Poetry
Levelek Iris koszorújából
Not translated into English
Mihály Babits · 1909
Synopsis
Poems written in the 1900s, which change from one page to the next in form, tone and period: sonnets, odes, antique stanzas, impressionist tableaux. The title presents them as the leaves of the crown of Iris, messenger of the gods and rainbow, an image of the diversity of the world. The collection opens with “In Horatium”, an ars poetica in Alcaic stanzas that celebrates perpetual change, and includes pieces such as “Húnyt szemmel”, “Messze… messze…” and “Fekete ország”.
Context
The collection appears in 1909 from the Nyugat press; it is the author's first book, when he was a secondary-school teacher at Fogaras. Its most notable pieces are “In Horatium”, “Húnyt szemmel” and “A lírikus epilógja”, and the variety of forms, from the Horatian ode to the sonnet, is intended as a programme. The title itself announces this programme, since the messenger of the gods wears all the colours of the world there.
Who it is for
Demanding fixed forms and a fabric of ancient allusions; no French or English translation of the collection has been located.
Prizes and reception
Its author's first collection, and one of the founding books of the first generation of the journal Nyugat.