Life After Birth

During our two weeks of intensive language classes in January, we had one class period per day devoted to Hungarian literature, poetry and songs. Our teachers chose the simplest pieces for us to study and explained (in Hungarian, of course) the new words so we could understand the articles. Here is a loose translation of my favorite short story (okay, so I can’t really call it a translation. Let’s call it Nancy’s best guess as to what it says!) :

Living Word

by A. J. Christian

There is gold that doesn’t shine, roads you can’t walk on, seas that are not blue, and truth that cannot be grasped.

I heard this—please listen to this, too.

Two embryos were talking in their mother’s womb:

- Tell me, do you believe in life after birth?

- Of course. After birth comes life. Perhaps that is why we are here, to prepare us for what comes next.

- Pooh pooh! After birth there is nothing: no one comes back from there! And besides, what would it look like?

- I don’t know exactly, but I feel that there is light everywhere. And perhaps we will walk on our own legs and eat with our mouths.

- That’s crazy! Walking is impossible! And how can we eat with our mouths? How laughable! Besides, can’t you see the umbilical cord? If that is how we live now, think for a moment: it is impossible for there to be life after birth because the umbilical cord is too short.

- Yes, but I believe there surely must be something, something different, than the life we see now.

- You’re nuts. With birth comes the end of life, and that’s it.

- Look, I don’t know exactly what life will be like, but then the Mommy will help us…

- The Mommy? You believe in the Mommy?

- Yes.

- Don’t make yourself a laughing stock! Have you seen her? Has anyone seen her?

- No, but she is here all around us. We live in her. And surely we should thank her that we exist.

- I guess I’ll just have to leave you to your craziness, okay? I’ll believe in the Mommy when I can see her.

- You can’t see her, but if you are quiet, you can hear her song and feel her love. If you are quiet, you can feel her gentle touch and her caring hand.