Mikl坦s Radn坦ti was a 20th century Hungarian poet who came from an assimilated Jewish family. His life and work were shaped by his mother and twin brother dying at birth. In his poetry, he strongly identified as Hungarian despite being rejected as a Jew in Hungarian society in his later years. During World War II, he was forced into labor camps by the Hungarian army. While on a death march, he continued writing poems in a small notebook. His last known work was dedicated to a friend who was killed. Radn坦ti himself was shot and buried in a mass grave. After the war, his notebook of final poems was discovered in his coat pocket, providing a rare literary account of the Holocaust.
3. Radn坦ti was born in Budapest into an assimilated Jewish family. His life was considerably shaped by the fact that both his mother and his twin brother died at his birth.
4. In his last years, Hungarian society rejected Radn坦ti as a jew, but in his poems he identifies himself very strongly as a Hungarian. His poetry mixed avant-garde and expressionist themes with a new classical style, a good example being his dialogue. His rom a ntic love poetry is notable as well.
14. In these last months of his life continued to write poems in a small notebook he kept with him. His last poem was dedicated to his friend M iklos L orsi, who was shot to death during their death march. According to witness, in early November 1944, Radnoti was severely beaten by a drunken militiaman who had been tormenting him for notes. Too weak to continue, he was shot int o a mass grave near the village of Abda in northwestern Hungary. Today, a statue next to the road commemorates (to honor the memory of by someone) his place o f death.
15. Eighteen months after his death ,the mass grave was exhumed ( d ig of earth) and in the front pocket of Radn坦tis overcoat his small notebook of final poems was found. The final poems are lyrical and poignant (distressing to feelings) and represent some of the few works of literature composed during the Holocaust that survived.
18. I cannot know I cannot know what this land means to other people. For me,it is my birthplace,this little nation ambraced By flames,the world of my childhood rocking in the distance. I grew out of her like a tender branch from a tree And I hope one day my body will sink into her. I am at home.And if a shrub happens to kneel down Beside my foot,I know both Its name and its flower; I know who walks on the road and where they are going, And what it might mean when in the summer sunset The house-walls shimmer and drip with crimson-agony. For one who flies above,this land is merely a map, And does not know where lived V旦r旦smarty Mihaly, What does this map hold for him?factories and wild barracks; But for me cricekts,oxen,steeples,peaceful homesteads; He sees factories in his lenses and cultivated meadows,
19. While I see the worker too,who for his work trembles. Forests, singing orchards,grapes and cemeteries, Among the graves an old woman who quietly weeps. And what seem from above train tracks to destroy 聴s a conductors house and he stands outside and signals; Many kids surround him,a red flag in his hand, And in the courtyard a komondor rolls in the sand; And theres the park,the footsteps of long-lost loves, The kisses on my mouth both honey and cranberry. And walking off to school on the edge of the road, To avoid beeing called on,I stepped on a stone; Look,heres the stone, but from above,this cannot be seen, There is no machine with which all this can be revealed. For we are guilty too,as other peoples are, Knowing full-well when and how and why were sinned so far,
20. But workers live here too,and poets,without sin And tiny babies in whom intellect will florish; 聴t shines in them and they guard it,hiding in dark cellars Until the finger of peace once again marks our nation, And with fresh voices they will answer our muffled words. Cover us with your big wings,vigil-keeping evening cloud. -By: Radn坦ti Mikl坦s -
22. About the Poem Miklos Radnotis poem How others see.. is a poetic expression of patriotism and description of a national identity.The textual pattern presents sets of contrasts between landscapes for bombing and landscapes for life,above and below,far and near,ignorance and knowledge,collective sin and individual innocence.