Comenius A Tribute to

The literary work perfomed by

Miklós Radnóti: The Night performed by Kávészünet (a video)

played by Hungarian students Salt ( a Hungarian folktale) recited by Greece Sándor Petőfi: To be a tree recited by Sándor Petőfi: National Song recited by Poland Endre Ady: Longing for love sung by Tamás Cseh ( a video) Endre Ady: Biztató a szerelemhez recited by different languages: Italy, , Miklós Radnóti: I cannot know Spain, Turkey and Hungary recited by Greece Attila József: By the Danube recited by Hungary Attila József: Áldalak búval, vigalommal reading the extracts, all the partner countries Péter Eszterházy: Helping verbs of the heart sung by Hungary Miklós Radnóti: Charming

A tribute to the Hungarian literature

1. Radnóti: Éjszaka

2. Ladies and Gentlemen!

Welcome to our literary afternoon!

Our aim is to get you acquainted with the Hungarian Literature. The song you have just heard was a poem by Miklós Radnóti, entitled ’The Night’.

In our project it became a tradition to recite some passages from the host countries literary works. We recommended you ‘Helping verbs of the heart’ to read by Péter Eszterházy who is one of the most widely known contemporary Hungarian writers. His books are

considered to be significant contributions to postwar.

As John Updike said about him "Esterhazy's prose is jumpy, allusive, and slangy.

...there is vividness, an electric crackle. The sentences are active and concrete.

Physical details leap from the murk of emotional ambivalence’.

Now I would like to ask all the participant countries to quote from his work ’ Helping

verbs of the heart’. Let us follow the alphabetical order of the guest countries, so

please welcome Italy, Greece, Romania, Spain and Turkey and last but not least,

the host country, Hungary.

(countries reciting)

3. Now I am inviting you to the world of the Hungarian poetry.

The first poem to be recited by the representative of Greece was written by Sándor

Petőfi who is considered to be the poet of the people.

You will hear two of his poems. The first is entitled ’To be a tree’, and the second

’Rise up, Magyars’ or ‘National Song’ which was kind of a slogan of the

Revolution and War of Independence of 1848-49 and with its harsh and provoking

style it became an emblematic poem in latter periods in Hungary.

First, you will hear it in Spanish and then in Hungarian, but in a special form.

Greece: To be a tree

National song (Spain, Hungary)

4. Endre Ady lived in the early 20th century, and he was famous for his fierce and

bohemian lifestyle which was echoed in his symbolist poetry.

You will hear ‘ Trusting for love’ by him, to which a Hungarian composer, Tamás

Cseh added tango music.

However, before that, I would like to call upon Poland to read one of his other poems

‘Longing for love’.

Poland: Longing for love

video: Cseh Tamás

5. The poem, ‘I cannot know’ by Miklós Radnóti was our nominated poem in the

project. Exciting moments are waiting for us because Italy, Romania, Spain and

Turkey have selected this poem to recite. Let us hear it in different languages, and in

the end, in Hungarian performed by our coordinator, Erika Medei.

Radnóti: I cannot know

Radnóti is famous for his devoted love toward his wife. He wrote plenty of beautiful

love poems to her. One of them is ‘Charming’ is coming with music. Please welcome

Csenge Starkbauer.

6. When talking about the 20th-century literature, Attila József is a must to be

mentioned. Among his main topics, love played a crucial role. One of our students,

Dorina Vass is going to tell one of his beautiful love poems ’ Áldalak búval’,

’Blessing you with sorrow and delight’.

7.

When talking about literature in general, we cannot forget the basics, our folk art. We,

Hungarians, have loads of folk tales, giving us morals for life. One of them will be shown in a minute, called ‘Salt’.

You will see a special performance, a ‘plasztikon’ which used to be a popular genre

at market places. Its speciality lies in the fact that it tells a story in movements,

arranged in pictures. Please welcome our students!

After this funny show, We would like to thank you for your careful selection of the texts, and do hope you set your affections to our literary pieces and also, to arouse your attention that you are invited to the musical ’Jekyll and Hyde’ at 7 p.m. tonight.

Let me inform you that as it is a dress rehearsal of the performance, it might happen that the director will instruct the actors or the technicians during the show, which let us go closer to backstage secrets.

Thank you for your kind attention and let’s meet at 6:45, tonight, here, in front of the theatre!

Take care and good-bye!