Dániel Berzsenyi: ODE

Oh God, beyond the highest power of man

To comprehend or to conceive, we know

Thee but by inward thoughts of bounded span,

And, even as the sun’s life-giving glow

Illumes the universe, we feel Thy might

Yet cannot narrow itt o our dim sight.

The utmost heavens, star-systems without end

Revolving round Thee, and the smallest worm

Invisible int he dust, alike proceed

From Thy great hand; Thy law is the vast norm

Whereby creation and all things that be

Adjust their difference and equality.

From the dark void Thou hast created, Lord,

A thousand species varied beyond ken;

Numberless planets perish at Thy word,

Dissolve to dust, and whirl to life again.

Thy wisdom measures time’s deep rivers still,

Zenith and Nadir do thy praises fill.

The tumult of the tempest, and the flame

Of fringéd lightning, do Thy works declare;

The dewdrop and the blossom both proclaim

Thou didst create all that is good and fair.

I kneel before Thy throne with ardent awe;

Would I were chainless andmight nearer draw

Till the blest hour when, from my fetters freed,

I may adore Thee even as Thou art,

I will seek what is good as my best meed,

Treading my destined road with steadfast heart,

And striving, while my strength sufficeth still,

To love Thy law and to obey Thy will.

The darkness of the grave serene I see

Looming before me: though ’tis rough and cold,

Why should I shun what is ordained by Thee?

Although it must at last my limbs enfold,

The vision gives my waiting heart no fear,

For also there I know that Thou art near.

DÁNIEL BERZSENYI (1776-1836), born at Egyházas-Hetye, enjoyed but a brief sojourn at scholl, and afterwards helped his father, a man of education, in agriculture. After his marriage, some specimens of his work reached Kazinczy, then the leader of the Hungarian literary world, who at once descried Berzsenyi’s genius, and encouraged it. The best representative of the old classical scholl, he studied and imitated Horace, and his Odes int he Horatian style have never been surpassed in Hungarian. Berzsenyi’s latter years were embittered by the censure of critics, and by broils with his best friends.

Forrás: MAGYAR POEMS. SELECTED AND TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. BY NORA DE VÁLLYI AND DOROTHY M. STUART. – LONDON, E. MARLBOROUGH AND CO., 1911.