Landmark [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The purpose of the present Anthology is to record the history of the past twenty years as reflected in literature. These twenty years in which so much has happened, in which there have been so many changes and achievements, so many sacrifices and struggles, represent but a few brief episodes in the great drama of our national history—and of this century. The plot of this drama can hardly be understood without some insight into its dual background: the antecedents of Hungarian national history in the distant past, and the pioneering efforts of twentieth-century mankind to achieve a new kind of existence. With the antecedents derived from our national history the reader can acquaint himself through the works of the outstanding writers of the period between the two wars. But the international background reflected in this present volume—though from the standpoint of Hungary—the reader must build up for himself Twenty years are a short time in the life of a nation. Nevertheless, this period in Hungary does not need to be examined with the aid of an historical microscope: such are the profundity of the changes that have occurred and the revolutionary speed with which they have been achieved that the resulting development both quantitative and qualitative, can be seen, with the naked eye. History cannot possibly be written simply in statistical terms, for there are certain factors determining qualitative development which cannot be expressed in facts and figures and which yet considerably influence the movement, the way of thinking and the activity of the masses. The dilemma of the contemporary chronicler is certainly not that these twenty years provide an insufficiency of events and changes worth recording: the heart of the problem lies in our ability or inability to see the events of the present through the eyes of the future, and to distinguish in the embarrassing abundance of events what is merely episodic from what is historically significant. As the great Hungarian historian Cyula S^ekfii has said, the historian can at best only indicate the connecting lines that exist in his vastly rich dead material. Yet it is much easier to draw these lines—the evolutionary graphs that reflect the main historical trends—for the dead material than for the living, since Time itself has already sifted the past with cruel objectivity. To the eyes of a contemporary, how many events appear to be of historic importance which eventually prove to be mere episodes, and how often we are blind and deaf to the truly epoch-making trends. The task of the writer and the artist is at once more simple and more complex than of the historian. It is simpler because it is not necessary for the writer to prove logically that the symptom or event he describes is actually epoch-making: he may record happenings, developments or emotions that are comparatively remote from the tempests of contemporary life. It is complex because it is his task to depict the shaping of society, not in direct terms, but only through the changes taking place in human emotion. Nor must it be forgotten that these changes cannot be explained solely in terms of the great events of history, for, as our daily experience shows, the same event may provoke different reactions, may give rise to different associations of ideas in the minds and imaginations of people who, outwardly, appear to be in the same historical situation. This is why a true writer, a genuine artist, measures the speed of historical change with the time gauge and measuring rod of the human spirit. Today, looking back from the vantage point of a long journey already achieved, we can trace much more clearly the outlines of our former efforts and aspirations. If we consider through the eyes of an historian the road we have covered, we shall see sharp rises and long ascents that now appear to be quite immaterial. Indeed we mayfeel that the descents only served to diversify the scenery and make our progress more chequered. It may even seem that the turns were not so abrupt as they once appeared. However, the human mind is moulded from more sensitive material and stores up with- 9