)
—Black-yellow murderer, dagger hand-its-in:
—Black and yellow assassin, dagger in its hand:

darázs! (2,B)
wasp!
the wasp!

Izgága, röpte, ideges zúgása: (11,C)
Quarrelsome, winged/flighty, nervous buzzing-its:
Its querulous, winged, nervous buzzing:

varázs! (2,B)
magic!
magic!

A seb, melyet döf, izzó, lángoló-vad: (11,D)
The wound, that stabs-it, incandescent/glowing/burning, flaming-wild:
The wound it stabs, red-hot, wildly flaming:

parázs! (2,B)
ember/live-coal!
Live coal!

3. The Marbled White Butterfly (Melanargia Galathea)

—A madarak zenészek. (7,A)
—The birds [are] musicians.
—The birds are musicians.

Én nem tudok dalolni, ámde nézek. (11,A)
I not can-I sing-to, ah-but look-I.
I don’t know how to sing, but I can look.

Ha színeket rakétáz a tenyészet, (11,A)
If/when colors rockets-it the vegetation,
When the vegetation sets off color-rockets,

úgyis megértem a dicső Egészet. (11,A)
that-way-also [p-i-c]-understand-I the praiseworthy Whole/Universe.
I can also understand the worthy Universe.

Fészek (2,B)
Nest
Nestless

nélkül csapongik így a feslő (9,C)
without flits-it this-way the bursting/blossoming
it flits this way onto the blooming

virágra, részeg, (5,B)
flower-onto, drunk/drunken,
flower: the drunk,

bohém és néma festő. (7,C)
bohemian and mute painter.
bohemian and mute painter.