Gábor Görgey has passed away
"...at dawn, stylishly, on Poetry Day, Arthur was gone."
This morning, at 7.34 AM, I received this text message. Then, I thought, he could be sitting at István Vas’s table again, next to Ferenc Juhász and István Kormos, as I first saw them together in the spring of 1960. “But wouldn’t it be stylish that on József Attila’s birthday, Gábor Görgey (original name, and to friends Arthur), Kossuth Prize, József Attila Prize, and Prima Primissima-winning poet, writer, playwright, honorary president of the Hungarian PEN Club, in his 93rd year, still stands on a podium and recites his poem titled “Eszkimó nyár” (Eskimo Summer)? The poem that accurately describes the “one minute” of October 1956, as the young university student, deported in 1951 because of his origins (nephew of General Arthur Görgey), longingly experienced the “summer” after the revolution:
“Lessük háromszázhatvannégy napig
a derengő opál golyót az égen,
várjuk a csontmelegítő nyarat
dideregve a jégkunyhó ölében,
s egyszercsak itt van, ránkcsordulva áttör
az égbolt jégfalán egy napsugár.
Egy percig tart. S mi ujjongunk a télben:
„Micsoda nyár volt! Ó, micsoda nyár!”
Goodbye, my brother, my friend!
Zoltán Sumonyi
Honorary President of the Hungarian PEN Club
