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Simon Serfőző (1942, Zagyvarékas) is a poet who won the Kossuth, Attila József, Radnóti and János Arany prizes, and was awarded the Balassi Bálintemlék sword. He started as a member of Hetek. Member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. He is the editor of Napjaink, the editor-in-chief of Új Holnap, and then his chief employee, and from 1993 he is the head of Felsőmagyarország Kiadó. His most recent volume: Our face is the sky (collected poems, 2019).
Serfőző Simon: In their language
I began to speak in their language,
in the rattling language of the tilaga
as I pushed it in front of me,
in the creaking language of the gate
as it opened and closed
towards the fields and stubble.
And in their language,
who in their joy
climbed onto the shed and fence,
flapping their wings
as if they had applauded themselves.
I woke up with their voice,
fell asleep at night.
And with the others who
flew away before the sun,
by the horizon,
the earth
into the distance with their flight.
Human words
often spoke to them,
they spoke with them,
not with me,
whose child I was created,
with my mother and father,
whose housekeeper I was,
a grazer of ditches,
and then I became a commuter of winding trains,
a robot of cities.
Where I understood his speech
after the tools around their village
,
I knew from their grip what they were teaching.
And those who
told me about their lives
the wrinkles on their faces, and their outstretched hands,
their shoulders slumped against the walls,
with which they let me know everything,
I just had to pay attention.
The poem was published in the February 2024 issue of Magyar Napló.
