THE SHADOWMAN

Krisztina Tóth is one of the most appealing and talented figures of her generation. At the age of thirty, she is the youngest author featured in the recently published volume Seven Centuries of Hungarian Poets. The fact that six of her poems were selected for inclusion in the volume indicates that she has gained recognition in literary circles not only for her translations but also for her own poetic work to date. Her previous volume, A beszélgetés fonala (The Thread of Conversation), was introduced by Szabolcs Várady in 1994 in the bibliophile series of Belvárosi Kiadó. In his opinion, the poet’s first volume, Őszi kabátlobogás (Autumn Coat Fluttering), published in 1989, was already ‘an excellent start.’ The virtue of her poems has remained unchanged since then: they are ‘enjoyable to read,’ and, like István Kormos before her, she has an exceptional feel for song (Ősz [Autumn]; Regős [Regős]; Altató [Lullaby]; Három lámpadal [Three Lamps], etc.). From the outset, her style has been captivatingly vivid, thanks to her confident formal knowledge, sense of proportion, musicality that goes beyond instinctive musicality, and her dramatically vivid grasp of situations and emotional relationships. Her current volume, containing nearly forty poems, retains the more personal tone of her peers, the elevated, almost classical intonation, and the prominent role of love themes (Valódi élet; [Real Life]; [Szemhunyás]; Blinking; [A nyitott szem]; Open Eyes, etc.). Krisztina Tóth emerged among the student poets of Sárvár, alongside István Kemény, Árpád Kun and István Vörös, but she has retained her openness to elegiac songs and fairy tales, and the almost childlike freshness of her meticulous vision.