Blogtrotter

Mo chuimhne thaobh bóthair.

Tháinig sé seo ar ais chun mo chuimhne ar an maidín seo. Ní cuimhín liom a áit go direach. Meabhraim go raibh sé ina Ungáir. Bheadh sé sin cúig bliana ó shín ar feadh an samraidh 2003.

Thaistail mé leis dream acadúileachtái léann Éireannach. Chuaigh mé leis mo theaglach fós. D'imigh muid a thabhairt ar an mbus. Stad muid ar an ósta cois bóthair.

Shúil gach duine amach. Tháinig muid isteach an ósta. Bhí dith leosan féin a ithe agus ól ann. Ach níor ithe nó níor ól mé. Bhí láthair ar trasna go folamh uaidh ann. Chuaigh mé thar bóthar.

Bhí suíomh fághta ansiud. B'fhéidir go raibh ósta eile roimh an titim bhaile Bheirlin. Thógadh ionad beag ansin. Ar raibh síopa ann? Níor thuig mé ar an mbord scríbhinnaí an Ungáiris sceaneamh ag lobadh taobh amuigh de ann.

Bhí thuigimse dubh ná riabhach é. Ní raibh comhartha ag timpeall. Thosaím aghaidh a thabhairt tríu foirgnimh in aice leis an sruthan ina choincréit. D'éirigh siad go raibh cosuil sean-títhe stóir ag meirgeann.

Fhill mé ar an mbus aríst. Bhí iontach liom faoi an radharc bánaithe. Ceapaim inniu faoi amharc fásúil i gceantar feidheartha sin na h-Ungáir. Níl fhíos agam cén fáth.

My Roadside Memory.

This came back to my memory this morning. There's no recall for me of the place exactly. I remember that it was in Hungary. That would be five years ago during the summer of 2003.

I travelled with a group of Irish Studies academics. I went with my family too. We went off for a ride in a bus. We stopped at an inn by the edge of the road.

Every person walked out. They all came into the inn. There was a need for all of them to eat or to drink. But I did not eat or drink. There was an empty site across from there. I went to cross the road.

It was an abandoned place over there. Perhaps it was another inn before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Someone had built a small place there. Had it been a shop there? I could not understand the knifed Hungarian inscriptions [i.e., graffiti] carved on the rotting tables outside of there.

It was a dark mystery to me. No sign was around there. I started towards three buildings near a stream in concrete. They rose up resembling old warehouses rusting.

I returned to the bus again. I wondered about the desolate scene. I think today about the deserted view in that bare district of Hungary. I don't know the reason why.

Griangraf/ Photo: Níl íomhá de agamsa féin. Mar sin féin: tá sé céann le David Vigh anseo, ag imeall na stáisiún traenach. I don't have an image myself. All the same: here's one by David Vigh, around a train station. "Stáisiún Foirgneamh Fághtha/ Abandoned Station Building, Zalakomár, Hungary/Ungáir.