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Gyula Illyés born ''Gyula Illés'' (2 November 1902 – 15 April 1983) was a Hungarian
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
and
novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspi ...
. He was one of the so-called ''népi'' ("from the people") writers, named so because they aimed to show – propelled by strong sociological interest and left-wing convictions – the disadvantageous conditions of their native land.


Early life

He was born the son of János Illés (1870 – 1931) and Ida Kállay (1878 – 1931) in
Tolna County Tolna ( hu, Tolna megye, ; german: Komitat Tolnau) is an administrative county (comitatus or megye) in present Hungary as it was of the former Kingdom of Hungary. It lies in central Hungary, on the west bank of the river Danube. It shares borde ...
. His father was Catholic, while the Kállays were Calvinists. János was initially a shepherd like his father, then learned the trade of blacksmith, and took jobs in various manors making repairs, and later becoming a supervisor of blacksmiths, stokers and machinists. Ida came from a mainly peasant family, although the Kállays also gave soldiers and preachers to the country. His maternal grandfather was a wheelwright in the manor of Felsőrácegrespuszta. He was their third child and spent his first nine years at his birthplace, where he finished his primary school years (1908 – 1912) and when his family moved to Simontornya, he continued his education at grammar schools there and
Dombóvár Dombóvár (german: Dombowa; la, Iowia) is a town in Tolna County, Hungary. Twin towns – sister cities Dombóvár is twinned with: * Kernen im Remstal, Germany * Ogulin Ogulin () is a town in north-western Croatia, in Karlovac County. It ...
(1913 – 1914) and
Bonyhád Bonyhád (german: Bonnhard) is a town in Tolna County in Southwestern Hungary. Government It is governed by a city council and a mayor. The current mayor of Bonyhád is Filóné Ferencz Ibolya who has served in this capacity since 2014. Populati ...
(1914 – 1916). In 1916 his parents separated, and he moved to the capital with his mother. He continued senior high school at the
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
Munkácsy Mihály street gimnazium (1916 – 1917) and at the Izabella Street Kereskedelmi school (1917 – 1921). In 1921 he graduated. From 1918 to 1919 he took part in various left-wing students and youth workers' movements, being present at an attack on Romanian forces in
Szolnok Szolnok (; also known by other alternative names) is the county seat of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in central Hungary. A city with county rights, it is located on the banks of the Tisza river, in the heart of the Great Hungarian Plain, w ...
during the Hungarian Republic of Councils. On 22 December 1920 his first poem was published () anonymously in the Social Democrat daily ''
Népszava ''Népszava'' (meaning "People's Word" in English) is a social-democratic Hungarian language newspaper published in Hungary. History and profile ''Népszava'' is Hungary's eldest continuous print publication and as of October 2019 the last an ...
''.


University years

He began studies at the
Budapest University Budapest (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, ninth-largest city in the European Union by ...
's department of languages studying Hungarian and French. Due to illegal political activities he was forced to escape to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
in December that year, moving on to Berlin and the Rhineland in 1922. Illyés arrived in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in April that year; living at 9 Rue Budé, Île Saint-Louis.Historical plaque mounted to the building. He did numerous jobs including as a
bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...
. For a while he studied at the Sorbonne and published his first articles and translations in 1923. He became friends with the French
surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
, among them
Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
,
Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...
and
René Crevel René Crevel (; 10 August 1900 – 18 June 1935) was a French writer involved with the surrealist movement. Life Crevel was born in Paris to a family of Parisian bourgeoisie. He had a traumatic religious upbringing. At the age of fourteen, h ...
(each visited him later in Hungary). During his emigration to Paris, to spare his family members back home he published poems under the name Gyula Illyés (from 1925), and he continued to be published under this pen name, which he took on officially in 1933. Illyés returned to homeland in 1926 following an amnesty. His main forums of activity became and , periodicals edited by the avant-garde writer and poet Lajos Kassák.


Early career

Illyés worked for the Phoenix Insurance company from 1927 to 1936, and after its bankruptcy he became press referent to the Hungarian National Bank on French agricultural matters (1937 – 1944). His first critical writing appeared in November 1927 in the review ("Occident") – the most distinguished literary magazine of the time –which from 1928 regularly featured his articles and poems. His first book () was also published by ''Nyugat'' in 1928. He made friends with
Attila József Attila József (; 11 April 1905 – 3 December 1937) was one of the most famous Hungarian poets of the 20th century. Generally not recognized during his lifetime, József was hailed during the communist era of the 1950s as Hungary's great ...
, László Németh, Lőrinc Szabó , János Kodolányi and Péter Veres, at the time the leading talents of his generation. In 1931 he married his first wife, Irma Juvancz, a physical education teacher, whom he later divorced. Illyés was invited to the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
in 1934 to take part in the 1st Congress of the Soviet Writers' Union where he met
André Malraux Georges André Malraux ( , ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist, and minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel ''La Condition Humaine'' ( Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by ...
and
Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...
. From that year he also participated in the editorial work of the review ''Válasz'' (Argument), the forum of the young "népi" writers. He was one of the founding members of the (1937 – 1939), a left-wing and
anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
movement. Subsequently, he was invited to the editorial board of ''Nyugat'' and became a close friend of its editor, the post-symbolist poet and writer Mihály Babits.


