Life is precious, but love is more expensive. If you want to be free, you can throw them both away.

July 3 1 849,31Petofi, a Hungarian patriotic poet, was only 26 years old when he fought against the Russian army in a bloody battle in Essex.

Life is precious.

Love is more expensive.

If you are free.

You can throw them both.

"Life is precious, love is more expensive. If you are free, you can throw both. " Mention this poem, which has been widely read around the world for more than 100 years, people will think of its author, Hungarian poet Petofi. However, in the special political atmosphere of China in 1960s, "petofi Club" once again became an ominous term. If we look back at the history objectively, we can know that the great Hungarian poet was a heroic soldier in the European Revolution in 1848, and was deeply concerned and praised by Marx and Engels. His poems also left an extremely valuable literary legacy for the oppressed peoples all over the world.

■ Growing up in the struggle environment for national freedom and eulogizing love.

1823 65438+ 10 1, Petfi Sándor was born in a Hungarian town on the Afping Plain on the Danube under the Austrian Empire. His father was a poor Slavic butcher and his mother was a serf in magyars. According to the law at that time, his family was at the bottom of society.

Part of their ancestors came from Hungary, and they were Xiongnu tribes who moved westward in China in the Han Dynasty. They were characterized by the fierce collision between eastern and western cultures and occupied a special position in European history. Due to long-term discrimination and oppression by neighboring ethnic groups, Hungarians are good at using poetry as a horn to inspire their national struggle for nearly a thousand years, and a large number of outstanding patriotic poets have emerged in modern times. /kloc-after the 0/7th century, Hungary has been ruled by the Austrian Empire, losing its independent status, and the uprising struggle for freedom broke out one after another.

Living in this environment, petofi was willing to listen to the legend of the uprising led by the national hero Hoss when he was a teenager. In the pub, he chatted with his companions about the story of the Hungarian people's struggle for independence, which left a deep imprint on his young mind. This "free forum" atmosphere has also greatly promoted the development and progress of petofi language. I can talk freely in Hungarian and Slovak at an early age, and I have a certain foundation in Latin.

1835, 12-year-old poor boy petofi had the opportunity to study in Aused. In three years, he showed his intelligence, completed his studies, and organized a progressive student group to read and study the history of the French Revolution and the works of Hungarian classical writers. 1838, petofi wrote his first satirical poem "Farewell". This poem inherits and develops the tradition of Hungarian classical poetry, and initially embodies the characteristics of the popularization of poetic language that he followed all his life. He is a soldier, a wandering actor and an assistant editor of Pace Fashion. Rich social experience deepened his creative source.

1846 In September, 23-year-old Petofi met Sendley Yuria, the daughter of Count Naudts, at the dance. The purity and frankness of this slim and beautiful girl with pale blue eyes made the young poet fall in love at first sight, but the earl who owns a lot of land estates refused to marry his daughter to a poor poet like petofi. In the face of resistance, petofi's affection for Julia maesa is still irresistible. In half a year's time, he sent out a series of love poems, such as to Julia maesa, I am a loving person, you love spring, the bleak autumn wind whispered in the forest, and gave me twenty kisses at once. The treasures in these lyric poems encouraged You Liya to break the shackles of his father and family and enter the wedding hall with Petofi a year later.

At this moment, the European land has been surging with the torrent of revolution, and the uprising of the Hungarian people is also like surging magma. Petofi's honeymoon was mixed with joy and melancholy. Unwilling to indulge in private life, he wrote the famous proverb poem "Freedom and Love": "Life is precious, love is more expensive …" This masterpiece is a touching poem, which inspired the progressive youth in the world in the next hundred years.

■ Take poetry as the horn and strive for national independence with passion.

1in the spring of 848, ethnic and class contradictions in Hungary under Austrian rule have reached a fever pitch. Petofi witnessed the people being invaded and enslaved and shouted, "Are we going to be slaves for generations? Will we never have freedom and equality? " The poet began to closely link the ideal with the revolution, determined to rely on the poor people to fight, and wrote a series of concise poems as a horn to inspire people to move towards the national democratic revolution.

On March 14, 2004, he and other uprising leaders agreed on the uprising in a cafe in Perth, and adopted the political program "Twelve Articles" aimed at bourgeois reform. That night, petofi wrote "Song of the Nation" of the uprising:

Get up, Hungarians, the motherland is calling!

We should do it now, it's not too late!

Do you want to be a free man or a slave?

Choose for yourself, that's the problem!

15 in the morning, the March Uprising in Perth, which shocked the world, began. More than 10000 insurgents gathered in front of the National Museum, and petofi recited his Song of the Country in public. The insurgents were thunderous and quickly occupied Budapest, making it the center of the European revolution at that time. In April of the following year, the Hungarian Parliament also adopted the Declaration of Independence and established the Republic. Engels once pointed out: "Hungary is the only country that completely abolished farmers' feudal obligations in law and practice since the March Revolution. "

In the face of the Budapest Uprising, the Austrian emperor Ferdinand, who was determined to maintain the old order in Europe, immediately joined forces with Russian Tsar Nicholas I, and 340,000 Russian-Austrian allied forces violently pressed Hungary with a population of only 5 million. At the time of national crisis, petofi wrote to Bem, the most skillful general: "Please let me go to war with you. Of course, I will still try my best to serve the motherland with my pen ... "In the war-torn year of 1848, petofi wrote as many as 106 lyric poems. In June 5438+the following year 10, petofi became a major officer. He wrote poems and took up arms directly against the Russian-Austrian Coalition forces.

■ Sacrificed by the Cossack cavalry spear, he left more than 800 poems in his short life.

1in the summer of 849, the Hungarian Revolutionary Army fought to the last moment under the oppression of a strong enemy. On the morning of July 3 1, General Bem formed a cavalry unit with 300 men who could fight, and specifically told petofi to stay before the battle began. However, the poet disobeyed the general's orders and set off behind the cavalry. These heroic Hungarian fighters were quickly submerged and melted when they stuck with enemies several times their own. The thin poet was surrounded by two Russian Cossack cavalry, and a machete came at him fiercely. The poet dodged, but at the same time another sharp spear pierced his chest and the poet fell down in pain. ...

In the following decades, the Hungarian people no longer wanted to believe that their poet was dead, and legends kept appearing. Some people said that they had seen him in a farmer's house, while others said that they had seen petofi in Russia after being captured. The Hungarian parliament also conducted a special investigation, but it is disappointing that this "witness" has never been a soldier and has not been captured. ...

After the resistance of the Hungarian people, the Austrian Empire was forced to sign an agreement with Hungary in 1867, recognizing that the dual regime of the United States of America could be established on the premise that the Austrian emperor was the unified head of state, and the country name was also changed to Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, and Hungary achieved complete independence at the end of 19 18.

Petofi died at the age of 26, leaving behind a 22-year-old wife and a 1.5-year-old son. He wrote more than 800 lyric poems and 8 narrative poems in his life, in addition to more than 800,000 words of novels, political essays, plays and travel notes, quite a few of which were completed in the war. Such a high output is very rare in the history of European literature.

Petofi occupies a unique position in the literary history of Hungary and even the whole nation. He laid the foundation stone of Hungarian national literature, inherited and developed the fighting tradition of enlightenment literature, and was praised as "a thorny rose growing on the fertile black land soaked with slave blood". For more than a century, petofi, as the banner of national liberation and literary revolution, has also been recognized by progressives all over the world. His famous poems are still widely read today.