Poet Sándor Kányádi dies aged 89

Kossuth Prize-winning poet, author, and translator Sándor Kányádi died at age 89 in the early hours of Wednesday, in Budapest, his family told MTI.

Born in Romania’s Porembenii Mari (Nagygalambfalva) into a Szekler peasant family, Kányádi went to university in Cluj (Kolozsvár) and graduated in 1954. From an early age he wrote poems and worked for various periodicals.

From the 1960s on, his poetry focused on faithfulness to his ethnic Hungarian community and presenting the social conflicts of Ceausescu’s Romania. His poetry was a peculiar synthesis of traditional and modern lyric components.

Kányádi was honoured with a number of awards, including the prestigious Kossuth Prize (1993), the Herder Prize 1994), and two Orders of Merit of Hungary: Middle Cross (2004) and Grand Cross (2009).

The poet will be laid to rest in his native village in Szeklerland.

„A vers az, amit mondani kell.” / “A poem is something you have to tell.”

Prizes

1968 Utunk Prize
1971, 1978 Prize of the Romanian Writers Association
1986 Déry Tibor Prize
1989 Prize for the Book of the Year
1990 MSZOSZ Prize
1990 Prize of the Castren Society
1993 Kossuth Prize
1993 Prize for Hungarian Art
1994 Herder Prize
1998 Hungarian Heritage Title
2000 C.E.T. Millenium Prize
2001 Ferenc Kölcsey Millennium Prize
2002 Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae Main Prize
2004 Cross with Star Order of the Hungarian Republic
2004 Mecénás Prize

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI