Zsuzsa Rakovszky was born in 1950 in Sopron and studied Hungarian and English Literature at the Eotvos University in Budapest. After working as a librarian and literary editor she became a free-lance writer and translator and has established herself as one of the most talented Hungarian poets. She published several collections of poems: Prophecies and Deadlines (1981), One House Further Away (1987), White-Black (1991), New Life (1994) and One-Way Street (1998). The world of her poems is full of complex experiencies and emotions, expressing her deep sensuality and appreciation of life in spite of our disturbing and disturbed everyday reality.
They Were Burning Dead Leaves
They were burning dead leaves. Must oozed with scent,
tar bubbled and blew.
The moonlight glow behind the thistle bent
like a torn rainbow.
The street was a forest, night slid into the heart
of deepest autumn.
A quilty music blew the house apart,
with its fife and drum.
To have this again, just this, just the once more:
I would sink below
autumnal earth and place my right hand in your
hand like a shadow.
Translated by: George Szirtes
They were burning dead leaves. Must oozed with scent,
tar bubbled and blew.
The moonlight glow behind the thistle bent
like a torn rainbow.
The street was a forest, night slid into the heart
of deepest autumn.
A quilty music blew the house apart,
with its fife and drum.
To have this again, just this, just the once more:
I would sink below
autumnal earth and place my right hand in your
hand like a shadow.
Translated by: George Szirtes