Balázs Lengyel

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Balazs Lengyel (1987)

Balázs Lengyel (born August 21, 1918 in Budapest , † February 22, 2007 there ) was a Hungarian writer .

Life

He attended the Werböczy and the Lutheran "Fasor" grammar school in Budapest and obtained his Abitur in 1936 in the reformed grammar school. In the same year he began his studies at the law faculty of the Péter Pázmány University . In 1937 he joined the university circle. During this time he made friends with committed democrats and anti-fascists of his generation such as Zoltán Szabó , István Bibó and others.

In 1938 he initiated the Spiritual Home Guard calendar , a column in the newspaper “Magyar Nemzet” (= “Hungarian Nation”). In the 1940 edition, Mihály Babits, László Cs and others wrote there alongside him. Szabó, Zsigmond Móricz, Gyula Szekfű and Áron Tamási. From this year Balázs Lengyel was employed as an intern at the Budapest Finance Directorate. In 1940 he obtained a doctorate in law.

In the spring of 1942 he met his future wife Ágnes Nemes Nagy , whom he married on April 20, 1944. From autumn 1942 he did military service and was deployed in the war zone. In 1943 he was a platoon leader in Becse and later on the Murau. In 1943 and early 1944 his writings appeared in the newspaper Magyar Csillag (= Hungarian star ). In October he left his unit and returned to Budapest, where he took part in rescue operations for Jews.

In January 1945, after taking the capital, Russian soldiers arrested him on the street and took him to Gödöllő . After he was brought to Debrecen , as a democratic soldier, he asked Interior Minister Erdei Ferenc for his release. From April of that year he was the deputy head of a department of the Ministry of the Interior. After the popular assembly elections, he worked in the education department of the VKM.

From 1946 to 1948 he was the editor of the newspaper “Újhold” (New Moon). In autumn 1947 he received a scholarship and traveled with his wife to Rome and Paris. In 1948 his first book was published: “A mai magyar líra” (Today's Hungarian Poetry). That year he saw himself and the newspaper Neumond, for which he wrote, faced many attacks from official literary politics.

When he returned with his wife that summer, their passports were confiscated at the border.

In 1949 he was retired. For a while he was offered a position at the University of Szeged (Pedagogical University). In 1950 he was retired retroactively.

From 1950

From 1950 he lived mainly from translations and youth literature (eg: "A szebeni fiúk" - The boys from Sibiu). The publication of other own works, studies, essays or books was no longer possible. He was arrested in early 1957 but has not been shown to have had any political activities. In 1958 he was divorced from Ágnes Nemes Nagy, but the two remained in contact and friends until her death.

From the mid-1960s onwards, political pressure subsided. At that time he got a job at Corvina and later at Móra publishing house. His reviews were also allowed to appear, his second volume of monographs did not appear until 1972. In April 1971 he married his second wife Veronika Kerek and had his son Balázs Lengyel junior with her. He has two grandchildren.

In 1984 he was able to write for the newspaper "Jelenkor" (present). Although it was no longer possible to have the Neumond newspaper appear regularly again, from the end of the 1980s there was a half-yearly volume and a Neumond yearbook twice a year, of which 12 issues appeared (until 1991). Even when he was eight years old, Balázs Lengyel took an active part in Hungarian literary life, and various papers published his reviews, essays and memoirs. He died in Budapest in 2007.

Awards

  • 1978 Silver Degree Work Order
  • 1981 Attila József Prize
  • 1982 State Prize for Young People
  • 1988 Tibor Déry Prize
  • 1988 Star Order of the Hungarian People's Republic
  • 1990 - Dezső Kosztolányi Prize
  • 1991 Bölöni Prize
  • 1992- Literature Prize of the Art Fund
  • 1993 Aladár Komlós Prize
  • 1995 - Széchenyi Prize
  • 1998 Getz Prize
  • 1998- Yad Vashem Jerusalem
  • 1998 Medal of Bravery
  • 2003 - Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary , middle, civil section

Works

  • Today's Hungarian Poetry (Study, 1948)
  • The boys of Sibiu (Roman, 1952, German: 1989)
  • The silver groschen (novel, 1955)
  • Little Elik becomes a hunter (youth story, 1957, German: Elik, 1964)
  • The junk with a kite sail (youth story, 1962)
  • I had a stork (youth novel, 1964; German: The next patient - a stork, 1965; Mein Storch Struppi, 1983)
  • Tradition and Trial (Study Collection, 1972)
  • From poetry book to poetry book (Essays, 1977)
  • Close-ups (Studies, 1979)
  • Óperencián inside - Óperencián túl (fairy tale, 1985)
  • The Story of an Attitude (Essays, 1990)
  • Green and Gold (Essays, 1988)
  • The Return (Essays, 1988)
  • Ágnes Nemes Nagy's mailbox (compiled, 1995)
  • The dwindling apple (poem analysis, 1995)
  • Selected poems by Ágnes Nemes Nagy (compiled, 1997)
  • Two Turns of Fate (Essays, 1998)
  • Who meets with himself? (Studies, 2001)
  • Origo (studies, 2002)

Translations

  • Lin Yutang: Between tears and laughter (1947)
  • E. Mörike: Mozart on the Journey to Prague (1947)
  • L. Bechstein: Little Thumbling (1958)
  • O. Wilde: The Happy Prince (1958)
  • The Pranks of Till Eulenspiegel (1970)

Web links

Commons : Balázs Lengyel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Balázs Lengyel on the website of Yad Vashem (English)
personal data
SURNAME Lengyel, Balázs
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 2007
Place of death Budapest