Modernism: Representations of National Culture

Endre Ady: I am the son of king Gog of Magog; Song of the Hungarian Jacobin

ENDRE ADY: I AM THE SON OF KING GOG OF MAGOG; SONG OF THE HUNGARIAN JACOBIN Title: Góg és Magóg fia vagyok én (I am the son of king Gog of Magog); Magyar jakobinus dala (Song of the Hungarian Jacobin) Originally published: Góg és Magóg fia vagyok én was published as the opening poem of the volume Új versek (New poems) (Budapest: Pallas, R.T., 1906). Magyar jakobinus dala was the first poem of the cycle Téli Magyarország (Winter Hungary) of the volume Vér és arany (Blood and gold), (Budapest, Franklin-társulat, 1908) Language: Hungarian The excerpts used are from Ady Endre összes versei (Budapest: Szépirodalmi, 1950), p. 7 and p. 114. About the author Endre Ady [1877, Érmindszent (Transylvania, Rom. Mecenţiu, present-day Ady Endre, in Romania) – 1919, Budapest]: poet, critic, journalist, the key figure of Hungarian modernist literature. He was the descendant of an impoverished Calvinist gentry family. He attended the Piarist Gymnasium in Nagykároly (Rom. Carei, presentday Romania) between 1888 and 1892, and then the Calvinist College in Zilah (Rom. Zălau, present-day Romania) between 1892 and 1896. He then studied law in Debrecen and Budapest. He interrupted his university studies and became member of various editorial boards in Debrecen. His poems, short stories, and critiques appeared in local newspapers. In 1900, Ady accepted a job in the journal Szabadság (Liberty) in Nagyvárad (Rom. Oradea, Ger. Gross-Wardein, in present-day Romania) and decided , contrary to his family’s wishes, to pursue a career as journalist and writer. Later, he joined the staff of the liberal journal Nagyváradi Napló (Nagyvárad diary). He became acquainted with a married woman, Adél Brüll, in the summer of 1903, and began a ten-year relationship with her. In January 1904, he traveled to France, spending nearly a year there and returning repeatedly over the following three years. Ady was deeply influenced by French culture. In 1908, he became a contributor to the leading modernist literary magazine, Nyugat (West). During these years he was also politically active, closely cooperating with the radical intellectuals who pressed for universal suffrage and social reforms. In 1915, he married Berta Boncza, daughter of a Transylvanian noble family from Csucsa (Rom. Ciucea, in present-day Romania ). He moved to Budapest in 1917. After periods spent in hospital due to his syphilis, Ady fell fatally ill during the October Revolution in 1918 and died in Park ENDRE ADY: I AM THE SON OF KING GOG OF MAGOG… 275 Sanatorium three months later. While his oeuvre has been interpreted in radically different ways by different cultural-political subcultures, he remains a central figure of modern Hungarian literary history. Main works: Új versek [New poems] (1906); Vér és arany [Blood and gold] (1908); Az Illés szekerén [In Elijah’s chariot] (1909); Szeretném, ha szeretnének [I want to be loved] (1910); Vallomások és tanulmányok [Confessions and studies] (1911); A menekülő élet [Fugitive life] (1912); Margita élni akar [Margita wishes to live] (1912); A magunk szerelme [Our self-love] (1913); Ki látott engem? [Who saw me?] (1914); A halottak élén [In front of the dead] (1918). Context The Hungarian gentry underwent a dramatic transformation after 1867. Traditionally identified with the ‘Hungarian nation,’ it had participated extensively in the reform movement of the 1840s and the revolution of 1848. After the Ausgleich of 1867, however, the position of this social stratum was challenged: its members had to endure the counter-effects of the very modernization process they had been promoting a generation before. Urbanization , bureaucratization and industrialization all contributed to the shift in the symbolic power-relationships, and, by the turn of the century, it was a commonplace that the gentry’s way of life was in a deep crisis. Ady came from exactly such a milieu. Politically this stratum was a fervent supporter of the ‘Independentist’ ideology , which gradually lost most of its liberal components and turned more and more nationalistic (with the notable exception of the veteran politician, Lajos Mocsáry). But there was an alternative potential inherent in the ‘Independentist ’ discourse as well, envisioning a democratic reform as a means of undermining the Ausgleich, which was perceived to have been created by opportunist politicians disregarding the national interest and betraying the heritage of the 1848–49 revolution. The Achilles’ heel of this ideological option was the nationality question, as any kind of...