Kabdebo, Thomas: Attila József. Can you take on this awesome life? (Budapest, 1997)
9. 'By the Danube' and by Márta again
week later, Attila read out to Márta one of his inverted love-hate poems You who are too cowardly to love18 and commented to her that he intended to kill Edit, or himself. Had Márta not understood this from the message of the poem, Attila was ready to explain it: he was in love with Edit Gyömrói. Márta felt however, that belonging to Hungary's finest poet could be good for her,19 whether she meant this physically, emotionally or intellectually we cannot be sure. During an editorial meeting between Paul Ignotus and Attila József, Márta overheard their dispute over a poem by 'Máli' alias Anna Lesznai. Attila did not want to publish her piece because she was not 'really and truly good to him'. 'Why, did you expect auntie Máli to go to bed with you?' asked Ignotus, 'Yes', said Attila. In the following week (we must now be in early December 1936) Attila fell ill. He showed the signs of mental and physical exhaustion. 'Nurse me!',21 he exclaimed when Paul Ignotus and Ferenc Fejtő took him by taxi to see Márta. She agreed and treated him with the care one treats a sufferer of influenza. But, baring his purse, he showed that he also suffered from lack of money. Márta gave him 10 pengős and sent him home in a taxi. Next day he returned and announced that he was feeling much better. Then he said that 'love could only be cured with love',22 and besieged Márta with words and hugging her tight, he bared her to the waist but Márta kept resisting to give herself to him completely. The next meeting, the aftermath of an editorial with others present, was spent by Attila reciting his own and Kosztolányid poems. Shortly after that (perhaps the next day) he appeared at Márta's doorstep with the proofs of his next volume and he asked her to help him with the corrections. The volume, that was to appear later in December 1936 was Savage Pain?1, The poems, fifty in number, were writtem in 1935-'36 and in the main, appeared in various issues of Parole Persuasive. Savage Pain appeared for the Christmas bookfair. The József Attila Archives retained the contract, dated 10 October 1936 between Cserépfalvi, the publisher and Attila József.24 It had three clauses, 1. the paper was to be supplied by the poet, 2. the value of the paper was to be paid back to him from copies sold and a further 10% was to be paid to him from the profits, and 3. the publisher retained the option to republish the book, and any further work of Attila József for three years to come. Remembering those cold December days of 1936 many years later, Márta repeatedly said she could not gauge how ill Attila was at that time. She did not comment on the title, and the title poem of the book, Savage Pain. In that respect Ignotus understood him better and Fejtő actually credited him with having felt savage pain. As for the others, which included Attila's circle and the wider public, they found this 141