Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/210

 196 HUNGARIAN LITERATU RE Th e follawing year was a time of poetica! enthusiasm and happy love. It was on September 8, 1846, that Petőfi first saw Julia Szendrey, and on the first ann iver­ sary of that day he married her. The early months of his marr ied life were spent in the romantic castle of Koltó, with his high -minded and poe tical young wife. From Koltó they went to Szalonta, to pay a visit to John Arany. A few months before, Arany's grand epic, Toldi, had won the prize in a literary competition. Petőfi had greeted h is unknown fellow poet with a beautifui poem, and soon afterwards th ey met and became firm friends. At the time of his visít, Petőfi wrote to a fri end : 11 Do you know why l was longing to come to Szalonta ? Because it is the dwelling-place of a great man, who is at the same time my frie nd, J ohn Arany, the author of Toldi. If you have n ot yet read the book i t would be vain for me to try and describe it, and if you have read it, it would be superfiuaus for me to say one word. And this great book is the work of a simple country notary. The week I have spent with my new friend l reckon amongst the happiest of my life. " Next year, in 1848, his poems sh ow a more marked political tendency. He felt in advan ce the revolution which was impending, 11 as animals perceíve the coming earthquake." This presentiment is expressed in the poem, The Country, * o f wh ich we quote a few stanzas. The sun went down, but not a starlet Appeared in heaven-all dark above­ No light around, exeept the taper Dim glimmering, and my homely love. That homely love's a star in beaven That shines taround both near and far,
 * BoWRING, " Translations from Petö:fi.. "