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Contents

FOREWORD by Don Paterson

1. GATHER AROUND YOURSELF
2. I AM A WANDERER
3. RIDING ON CLOUDS
4. WE, THE TWENTY-FIVE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET
5. FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS
6. INTERVIEW
7. ARM IN ARM
8. REVERENCE
9. SHORT LYRICAL ORATION
1o. TELEPHONE
ll. THE HEAD
12. HOROSCOPE
13. ANIMAL TALE
14. INFORMATION
15. BUDAPEST
16. LEGEND IN PROSE
17. LAST HUMAN BEING
18. AUTOBIOGRAPHY
19. MOOKY
20. TEN COMMANDMENTS
21. ESSENTIALLY A REVISED EDITION
22. JAZZ ANTHEM
23. CIRCLE
24. TRAVELING
25. DUST CLOTH
26. GROUP PORTRAIT OF MYSELF
27. ODE TO A FREE VERSE
28. A POET LIVES HERE AMONGST YOU
29. TOPIC FOR AN EDITORIAL
30. COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE
31. STUDY TOUR
32. THE HUMAN
33. REPORT
34. FIRST PERSON SINGULAR
35. DELICATE QUESTION
36. WORLD HISTORY
37. TYPEWRITER
38. THE COIN
39. THE SEEDSMAN
40. OBLIGATORY SPRING POEM
41. BUDAPEST DIVISION
42. IN THE LAST FEW DAYS
43. OVER THE SPEED OF 100 KILOMETERS
44. BLOOD PACT
45. LOST GENERATION
46. MECHANICAL PRAYER
47. HAPPINESS
48. POEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED
49. KEY POEM
50. NOW I CONFESS
51. AT THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
52. ACCOMPLICES
53. PARLIAMENTARIANS
54. EXPEDITION
55. MOMENTS
56. AND IF IT SADDENS YOU
57. ART GALLERY
58. MUSIC FOR PROSE
59. FAMILY EVENT
60. PHILOSOPHICALLY PROFOUND POEM
61. MEMORIAL SPEECH
62. MR. SOMOGYI, OR THE EVERYDAY ODE
63. I WAS ABOUT FIFTEEN YEARS OLD
64. PEACE
65. A POET, HIS SOUL IN WHITE TIE AND TAILS
66. 100% POEM
67. MANHOOD
68. THE DREAM
69. THE 10 000 001st LOVE POEM IN PROSE
70. ORPHAN POEM
71. TAKING A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF MY LIFE
72. I LIKE YOUNG, FIRM, ROUND BREASTS
73. THE LAST SPECTATOR
74. I SENTENCE MY SELF-ESTEEM TO LIFELONG LIFE
75. WHOLESALING
76. STAR
77. I'M ONLY DISSIPATING ENERGY
78. FOR TWO DOLLARS COME ON IN, SWEETIE
79. EXCAVATION
80. THE KNIGHT OF RHYME
81. HIS HAIR WAS PROBABLY BLOND
82. MATHEMATICS
83. MEMBERS OF THE PARTY
84. AT 7.20 P.M. THE ORIENT EXPRESS ROLLED IN
85. I'M A KNOT IN THE PLANK OF SOCIETY
86. ANSWER TO THE AGITATOR!
87. IT'S NOT AS IF I WANTED TO BRAG
88. THE SCHOOL CHILDREN
89. THE LITANY OF VAINLINESS
90. FOR A HUMAN I'M TOO MUCH OF A POET
91. IT HAPPENED AT NOON TODAY
92. THE FORTUNE TELLER
93. WHEN GOD CREATED
94. SELF-IMPOSED EXILE
95. NEITHER EXECUTIONER NOR MARTYR
96. TO ADHERE AIRTIGHT
97. LIKE A CURSED EX-CROWN PRINCE
98. COMING TO TERMS WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE
99. HEADS OR TAILS
100. BECOME A MESSAGE

Translator's Afterword
Notes
Acknowledgments

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Blurb

LAJOS WALDER is considered to be one of the most significant modern Hungarian poets. Born in Budapest in 1913, he died in May, 1945, shortly after walking through the opened gates of the liberated concentration camp of Gunskirchen. Under the pseudonym 'Vándor' - meaning 'wanderer' - he published two volumes of poetry during his short life: Heads or Tails (1933) and Group Portrait (1938). His substantial poetic legacy, including his unpublished manuscripts, was saved from the Nazis by his family, who emigrated to Australia in 1957, and is now appearing for the first time in its entirety in English translation.

"Rarely have I been smitten by a poet, but in Lajos Walder (1913-1945) I have been swept off my feet. [His] poems... capture the art of a rare mind, who surveyed his times with an awareness as dark as Franz Kafka's and a humour as light as Milan Kundera's ... [A] gift of poems, which I am certain will have a very long life in English." - RACHAEL KOHN, Australian Jewish News &ABC Radio National, Australia

"[Lajos Walder] has neither ancestor nor partner in Hungarian literature. He is a poet, without a doubt a lyricist through and through, yet one whose every line and every poetic breath is pure heresy, pure rebellion against accustomed forms of poetry." - GÁBOR THURZÓ

"[Lajos Walder] was the most credible voice to express the times between the two world wars. Without this artist's entirely individualistic voice, the overall picture of that period is incomplete." - GÉZA HEGEDÜS

"Lajos Walder is unlikely to be a name you know or even half-know. And yet we should know it." - DON PATERSON

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