[.ca] Perched on Nothing's Branch: Selected Poems of Attila Jozsef (ISBN 189399600X)

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.

A Communists Manifesto:
Attila Jozsef's poetry captures the essence of his search for inner peace. He was a empty man. His father left him at a young age and his mother died when he was fourteen years old. He was looking for structure in his life. His poetry constantly portrays him looking for this structure. He wanted a woman who essentially would serve a dual purpose; that of a mother and a lover. He searched for structure in the communist party as well; the idea of communal living really appealed to him. Everyone important to him departed, so he grasped onto the idea that the state would provide for all needs, both material and emotional. Ultimately, even the communists deserted him. Attila could not express his individuality within the communist system. He committed suicide by dropping himself under a train. The poetry is quite tragic, but yet the imagery is masterful. In addition, my Literature professor, Peter Hargitai did a great translation of it. The words really flow well and he captures the meaning of Jozsef's writing.