“Self-imposed parochialism” became their strength and central virtue; this was what gave rise to their glory after they died. Whereas in fact, Herbert remarks, they did nothing other than paint what they saw, the life that went on around them. Sándor Kányádi’s poetry gained its own style through a process of natural development and maturation by the end of the 1960’s. The style that evolved can best be described by referring back to Herbert’s somewhat shocking and provocative phrase, “self-imposed parochialism”.
The most important message of this volume is the imperative of loving one’s homeland. Homeland is not seen here as an abstract notion but as a coherent whole composed of landscape, culture and man. It is shaped from the reality of each day as we live it, from our memories, from the traditions passed down to us and the geographically outlined area where all of this takes place.
The 20th century was a period of doubts. Well-established roles, behavioural patterns and old values became compromised in an age marked by totalitarian regimes and a general loss of certainty. Even language became a subject of doubt. Kányádi, however, managed to find those authentic roles and forms of behaviour, those threads within the tradition which sustained the linguistic community. He breathed new life into these behavioural forms and roles so that they became living and accessible once more, even amid the conditions of the modern age.
Kányádi’s poetry, which is closely entwined with the living history and conditions of the Hungarian community living in Romania, is powerfully influenced by the fact that it was conceived amid the conditions of an ethnic minority. However, this predicament is far from being the only key for interpreting this poetry. A decade and a half after the collapse of the previous regime, it is now clearly visible that he had transubstantiated the language of his province into something that is worthy of being called world literature. In this language he became capable of posing the most burning questions of 20th century man in a frame of universal poetry: the elemental desire of existential and ontological home-coming. The existence and destiny of the Transylvanian Hungarian community forms a part, and to him the most important part, of this overall dilemma.
While his poetic world has this social relevance and thus remains very close to real life, the poems actually excel and invite attention by virtue of their linguistic and formal richness, their highly wrought, virtuoso quality and their courage in experimentation. This was even true of the “bottle-messages” sent to the outside world during the most tragic decades of dictatorship.
It was not easy to live and stay human in Central Europe in the past century. Literature has been too closely entwined with history, as history interfered far too brutally with the life of the nation, society and thus the individual. Sándor Kányádi’s life was also framed by the heritage of the Treaty of Trianon and restricted by left-wing dictatorships, but for all its tragedy and pain his poetry has way more to offer than a tragic quality. It is permeated by a convivial serenity, a sense of irony, humour and play, a wry and merry readiness for anecdote – which all join forces to exude, despite the current social and historical experience, a great affirmation of life and a general sense of existential trust. Perhaps the only reason why a body of experience such as Kányádi's managed to yield such great literature is that is was based on rock solid foundations. “Modern man” in “the age of doubt” has difficulty accepting that certain axioms and Archimedean points still exist. Sándor Kányádi’s poetic worldview has been built on axioms from the very outset: on the axiom of belonging to a community, on the axiom of moral responsibility, on the axiom of being at home in the world. Eventually it even came to confirm the need for a transcendental foundation underlying our existence.
Kányádi’s poetry is opposed at almost every point to the ruling ideas, styles and world views of his age. This does not mean, however, that he turns a blind eye to what is going on. On the contrary, he tends to pick up the threads at the most problematic points and carry them further in a provocative fashion. If in the 20th century, the kind of poetry which claims to be representative of “the people” has lost its credit, Sándor Kányádi goes back to the prophet’s role. If modern lyrical poetry idolises the impersonal tone and abstract objectivity, he reaches back to descriptive objectivity and the truthfulness of the sociographers. If 20th century literature becomes distanced from the reader, Kányádi strives to write poetry you can recite and even sing. To the distancing of the personal in both poet and reader, he opposes the reality of human encounter on the biological level. At a time when words and writing are rapidly losing value, he seems to erode his own poetry, writing just one single book. In the age of self-administration and the creation of self-engendered mythologies he creates a negative counter-myth. He picks up the threads of tradition and continuity and, seemingly ignoring trends and fashion, yet incorporating the fruits of the new styles from time to time, he creates a new style: a style you can continue.
Kányádi’s poetry remains authentic throughout: in his formal qualities, his language and poetic structure, he never placed the standards lower or higher than the level he had obtained from an emotional and intellectual point of view. His poetry, particularly his formal repertoire, never ventured into foreign waters – he always wrote about the world he had full command of, the world in which he was completely at home. The course of development he completed is perhaps unparalleled: a lyrical poetry rooted in the 19th century turned almost imperceptibly into 20th century poetry, a rural peasant world into a world of European horizons and universal application, a simple experiential lyrical poetry into poems of existential philosophy.
Previously on HLO
Poems by Sándor Kányádi Other poems by Sándor Kányádi in English on the internet
Song of the Road; The Tree; Fall; After the First Blow; White
Books by Kányádi in English
Dancing Embers
Curious Moon
Györgyi Pécsi | 
