Endre Ady

Endre Ady, descended from impoverished landed gentry, was born in the remote village of Érmindszent, Austria-Hungary (now Ady Endre, Romania). At his birth Ady had six fingers on each hand. The extra two fingers were cut off by the midwife. Later he used to show the scars, calling them his 'wizard marks.' Until the age of nine Ady attended the local Calvinist school - his mother came of a long line of Calvinist ministers. He changed to a Catholic school and went then to a Catholic gymnasium at the town of Nagykároly. Partly because of his drinking habits and free associating with girls he was transferred to a Calvinist college at Zilah.



During these years Ady started to write and consume alcohol seriously. After graduating he entered a law school but abandoned his studies for a newspaper post in Debrecen. Versek, his first book of poetry, appeared in 1899. From 1900 until his death Ady worked as a journalist, drifting from one provincial paper to another. He spent four years in Nagyvárad (now Oradea, in Romania), an important centre of intellectual life, where he contracted syphilis. Ady served on the staff of an opposition paper and his militant attitude to the excesses of nationalism was seen in poems written during this period.



In 1903 he published his first significant volume of poetry, Még egyszer. In the same years he met Adél Brüll (Diós), the cultured wife of a lawyer. She became 'Léda' (notice the anagram of Adél) of his poems and his muse for the next nine years. His thinking radicalized after the 1905 Revolution. With his next book, Új versek (1906), Ady made his breakthrough as a poet, and initiated a revolution in Hungarian literature. Ady lived in Paris with Brüll much of his time from 1904 until 1914. Paris was for Ady the city of light but also the city of the Commune of Paris (1870-71) and the craddle of modern poetry. He worked as a foreign correspondent for Budapest papers, among others for Budapesti naplón, and made frequent visits to Hungary, Italy, and elsewhere. Between the years 1908 and 1919, he was closely associated with the journal Nyugat, which kept him in the public eye. The journal published works from some of the best writers of the era, and took a major role in fostering the emergence of modern Hungarian literature.



In Új versek, and in its successor Vér és arany (1907), Ady found his own way of expression, deliberately shocking with piled up adjectives and repetitions. Az Illés szekerén (1908) expressed Ady's continuous struggle with religion. God is for the poet the Almighty who is bored with virtuosos and doesn't guide, revenge or reward. "My skin belongs to the devil," he confesses. Ady's works provided an immediate challenge for the younger generation and Ady soon became a nominal leader of the literary group Holnap. However, literary opinions were divided and his unconventional language, adopted from symbolist, shocked the audience. He attacked the ruling class for their greed, castigated Hungary as a backward-looking country, and advocated modernity. In 'Az õs Kaján' he wrote: "My Lord, my soil is Hungarian soil, barren exploited. / Why encourage us to unmindful rapture? / What is worth of pledges in wine and blood? / What may the worth of a Hungarian be?" Among others, prime minister István Tisza, and the leading conservative journalist Jeno Rákosi were his prominent opponents.



In 1912, 'Léda' started an affair with another man and Ady's 'A Message of Gentle Dismissal' from 1913 became his final words to Leda. Ady consulted Freud's outstanding Hungarian pupil Sándor Ferenczi, who sent him to a clinic. After recovery he started a series of affairs, and married in 1915 a young girl, Bertuka Boncza ("Csinszka" in his poems), who had started a correspondence with him. However, Ady found only brief periods of happiness and respite from nervous tensions in the secluded Transylvanian home of his wife. During World War I Ady protested vigorously against the war and forces of reaction. In 'Láttam rejtett törvényed', written in 1914 after Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the poet hears thunder from clouds and sees himself dead, in ice while the world is in flames. When the radicals took over the government and István Tisza, the war leader, was murdered, Ady was horrified. He suffered a stroke that affected his speech, but not writing. Ady's pacifist poems - unique at that time in Hungary - appeared in A halottak élen in 1918.



Ady was elected in October 1918 chairman of the Vörösmarty Academy which was just founded. In the last months of his life, Ady was "more of a living corpse than a brilliant intellect" (Lóránt Czigány in The Oxford History of Hungarian Literature, 1984). Weakened by alcoholism, Ady died of pneumonia in Budapest on January 27, in 1919. A new revolutionary government, formed in the wake of postwar upheavals, arranged a state funeral for him. Ady's last poem was 'Az utolsó hajók' (Last Ships), where he leaves open his belief or unbelief in God - "you Are Not" he wrote in front of death. It is told that just a few months earlier Ady teared up his old faithful companion, the Bible, which had deeply impressed his own language.



Ady was very prolific. He wrote some 1 000 poems and published 10 volumes of poetry in 12 years, as well as short stories and countless articles. Ady's complete poems, Összes versei, were first published in 1930. He remained a legendary figure in Hungarian literature: he founded no school but opened up new possibilities for expression. Some of the critics have claimed, that a part of Ady's poetry was essentially political journalism in verse form, requiring familiarity with the issues of the poet's time.



Ady was the most unreal of Hungarian poets. His age set him in the center of intellectual and political struggles; Ady's poems either scandalized people or were revered as standards of the revolution. No other Hungarian poet has been the subject of such fervent disputes as he. Ady seemed to belong to those great, popular poets whose work disappears with the passing of their age. But it did not, and his stature in Hungarian literature has been growing since his death.



