Poet and translator Sándor Kányádi has died at age 90. Kányádi was born in 1929 in Nagygalambfalva (today Porumbeni), in rural Transylvania. He moved to Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) in 1950 where he completed his university studies and worked as a Hungarian language and literature teacher.
He started to publish poems in 1955 in literary and children’s magazines and also became active in political concerns related to the life of Hungarian minority in Transylvania.
Kányádi was widely respected and received several Hungarian awards, among them the Kossuth-Prize, Prima Primissima, and the Order of Merit. After retiring he spent his last years at his cottage in his beloved Transylvania. Many of his poems have been translated into other languages.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán praised and said goodbye to “the greatest poet” in a Facebook post. Kányádi was also a good friend of George Soros.
György Lázár
Kányádi (in the middle) with fellow Transylvanian Prof. Albert-László Barabási (left) and George Soros (right).
Orbán’s Facebook entry about Kányádi.
Yay nekunk….. oy vey…tell me who your friends are and…. ye all know the rest – but let the good poet Rest In Peace.
I would like to know would that also be possible in Hungary ? That is that since Kanyadi Sandor had the opportunity to study , write and publish his works in Romania,at the expense of the Romanian taxpayers, would that be possible vise versa? That some Romanian, or whoever else, to study, write and publish their work in their own language in Hungary ? I mean at the Hungarian taxpayers expense? Or perhaps Mr.Kanyadi was supported by some Hungarian interest ? Just curious !
Sándor Kányádi is a hero of current hungarian poetry. In the kindergartens, elementary schools his transylvanian/hungarian poems are well known. Thanks Jesus Christ his poems are/were made popular by the musicgroup Kaláka.
He was studying in protestant/catholic schools founded on Kuno von Klebelsberg strategy ( which kept together our 1100 years old Hungary even after the sadistic “Trianon”) .
R.I.P. Sanyi bácsi !