Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi
First published, in Hungarian, in 1924
This edition, translated by Richard Aczel, published by New York Review Books Classics in 2010
"In a state of excitement, things that normally pass unnoticed can seem pregnant with significance. At such times even inanimate objects - a lamppost, a gravel path, a bush - can take on a life of their own, primordial, reticent and hostile, stinging our hearts with their indifference and making us recoil with a start. And the very sight of people at such times, blindly pursuing their lonely, selfish ends, can suddenly remind us of our own irrevocable solitude, a single word or gesture petrifying in our souls into an eternal symbol of the utter arbitrariness of life." (p.189)
