Balatonfüred | Sailing

I first met seagulls along the banks of the Tisza. I stood on the bridge and watched the water flowing, the torn branches floating down to the Danube, to the Iron Gate, to the Black Sea. The torn branches of the mulberry tree – there was a storm yesterday – with tiny, still green fruits on them. By the time they reach the Black Sea, they will be ripe. Perhaps the Bulgarian brandy distillers fish fruit for their strawberry brandy out of the water. Meanwhile the seagulls watched circling over the water, over the bridge, over the floating mulberry branches. The water, the branches, the seagulls, everything was moving around me, coming from somewhere and going somewhere. Only I stood there motionless, there, on the bridge. And the bridge below me. Man doesn’t move. Man-made objects, buildings, bridges don’t move. We are the only ones who are not able to conjure motion into the world. We are satisfied with the earth orbiting, the sun orbiting, the water and the tree branch floating. If we do move, it is so artificial, there is no elegance in it whatsoever. It is conscious, exaggerated and it interferes with the world. Maybe the sails. The sails of a boat, of a ship, of any kind of watercraft. The sail was the last thing created by humans that could come somewhat close to the elegance of the universe. Like the wind, like the wings of a seagull…
Seagulls along the shores of Lake Balaton. It would be an exaggeration to say that the seagulls of yore followed me, but perhaps their great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, greatgreat- great-grandchildren are now circling over the water. We seem to know each other. There must be seagulls, somewhere, around me, always. Their presence makes the shoreline so cosy. I brought something with me from the banks of Tisza to the shoreline of Lake Balaton. Seagulls. If there’s a shipwreck, a deserted island… there must be seagulls. If there are seagulls, there remains some emotion, some freedom, some possibility. The wings of seagulls, the sails of the sky. The snow-white sails. If you squint a little, the the sailboats floating on the water’s surface become almost one with the seagulls hovering up in the air.