War years

During World War II, Illyés was nominated editor-in-chief of ''Nyugat'' following the death of Mihály Babits. Having been refused by the authorities to use the name ''Nyugat'' for the magazine, he continued to publish the review under a different title: ''Magyar Csillag'' ("Hungarian Star"). In 1939 he married Flóra Kozmuta, with whom he had a daughter, Mária. After the Nazi invasion of Hungary in March 1944, Illyés had to go into hiding along with László Németh, both being labelled anti-Nazi intellectuals.


After World War II

He became a member of the parliament of
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
in 1945, and one of the leaders of the left-wing National Peasant Party. He withdrew from public life in 1947 as the
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
takeover of government was approaching. He was a member of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...
from 1945 to 1949. He directed and edited the review from 1946 to 1949. Although Gyula lived a reclusive life in Tihany and Budapest until the early 1960s, his poetry, prose, theater plays and essays continued to impact Hungarian public and literary life. On 2 November 1956 he published his famous poem of the
Hungarian revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
, which was not allowed to be republished in Hungary until 1986: "One sentence on tyranny" is a long poem written in 1950. From the early 1960s he continued to express political, social and moral issues all through his work, but the main themes of his poetry remain love, life and death. Active until his death in April 1983, he published poems, dramas, essays and parts of his diary. His work as a translator is also considerable. He translated from many languages, French being the most important, but – with the help of rough translations – his volume of translations from the ancient
Chinese classics Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the " Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucia ...
remains a milestone.


Works

In his poetry, Illyés was a spokesman for the oppressed peasant class. Typical is "People of the
puszta The Hungarian Puszta () is a temperate grassland biome of the Alföld or Great Hungarian Plain. It is an exclave of the Eurasian Steppe, and lies mainly around the River Tisza in the eastern part of Hungary, as well as in the western part of t ...
", , 1936. His later work is marked by a more open universality, as well as an appeal for national and individual liberty.


Poetry

* Nehéz föld (1928) * Sarjúrendek (1931) * Három öreg (1932) * Hősökről beszélek (1933) * Ifjúság (1934) * Szálló egek alatt (1935) * Rend a romokban (1937) * Külön világban (1939) * Egy év (1945) * Szembenézve (1947) * Két kéz (1950) * Kézfogások (1956) * Új versek (1961) * Dőlt vitorla (1965) * Fekete-fehér (1968) * Minden lehet (1973) * Különös testamentum (1977) * Közügy (1981) * Táviratok (1982) * A Semmi közelit (2008)


Prose

* Oroszország (1934) * ''Petőfi'' (1936). Trans G. F. Cushing (Corvina, 1973) * ''Puszták népe'' (1936). ''People of the Puszta'', trans. G. F. Cushing (
Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...
, 1971; revised 1979) * Magyarok (1938) * Ki a magyar? (1939) * Lélek és kenyér (1939) * Csizma az asztalon (1941) * Kora tavasz (1941) * Mint a darvak (1942) * Hunok Párisban (1946) * Franciaországi változatok (1947) * Hetvenhét magyar népmese (1953) * Balaton (1962) * Ebéd a kastélyban (1962) * Petőfi Sándor (1963) * Ingyen lakoma (1964) * Szives kalauz (1966) * Kháron ladikján (1969) * Hajszálgyökerek (1971) * Beatrice apródjai (1979) * Naplójegyzetek, 1–8 (1987–1995)


Theater

* A tü foka (1944) * Lélekbúvár (1948) * Ozorai példa (1952) * Fáklyaláng (1953) * Dózsa György (1956) * Kegyenc (1963) * Különc (1963) * Tiszták (1971)


Children's books

* ''Once Upon a Time: Forty Hungarian Folk Tales'' (Corvina, 1970) * ''The Prince and His Magic Horse'' (Corvina, 1987). Adaptations by Elek Benedek and Gyula Illyés. * ''The Tree That Reached the Sky: Hungarian Folktales'' (Corvina, 1988). Adaptations by Elek Benedek and Gyula Illyés.


Compilations in English

* ''A Tribute to Gyula Illyés'' (Occidental Press, 1968). Ed. Thomas Kabdebo and Paul Tabori. Includes 34 poems by Gyula Illyés translated by D. Bell and others. * ''Selected Poems'' (Chatto & Windus, 1971). Ed. Thomas Kabdebo and Paul Tabori. * ''29 Poems'' (Maecenas, 1996), Trans. István Tótfalusi. * ''What You Have Almost Forgotten: Selected Poems'' (Kortárs, 1999). Trans. foreword and ed. William Jay Smith with Gyula Kodolányi. * ''Charon's Ferry: Fifty Poems'' (Northwestern University Press, 2000). Trans. Bruce Berlind.


In anthologies and periodicals

* Poems for the Millennium, (ed. Jerome Rothenberg) 2000 * Arion, essays and poems, several issues * The New Hungarian Quarterly and the ''Hungarian Quarterly'', several issues * Icarus 6 (Huns in Paris, trans. by Thomas Mark) * Homeland in the Heights (ed. Bertha Csilla, An anthology of Post-World War II. Hungarian Poetry, Budapest (2000)


References


External links


Illyés in Hunlit
, the on-line multilingual database of Hungarian Book Foundation on Hungarian literature

by Albert Tezla; online var. Orig. vers. published at The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, 1970
CityPoem 'A Sentence about Tyranny' by Gyula Illyés at Erasmuspc, network for cities and culture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Illyes, Gyula 1902 births 1983 deaths People from Tolna County Hungarian Roman Catholics National Peasant Party (Hungary) politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1945–1947) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1947–1949) Hungarian male poets Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 20th-century Hungarian poets Herder Prize recipients 20th-century Hungarian male writers Baumgarten Prize winners