He is one of the most solitary figures in Magyar literature, without ancestors or successors. Ady was a philosophical poet, a wild and barbaric thinker, a Hungarian kinsman of Nietzsche. He stood on the boundary line of superstition and myth, creating visions instead of thoughts. His starting point was his own personality, the primeval experiences of life and death, fall and expiation. Ady was tormented by Dostoyevski's God-fever, the eternal mystery which escapes the meshes of culture. He broke with the bashful, idyllic tradition, regarded love as a gloomy strife, and expressed himself in naked and harsh words.

Ady became the prophet and revealer of the tragic fate of his nation; but he saw his subject in the light of eternity, raising it above everyday matters of politics and social problems. This conception was new and revolutionary, as was his language. His style is far from artistic; its forms are not the results of conscious calculation, but flow like outpouring lava. Ady's language is not generally comprehensible, his poems point beyond themselves, full of secret meaning like a magic sign or rune. Of all Hungarian poets, his poems are the most untranslatable. It took time before the Hungarian public realized that behind the seemingly meaningless symbolism in his poems there lay a rich "Ady-world."



His view of Hungary's history is one of continuous misfortune and oppression. The Magyar fate is a tragic "must" which Hungarians have to face fully knowing the impossibility of the task. It is a curse to be Hungarian, although a blessed curse.



Son of a member of the gentry making his living as a peasant. Completed elementary gymnasium studies in Érmindszent, attended Piarist Gymnasium in Nagykároly 1888-1892 and then Calvinist College in Zilah 1892-1896, where he started a literary periodical and wrote poems for it. Began law studies in Debrecen in September 1896. Entered University of Budapest for second year of law studies but did not attend lectures. Junior clerk in Temesvár for four months; then, after stays in Budapest, Érmindszent and Zilah, returned to Debrecen in September 1898 to resume law studies. Soon left Református Kollégium and became staff member of Debreceni Főiskolai Lapok, Debreceni Ellenőr, Debreceni Hírlap, and Debrecen. Poems, short stories, and criticism appeared in Debrecen newspapers. In 1900 accepted post with Szabadság in Nagyvárad and decided, contrary to wishes of family, to pursue career as journalist and writer. Disregarded diagnosis that he was suffering from syphilis. Attack on clericalism in article resulted in three days' imprisonment. Left Szabadság and joined staff of Nagyváradi Napló in May 1901. Became acquainted with Adél Brüll, wife of Ödön Diósi and "Léda" (Adel spelled backwards) of his poems, in summer of 1903 in Nagyvárad, and began ten-year liaison with her that deeply affected both their lives. Decided to go to Paris to begin new life. Spent fall of 1903 in Érmindszent studying French and preparing for journey to Paris. Arrived in France in January 1904, where he spent nearly a year in Paris and on Riviera. Sent articles about experiences to Budapesti Hírlap and Budapesti Napló. Deeply affected by French culture, radical ideas. Left Paris in mid-January 1905, returned to Budapest, and became staff member of Budapesti Napló. Poems became center of literary controversy. Returned to Paris in June 1906; visited Naples, Venice, and Monaco. Sent poems and articles to Budapesti Napló. Returned to Budapest in summer 1907. Poor financial situation forced him to live in Érmindszent. Became life-long contributor and leading spirit of Nyugat in 1908, year of its founding. Returned to Paris in January 1909, rested on Riviera, and visited Italy in spring and summer. Syphilitic condition worsened; controversy about his poetry intensified. Spent more than a month in psychiatric clinic in Kolozsvár during summer 1909. Relations with Adél Brüll worsened. Lived in Paris again from December 1909 to summer 1910. Lived in Érmindszent periodically 1910-1912 but visited Italy and Paris with Adél Brüll in search of health. Hospitalized in Budapest sanitorium in spring 1912. Severed relationship with Adél Brüll in summer 1912. Spent some months in sanitorium in 1913. Lived in Érmindszent for a time and then returned to Budapest. In April 1914 went to Csucsa to visit Berta Boncza, who had first written to him in 1911 at age sixteen. Saddened by outbreak of World War I; spent fall 1914 in Csucsa, Budapest, and Érmindszent. Marriage to Berta Boncza, opposed by her father, took place on March 27, 1915. Lived in Csucsa but was hospitalized in Budapest sanitorium in 1916. Moved to Budapest in 1917. Already fatally ill during period of October Revolution in 1918. Named president of newly established Vörösmarty Academy but was hardly able to deliver acceptance speech. Suffered attack of pneumonia at beginning of December and long history of bad health led to his death the following month in Park Sanitorium. ¶ One of the greatest of Hungarian poets, he began a revolution in lyric poetry and was the leading figure in its development. Style symbolistic. Modes of expression new but contain biblical and rural elements of earlier centuries. Themes range over all aspects of Hungarian life and problems. Poems of personal nature deal with love, death, dissipation, mysticism, and God. Opposed Hungarian ruling classes for their insensitivity to need for social progress and for their materialism. Performed important role in acquainting Hungarians with French culture and literature. Wrote fiction, but his poems are vastly superior. His writings on literature are very valuable to understanding of literature during the early 20th century. ¶ Editions of his poems are available in Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Rumanian, Russian, Slovakian, and Spanish, and some poems in Arabian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Japanese, and Portuguese.