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THE AESTHETICS OF SILENCE IN GYORGY RONAY’s POETRY
unfailing internal experience of hope. Cosmic vision and the implication of
ending are expressed through the dialectic dichotomy of view and vision,
of the earthly and the heavenly.
In Rönay’s ever-enriching world of experience, the 1960s and 1970s meant
the period of fulfilment, when he reached the heights of his poetry. The 1973
volume The Graveyard of Winter (Teltemetö) was received with adequate
praise by contemporary criticism. The Graveyard of Winter (Teltemetö)
can be seen as a ripe fruit of a poet ready for reckoning, richly processing
a vast education. Cultural and existential experiences show a combined
predominance in his lyric pieces, serving as a summative synthesis of the
Rénay oeuvre. The Graveyard of Winter (Téltemeté) presents the expansion of
the nature-related experiences in these summative lyric works into a whole
universe. The blade of grass, the branch, the wind, the rippling fountain,
the garden, the starry sky are not merely objects of the gaze but vehicles of
grasping a momentary existence. Rónay is searching for meanings in the
landscape, contemplating his own existence. Every natural phenomenon
possesses an existential meaning. Thus, the scenery becomes a secret system
of symbols for this world beyond existence. The aging poet lyricises his elderly
years with the garden in Szärszé as its island. Its lyric and personal nature
becomes a confession of self, as his solitude triggers contemplation.Warnings
about passing and reckoning frequently appear. His last poetic period is
a synthesis of confessional and personal poetry, of monologuising long poems
woven through with epic elements, but also of concise, closed, impersonal
poetry, bringing about an ensemble which enriches and renews the oeuvre.
The behaviour of old and contemporary poets serve as a model for his lyric
style. In his visionary poems of synthesis, he finds the basic metaphor for
his life in the figure of Odysseus: the experience of infinity and limitlessness
while searching for inner silence. Starting from the volume The Graveyard
of Winter (Teltemetö), his poetry is gradually simplified and surfaces in
a more succinct form. Thus, in his final poetic period, the longer pieces give
way to more gaunt poems suggesting an epigrammatic taste of life. Certain
lyric pieces possess a footing pertaining to the philosophy of language which
refers to the relation between God and the language. On the publication
of The Graveyard of Winter (Téltemeté), he commented on the poetic role
of silence as follows: “There is no absolute poetic purity, only in silence [...]
Poems are made from words and silences — silences in and between words;
that is my material.”" In his poem Ars antipoetica, he claims: “It’s been silence
I’ve ever loved / submerging in myself.” Predominantly, the figure of silence
is verbally fixed, but on other occasions it is only implied, yet through its
aesthetic-metaphysical essence, it realises the possibility of communication
1! György Rónay, Szentek, írók, irányok (Saints, Writers, Directions), 104-105.
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