'There are regions / where song / is a lost habit / and if there is life at all / you would believe / that everyone is in mourning // but the song is just / in a safe place / somewhere deep / dormant in the / most precious weak corner / of the soul // there are regions / whose peoples / live in silence / making signs with sticks / fearing to speak / awaiting a storm': these are the lines from Sándor Kányadi's great cycle of poetry from the 1980s that everyone will start to recite to themselves upon reading the title of this musical and literary evening event, since anyone who has ever heard the author delivering his Indian Song, the work quoted above, or any of his other pieces, will find it difficult to forget the experience or to gets its melody out of their ears. In the twilight days of a soon-to-collapse regime, this is how a world gradually growing mute from fear and increasingly speaking via a language of signs and signals reveals itself through a poet who conceals words that are asleep.
Kányádi's artistic work, which became a classic in spite of the dictatorships of the time, has ever since remained a profession of faith in human liberty and dignity expressed through the truthful means of poetry. In this, he finds true fellowship in the members of the Fonó Folk Band, whose members have been safeguarding and renewing the musical traditions of the Carpathian basin with similar humility, and who, as they reflect on the verses being spoken, do not simply provide a musical underscore, but instead join into the dialogue as an equal partner. Given all this, this encounter between one of the most popular contemporary Hungarian poets and one of the finest, and likewise widely known, folk music ensembles promises to be a unique and unforgettable occasion.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest