The New Hungarian Quarterly, 1975 (16. évfolyam, 59. szám)

BOOKS AND AUTHORS - Ferenczi László: A Prolific and a Taciturn Poet (Mihály Ladányi, György Petri

THE NEW HUNGARIAN QUARTERLY 176 wherever he is, particularity its manifesta­tions in art. At that time he discovered the traditions of the Gyimes valley and made them accessible to all who treasure folk art. Finally, without a job, and not tied to any particular region, the art of all places where Hungarians lived in Transylvania or Molda­via became the field where he collected. He made it his special business to cover even the most scattered diaspora, and record their folk-songs and folk-music. He covered the whole of historic Transylvania and Moldavia, but he did not step out of their bounds, into those parts of the Great Plain which lie within the frontiers of Rumania. That is a different world and he did not realty feel at home in that. A love of one’s native land works wonders in ethnographic collecting and has done great things for Hungarian culture. Those who really loved their own neck of the woods always produced something of im­mense value for the whole when they delved to greater depths than elsewhere. Kallós surpasses us all. Not only because the country he covers is bigger, the whole Princi­pality of Transylvania that once was, and even more, or because it is incomparably richer in archaic material than any other, but because Kallós is driven by an inner need to do what others do out of mere enthusiasm. Preserving the traditions of the people gives meaning to his life. This explains why he carries on though he puts his basic interests at risk, again and again, with renewed strength. He did it when he only enriched the publications of others, he did it when his name was begin­ning to be bruited about, but far from ensur­ing him a living it cost him money; and he did it, with great satisfaction, when he received sufficient recognition to publish books under his own name—another volume contains all the songs one Moldavian woman knew—and twenty years of systematic and devoted research were beginning to make him some royalties as well. And he will surety do it again, for nothing can keep this man, obsessed with folk song, from his calling: the search for the culture his people has produced. Lajos Vargyas A PROLIFIC AND A TACITURN POET MIHÁLY LADÁNYI: Se csillaga, se holdja [Neither Star Nor Moon], Szépirodalmi Könyv­kiadó, Budapest, 1974, 466 pp; GYÖRGY PETRI: Körülírt zuhanás [Circumscribed Fall], Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1974, 71 pp. Mihály Ladányi, the “song-beaten off­spring of cotters”, began publishing verse in university periodicals as a student two decades ago; his first published volume in 1959 bore the modest but carefully chosen title yty út kezdete (The Beginning of the Road). How very deliberate it was now r becomes clear after publication of this tenth volume of verse. When Ladányi began his career, Hun­garian lyric poetry was ceremonial and serious, perhaps too much so. Even though different trends vied with each other, just as they do today, almost every trend and

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