Translation of Endre Ady's The Elijah Chariot

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Les Gartner
Junior Member

since 2006-04-10

Posts 37
MD

0 posted 2006-04-30 10:37 PM

This is one of the most famous poems of a great Hungarian poet, Endre Ady (1877-1919).

The Elijah Chariot

The Lord takes Elijah-like, all those
Whom he greatly condemns or adores.
He gives them nimble, blazing hearts:
These are the fiery chariots.

The Elijah-people speed heavenward
And stop where winter always presides.
On the Himalayas' frozen peaks
Their chariots pulverize crystals of ice.

Between heaven and earth, melancholy,
Homeless, the winds of fate drive them on.
Towards wicked, ice cold, snow wonders
Their chariots rush heedlessly on.

Their hearts are molten; their brains, icicles;
And while their fate earth scornfully mocks,
Dolefully the sun slowly sprinkles
Their path with frozen diamond dust.

—Endre Ady
—translated by Leslie P. Gartner

Sunshine

Administrator

Member Empyrean

since 1999-06-25

Posts 63354
Listening to every heart

1 posted 2006-04-30 10:54 PM

The nearly century old Poetry magazine did its April month on "The Translation Issue" and did a magnificent work on various poets whose work was translated by current literary masters.

Please note, my use of "masters" are those who immerse themselves in reading, writing, understanding...and translating.  In this instance, I doubt it matters much whether they are deemed "masters" by others; I see them as such.

In my reading through this particular issue of Poetry, I am reminded that as you translate such wonderful pieces for our review, I would surely enjoy a personal response from you as to how you feel this work can fit in today's world.

What do you know of the author?  What do you feel of his work, and your subsequent translation?  What made this click in your brain to bring it to us?

I am here, as I have been these last several years, to learn.

You seem to me to be a teacher.  Take it a step further...

broaden my horizons.

Please.

Thank you!

Les Gartner
Junior Member

since 2006-04-10

Posts 37
MD

2 posted 2006-05-01 02:17 PM

Thank you Sunshine for your very nice comments. In fact you are quite perceptive because I am a teacher at the Dental School of the University of Maryland where I teach and write textbooks, mainly in microscopic anatomy, gross anatomy, and embryology. Translating poetry is one of those labors of love for which I can ill afford the time, but, nonetheless manage to do so.

As far as Endre Ady is concerned, his first important volume of poetry was published in 1906 (New Poems) and his style reminds me of Rainer Maria Rilke's and Charles Baudelaire's poems. He lived in Paris on and off - but always returned to his native Hungary. He died at a relatively young age of 42. His poems were revolutionary in style and he was lambasted for that by his older contemporaries, but the younger, more visionary Hungarian poets emulated his work. Today he is considered to be one of the greatest Hungarian poets of the 20th Century.

Les

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