The New Hungarian Quarterly, 1973 (14. évfolyam, 51. szám)
Sándor Lukácsy: Petőfi's Prose
SÁ N D O R LUKÁCSY: P E T Ő F I’S PR O SE 9 1 incidental production of a universal talent. In Hungarian prose Petőfi was a revolutionary reformer, and he remains one of its greatest masters. In prose as in poetry, he was most in his element when he could convey his own lyrical personality, when he could speak about himself. His novel (The Hangman’s Rope, 1846) and his historical drama (Tiger and Hyena, 1845) are valuable chiefly as records of his mental and emotional state, since in neither of them did he attain the objectivity of representation required by the genre. His major prose works were created when considerations of genre did not tie him down; when his lyricism could flit from one subject to another in prose as it did in poetry. This is why his greatest prose works are his travel accounts, his correspondence, his diary entries and his articles. He wrote two series of travel sketches: Travel Notes in 1845, and Travel Letters in 1847. Both are accounts of v/anderings in Hungary, since excepting his military service in Croatia and Austria, Petőfi never travelled elsewhere. All the more, however, did he travel in his homeland, about and through nearly every county—on foot when he was in financial difficulties, and later by cart, by fast coach, and on the first railroads. In his sketches—inspired by similar works of Heine—he blends with consummate art the most various elements of theme, tone, and style. He mentions what he ate for breakfast just as he does the works of art he sees on the way, the encounters with friends and the women he falls in love with; he combines masterful descriptions of the countryside with political and literary meditations ; arriving at a familiar place, he will conjure up one or another episode from his past. Mischievous jokes, earnestness, irony, satire, romantic pathos and gestures to annoy the bourgeoisie: all these are brought together in a constantly shifting kaleidoscope, in such a way that the unity of the various elements is assured by the lyrical presence of the congenial traveller. It is as though one were not reading a written work at all, but were listening, rather, to the traveller’s always attentive, always witty and continually changing voice. This approach toward living speech was what was bold and revolutionary in Petőfi’s prose (often in his poetry as well), in contrast to the awkward, circumlocutory, ornate style of his contemporaries. His letters have survived in rather large numbers. These are not literary letters which cast a sneaking glance toward posterity, but letters filled with practical affairs: the writer asks for a loan of money, arranges a meeting, gives orders to his printer... Nonetheless, Petőfi’s correspondence is valuable as literature, owing to the style and the ideas it contains. This is especially true of the thirty-four letters Petőfi wrote to his poet-friend, János Arany. (Twenty-nine of Arany’s letters to Petőfi have also survived.) Arany was a worthy friend, in whom Petőfi could confide his most important and most personal literary and political ideas. He was also a worthy correspondent, who welcomed the stylistic excellence of Petőfi’s letters and was able to respond in kind. Indeed, the stylistic excellence of this correspondence makes it a still unsurpassed miracle, an imperishable treasure of Hungarian prose. It is the adolescent game of two great spirits, rejoicing in the pleasures of language and exploiting its possibilities to an extent never equalled: a deluge of puns, plays upon words and jokes; a stream of linguistic humour that, not content with Hungarian alone, often becomes macaronic, drawing English as well into its games. (They could do it: both were admirers and translators of Shakespeare, and knew English well.) The two poets romp and frolic, cuff one another like cubs, play at fairy tales and sometimes stick out their tongues, like children; yet in amongst these games one finds the most serious aesthetic discussions, plans for literary reform, and revolutionary ideas. It was only after the outbreak of the revolution, on March 15th, that Petőfi was able to write political prose. He began at once: the first entry in his diary of the revolution