A Rab Gólya (Részlet) Lyrics

Árva gólya áll magában
Egy teleknek a lábjában,
Felrepűlne, messze szállna,
Messze messze,
Tengerekre,
Csakhogy el van metszve szárnya.

Tűnődik, féllábon állván,
El-elúnja egyik lábán,
Váltogatja, cserélgeti,
Abban áll a
Múlatsága,
Ha beléun, újrakezdi.

[English translation:]

The captive stork (Partial)

A lonely captive stork doth stand,
With courtyard walls on every hand;
Fain would he wing his flight afar;
Across the sea
His way would be,
But pinions clipped his soaring bar.

He stands upon one foot to dream;
Then shifts it; weary he doth seem.
Thus changing he the time doth spend —
Naught else to do
The whole day through,
Save shift and change without an end.

His head beneath his wing he lays;
Into the distance would oft gaze;
In vain; four walls are round about.
Four walls of brick,
So high and thick,
'Tis vain to strive to pierce without.

True, he could look up to the sky,
But no desire directs his eye;
Free storks above fly far away,
Fair lands to see,
While vainly he
Doth long to end his doomed stay.

He waits, waits ever, longs in vain,
That his maimed wings may grow again,
That he once more to heaven may soar;
There, where his way
No limits stay,
Free homelands he can travel o'er.

The country glows with autumn sheen,
But no more storks at all are seen,
Save one poor loiterer, who doth dwell —
A captive left,
Of freedom reft,
Immured within a narrow cell.

The cranes have not yet made their start,
But even they will soon depart.
He sees them not; he only hears
Too well above
The notes thereof —
The birds of passage in his ears.

Once and again he oven tries
Upon his crippled wings to rise;
Ah! they would raise him up on high,
Nor hold him low,
Were it not so
That they were clipped so cruelly.

Poor orphan stork, poor stork, 'tis vain;
Thy pinions ne'er will grow again,
E'en though the winter should be o'er;
For if they grew.
False men anew
Would clip them even as before.

[Translation by William N. Loew]

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