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MELINDA SEBŐK
with the transcendent. Paul Claudel writes: "silence may be solitude, but its
also communion / communication, connecting us with others. It is in poems
where pure dialogue unfolds the infinite wealth of ancient-original silence.”
With Ronay, the metaphysical anticipations of silence realise the dialogue
between God and humanity. In some of his poems, meaningful objects
and natural phenomena are used to express his personal experience. In the
impersonal locution of his poetry, only silence, occurring in contemplation,
provides occasional signs of life. The unique symbolism of his reduced poetic
dictions, the secret of moments of silence make the poems of The Graveyard
of Winter (Teltemetö) suggestive in their scarcity of words, and his faith is
confessed particularly in the poems where he is searching for inner silence.
The short poems operate with the simplicity of prose, yet mystical meanings
lie beyond the momentary phenomena. His poetry is permeated by the
suggestive gleam of the landscape — mediating the human psyche — and by
the metaphoric character of the divine light.
The lyric pieces in the volume The Graveyard of Winter (Teltemetö) present
the figure of silence in several senses. In one group of poems, in the so-called
Szarsz6 cycle, silence is observed as opening up cosmic distances while
suggesting passing away. The contemplative poet, in the silence of the lake, on
his Szarsz6 island, evokes the sense of passing in Enchantment (Vardzslat),
October in Szarszö (Oktöber Szdrszén), The Approaching Winter (A kézelité
tél). The autumn landscape in the four-line poem The Mist (Köd) is also
a prime example of this phenomenon.
In the remaining cycles of the volume, the aesthetics of silence conveys
two contrasting feelings — hope and angst: “in the great silence of the world”,
the pinewoods emanating “the resin-scent of reconciliation” suggest an
internal redemption, a silence providing solace; while the speechlessness of
the contemplative subject in “the suffocating silence” suggests a terrifying,
“dreadful” silence. God’s soothing silence permeates his lyric pieces like
Martyrdom (Martirium), Calm (Szélcsend), Landscape with Rainstorm
(Tajkep zivatarral), Changes in Scenery (Tajak valtozasa) and Ars antipoetica,
which all confess his Christian faith; meanwhile, the poetica of numb silence
and a “dissolving dread” are perceptible in such poems from the volume as
Swallows (Fecskék), Prometheus and Numen adest.
Heidegger says in What is Metaphysics?: “Amidst the strangeness of
dread we often try to shatter the empty stillness with mindless chatter.”
Ferenc Szabé quotes Claudel in Silence is the Source of Words, Rome, Ugo Detti Publisher,
1985, 7.
Sheehan, Thomas, Reading Heidegger’s What is Metaphysics?, in Burt Hopkins—Steven
Crowell (eds.), The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy,
London-New York, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2001, 191.
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