Ferenc Buda, poet and translator passed away
On 16 September, at the age of 89, Ferenc Buda, poet and translator, an Artist of the Nation and regular member of HAA passed away. Ferenc Buda was born in Debrecen on 3 November 1936, the night that the poet Dezső Kosztolányi died. He was almost exactly twenty years old when the 1956 revolution was crushed by Russian tanks. Of the two conscious traditions this second one determined his life path more strongly, all the more so because he was tried and convicted for his poems written after the revolution was crushed. HAA regards his passing as losing one of its own.
He has several volumes of poetry, and his literary translation work is also significant: among others, his translations into Bashkir, Finnish, Kyrgyz, Lappish, Mari, Mordvin, Turkish, Udmurt, and Kazakh are well-known. In 2005, he was awarded the Kossuth State Award for his rich lyrical poetry, his formal solutions combining the traditions of folk and modern poetry, and his literary translation work. He was a member of HAA from 2011 and of the Digital Literary Academy from 2013. In 2014 he became an Artist of the Nation for his poetry that authentically depicts a man who carries the dramatic turns of history in his personal destiny, for his unwavering faith in the power of the poetic word – which permeates his entire life work – and for his outstanding oeuvre.
September 19, 2025
