Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/291

 THE FRIENDS OF GYU LAY 277 fests infinite care. Th oughts of crystalline purity in forms of crystalline symmetry constitute his poetry. His Vi n­ tage Day is one of the most charming of idylls. The poet, in a distant land, is thinking of the home of his parents. It is a great day to-day, that of the vintage. The happy family is seated at dinner in the shade of a large pear-tree. The lips of his two littie sisters are redder than ever with the j uice of the sweet purple grapes. In the course of a playfui dispute one of them begins to sulk, and dectares that she does not wan t any dinner. While the father breaks the neck of a wine flagon, one of the labourers fires his gun into the air as a salute, and the woman and ch ildren cry out though more arnused than startled. The father bids the labourer draw near and offers him a glass of wine, though he may guess from the way in which th e labourer's hat is tilted on his head that this is not the first glass he has tasted to-day. The hills re-echo with laughter and the songs of merry labourers. Only u pon the mother's brow is there a cloud, as she thinks of one wh o i3 far away. CHARLES SZÁ SZ (1829-1906) is the third member ot the littie group, and a real poet, though not of the first rank. His best poems are perhaps those which he wrote after the •death of his young wife, who was a tal ented poetess. Szász became very actíve as a translator, and his translations incJude several of Shakespeare' s plays and of Tennyson' s poems. His numerous prose works are chiefly devoted to the spreading amongst others of his own great kno wledge of literature. The fourth of the group was LADISLAS ARANY (1844- 1898), the son of John Arany. He was a satirical epic poet, but he soon gave up writing poetry, perhaps because he did not find his talent strong enough to