George Szirtes

George Szirtes

FOREWORD TO SÁNDOR PETŐFI’S
JOHN THE VALIANT

You are holding in your hand one of the strangest, most vivid and glamorous of verse tales, the story of a peasant boy found among corn and therefore named Johnny Grain-o’-Corn, who from early childhood has pledged his heart to an orphan girl, the beautiful Iluska (called Nelly [or Nell