[.uk] Perched on Nothing's Branch (ISBN 189399600X)

Deeply Existential, Soulful, Heartfelt Poems:
Jozsef Attila (Hungarian way, patronym last name is first) is one of Hungary's most beloved and tragic poets. I first heard of him having lived on a street with his name as a child. As an adult, I obtained poetry books in Hungarian in the 1970s and was impressed with his soulful expressions of tragic reality, deep emotions and natural imagery. The English translations in this volume of 40 poems are excellent. With a few liberties, the author manages to refine English and capture the nuances of meaning to match Hungarian phrases ... To better understand a poet, one must learn a litte of his history. His mother raised him in poverty, for a brief time he was sent to a village while she took in wash to make ends meet. Nevertheless, he managed to enter the University but he did not obtain his degree due to difficulties with a professor. Later, he traveled to Vienna and Paris in the mid-1920s and instead obtained a cosmopolitan education abroad where he was exposed to various political systems. As often happens to those born in poverty, he placed his hope in socialism and the Communist Party, but was later expelled ... not unusual for idealists and free thinkers. This volume of 40 poems includes one of his most famous poems of natural imagery, "Harmatocska". The poet notices the dew in the early morning, when it is still dark, as it lays on a raspberry branch, shimmering, resembling greasy paper. As the poet works in the fields, he sees the mist rise from the mountains and hears the humming in the fields or perhaps he himself is humming. At nightfall, he recognizes the heavens and gazes at the stars ... feeling good, possibly for being one with nature or having achieved his work in the splendor of nature. This poem has been set to music by the Sebo Ensemble (CD available at amazon.com) and has even had a dance to it choreographed by an Hungarian tradiitonal master dance instructor. The dance is taught in the USA at international folk dance camps. This poetry book is most highly recommended. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

Poetry at its best:
Ever lost a loved one? Ever wondered about happiness? Here is a poet who will make you cry, make you feel empathy and unconditional love. When you read his poems, you`ll see the `naked` & tortured soul & heart of Attila Jozsef. The translation is great. I highly recommend this book to everybody. This book is a diamond, get it and treasure it.

Poetry at its best:
Ever lost a loved one? Ever wondered about happiness? Here is a poet who will make you cry, make you feel empathy and unconditional love. When you read his poems, you`ll see the `naked` & tortured soul & heart of Attila Jozsef. The translation is great. I highly recommend this book to everybody. This book is a diamond, get it and treasure it.

Interesting Poetry:
Jozsef's poetry is so schizophrenic; one moment elated the next instant in the deepest despair. Good job translating, too.

Alternating Cries of Hope and Despair:
I've never been to Hungary, but poet Attila Jozsef made me feel as if I had been there, right with him, side-by-side and surreal, on a wildly hazardous train ride through nervous breakdowns, desperation, loneliness and loss. In his book of selected poems, Perched on Nothing's Branch, translated by Hungarian / American award-winning poet and translator, Peter Hargitai, Jozsef frantically rushes forward ever in search of connection, atonement, and his own elusive, finally unreachable self-preservation. Abandoned by his father at 3, orphaned at 14 following the death of his mother, rejected by lovers, and deserted by the Communist Party, Jozsef sought, through his existential, richly imaged, and often tragic poems: sanctity, structure, and salvation. In his poem, "With All My Heart," with powerful and lamenting language and a lyrical end-rhyme scheme, we can see Jozsef's tragic sense of abandonment and loss, and near the end of the poem, perhaps a cry for his own comforting death. In the opening stanza he writes, "I have no father and no mother, / I have no God, I have no land, / neither cradle, nor a cover, / nor a kiss, nor lover's hand" (lines 1-4). Here, Jozsef lyrically and directly states his reality. His language (again with end-rhyme) is clear, direct, and heartbreaking. He is alone, without family, deity, country, place to rest, and without his lover. In stanza two, with these isolating images now in place, Jozsef, moves directly to his hunger. However, we see that this hunger is not a longing or desperate wish for food, but perhaps a desire for his own freeing death, a death that will transport him away from his exhaustion and misery. Again, straightforward and lyrically he writes, "Three days I haven't eaten / not too much and not too well, / all I have is twenty years, / twenty years I'll gladly sell" (lines 5-8). By mentioning his age, Jozsef, is not merely telling the reader that he is a young man of twenty, but instead perhaps, he is making a desperate offer to free himself from his tragic circumstances. He is willing to sacrifice all that he has left; his life. Stanza three is a little less accessible. Jozsef's language here is not as direct nor as easily understood as the language in his first two stanzas. He writes, "If no takes them, / maybe then the devil will. / I'll break in with all my heart, / and if need be, kill" (lines 9-12). The first two lines appear to indicate that if God (or anyone) will not take his life, then perhaps the devil will accommodate him. The last two lines seem to indicate that if the devil fails to act, then he himself will act by committing murder. The fourth and final stanza seems to indicate that if the speaker (Jozsef) does act and commit a murder, he will be caught, killed (by hanging), and buried where over time the grass will grow on his grave and over his caring heart. Jozsef writes, "They'll catch me, they'll hang me, / cover me up with blessed earth, / and death-eating grass will start / growing over my lovely heart" (lines 13-16). Thankfully, this and other poems survive, but tragically the poet does not. Perhaps as an uncanny and twisted fulfillment of his poem, "With All My Heart," at age 32, in December of 1937 Attila Jozsef committed suicide. However, fortunately for us as new readers of Jozsef, Perter Hargitai's artistically skillful translations resurrect this great voice and allow us the chance to reflect on, and listen to, our own alternating cries of hope and despair.