László Kálnoky

László Kálnoky

LÁSZLÓ KÁLNOKY (Eger, 1912–Budapest, 1985) was a Hungarian poet and literary translator. He belonged to the third generation of Nyugat, a significant Hungarian language periodical published between 1908 and 1941. His first book of poetry appeared in 1939 entitled Árnyak kertje [The Garden of Shadows] and was followed by eleven more collections. He was also known for his literary translations, which were published from 1943. He is mostly noted for the translation of the second part of Goethe’s tragedy, Faust. He received numerous literary prizes, such as the József Attila Prize, the Füst Milán and the Déry Tibor Prizes.

ON THE TRAIL OF A LINE OF VERSE

Not many people know that in the Northeastern city of Eger, in early 1945, the local activists in cultural life launched a literary monthly by the name of Nemzedékek [Generations], according to its subtitle a “people’s democratic periodical”. When I was in Eger a couple of years ago (i.e. in