Introduction to the Text

This song, composed on April 24, 1542, was included in Cronica, Sebastian Tinódi’s printed song collection of 1554. The songs in Cronica were accompanied by melodies and intended for performance before varied audiences as well as for private reading. The general topic of the collection is the defensive struggle of Hungarians against the Ottoman armies, and its songs can be described as event poetry (a genre which typically combines a narrative account of contemporary, momentous events with implicit or explicit political-cultural commentary). Tinódi significantly advanced the genre of event poetry in Hungarian literature and became a model for those who followed.

In contrast to “The Loss of Buda and Captivity of Bálint Török” (also presented in the Global Medieval Sourcebook), this song exhibits fewer oral compositional elements and illustrates how Tinódi eventually developed a more definitive literate style with fewer formulae and repetitions. Nevertheless, for greater effect in performance, he deftly employs direct speech to admonish his audience and also to console his captive lord, Bálint Török.

In this song, Tinódi laments the entrapment of three Hungarian magnates by the Sublime Porte (the Ottoman government). Each magnate’s arrest is described along with the resulting personal misfortune for the family, even though details are sparingly given. The fate of these nobles then forms the basis for a comparison of Ottoman and Hungarian beliefs and actions. Primary themes are the guile of the Ottomans on the one hand, and on the other, the factiousness, gullibility, imprudence and lack of Christian morality of the Hungarians. The opening lament (stanzas 1-2) contrasts the dire situation for the Hungarians with Ottoman glee. As the Sublime Porte gains from Hungarian foolhardiness, several stanzas admonish Hungarian lords severely in a direct address (stanzas 3-7, 32-34). The implication is that the Ottomans are united under one sovereign and one belief system, whereas the Hungarians are constantly divided. Thus the song blames the Hungarians themselves for their country’s calamities.

Introduction to the Source

Cronica, Sebastian Tinódi’s songbook of 1544, contains this song and twenty-one others together with his own musical compositions. It was printed in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca, Romania). A few original copies are extant as facsimile editions. The source for this translation is the standardized transcription accessible on the Hungarian Electronic Library website, Tinódi Sebestyén összes költeménye: http://mek.oszk.hu/01100/01100/index.phtml.

About this Edition

The goal has been to render the Hungarian in clear and smooth English prose. The original is composed of 50 mono-rhyming quatrains of morphemic rhymes using the popular 12 syllable line. This translation conforms to the quatrain structure while avoiding rhyme and meter. Each stanza expresses a complete thought or idea. This parallel stanza format facilitates comparison of translation to original. Punctuation follows the needs of modern English. Sometimes sentences have been split to accommodate English syntax and others have been connected. Names of well known, high-ranking persons have been anglicized; others have been modernized. All Hungarian names are given surname second. Places and persons named are capitalized and identified in the notes. Specific historical details mentioned are also explained in footnotes. Sections containing direct address are marked by syntax as the singer’s voice, and seldom lend themselves to setting off with quotation marks. Quotation marks are used only to indicate the speech of a character within the text.

Further Reading

Czigány, Lóránt, Oxford History of Hungarian Literature from the Earliest Times to the Mid-1970s. Oxford, Clarendon, 1984. pp. 40–43. http://mek.niif.hu/02000/02042/html/index.html

• Short, reliable introduction to Tinódi. Available electronically.

Dobozy, Maria “Two Cultural Perspectives on the Battle of Lippa, Transylvania, 1551.” Fifteenth Century Studies. (2013) Vol. 38, pp. 21–39.

• Discusses the influence of German event poetry on Tinódi and the historical accuracy of the two poems.

Dobozy, Maria, “Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos.” Christian-Muslim Relations 1500 - 1900. Ed. David Thomas. Brill, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1163/2451-9537_cmrii_COM_26618

Seláf, Levente, “Between Lyric and Epic: The Great Turkish War in German, Italian and Hungarian Ereignisliedern,” Controversial Poetry, 1400–1635. Ed. Judith Keßler, Ursula Kundert, Johan Oosterman. Brill, 2020. pp. 61–86.

• Analyses genre and function of Italian, German, and Hungarian poetry that deals with religious, political and military conflicts.

Credits