Postcards of Memory - from Debrecen (8)
8. My Points of the Compass
When I am facing North, which side of me is East and which is West?
While for a split second I need to think, the square where we used to live till I was eighteen flushes up in front of me. In this town structured by the one main road running from South to North, through our square, and with our bedroom window facing North it was easy to remember the main directions. Looking out we could see in the centre a statue that could be visalized as the needle of a compass with the head pointing to the North, along Péterfia street to the Great Woods.
On the right side, that is to the East was the building of my elementary school, and to the left, West, the movie theatre Hungaria and the Calvinist College. The statue of Csokonai, Debrecen's great poet of about two hundred years ago, was erected in a way that he should face the Calvinist College, where he used to study. It was one of the oldest and most important schools of the country. West is the direction in which Csokonai looks.
Knowledge and culture are supposed to be in the West; the significant part of Europe is to the West, this is the direction towards which Hungarians have been looking for many centuries.
Today, when I think of the points of the compass, rather than visualizing the little square I imagine looking at the Earth from above Tokyo. On my left, to the West there is Europe but also China, Thailand and even a half of Japan. North and South haven't changed that much. To the East, there is the Pacific Ocean.
When I am facing North, which side of me is East and which is West?
While for a split second I need to think, the square where we used to live till I was eighteen flushes up in front of me. In this town structured by the one main road running from South to North, through our square, and with our bedroom window facing North it was easy to remember the main directions. Looking out we could see in the centre a statue that could be visalized as the needle of a compass with the head pointing to the North, along Péterfia street to the Great Woods.
On the right side, that is to the East was the building of my elementary school, and to the left, West, the movie theatre Hungaria and the Calvinist College. The statue of Csokonai, Debrecen's great poet of about two hundred years ago, was erected in a way that he should face the Calvinist College, where he used to study. It was one of the oldest and most important schools of the country. West is the direction in which Csokonai looks.
Knowledge and culture are supposed to be in the West; the significant part of Europe is to the West, this is the direction towards which Hungarians have been looking for many centuries.
Today, when I think of the points of the compass, rather than visualizing the little square I imagine looking at the Earth from above Tokyo. On my left, to the West there is Europe but also China, Thailand and even a half of Japan. North and South haven't changed that much. To the East, there is the Pacific Ocean.
posted by bm at 3:18 PM
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