Balaton [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Sounds of the Waves In those days when man was more part of nature rather than of mass experience, the Balaton people used to walk down to the lake at dawn to watch the water. The surface of the water told them everything of the previous night, the morning, the forthcoming hours, the nature of clouds, the migration of birds and even of the temper of the fish flashing under the surface. When one was looking towards the water, he saw an organic entirety: leaves, breathing reeds, pebbles, glittering of feathers, thirsty animals, peacefully swaying boats and in the distance arches swimming towards infinity. When looking around, he could see his fellow villager also standing at the lakeshore: he had already finished watching the landscape and now he was listening. The lake sometimes whispers, sometimes chatters, occasionally roars, in winter it rattles and cracks, it always says something to those who have an ear for it. People of old times went down to the water even in the evening after work or if their house was near enough so they could hear the noise of the waves, they rested their elbows on the garden gate and watched the moon building a silver bridge over the water. Lake Balaton forms a rounded whole, lake Balaton belongs to all of us. The past, the present, the flora and fauna and the man-made environment of the lake, all of these are our national treasure. We all have a certain motion picture running in our mind that we received from heaven in lucky moment, we all keep the Balaton's memory and have a stoiy of the lake. All classical movies have remarkable moments we recall many times and all stories, the personal chapters of history also have their own message. We collected those moments and messages into this book and place in this way the reader Lake Balaton as a work of art into his hands. bflLfiTon n