Kossuth Prize-winning poet and translator Sándor Rákos (1921-1999) was commemorated with a scientific conference and wreath-laying on April 26 in Nyíregyháza.
At the event held in the county library, János Szentmártoni, the Deputy Secretary of State responsible for art and community development of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, said in a personal speech that for the poet who died twenty-five years ago, life was a kind of rebellion, which, according to his conviction, was the only meaningful behavior that was necessary and in the face of a humiliating death. In Sándor Rákos’s poetic and philosophical play, he also saw life as a role, which must be played to the highest possible degree and quality, thus cutting the all-consuming death in the face – János Szentmártoni summarized his poetry. The deputy state secretary reminded that Rákos had already been “kissed by death on the lips” once in his life, because of his Jewish origin, he was interrogated with a loaded gun at the end of the Second World War, and documented this part of his life in his poem “Memories from 1944”. In his speech, János Szentmártoni called it heartbreaking that nowadays there is little talk about the significant creators of Hungarian literature after 1945, from Imre Csanády and Győző Csorba to László Kálnoki and István Jánosy to Sándor Rákos.
– All of this is not only a loss due to the intrinsic value of the works, but also in the mapping of our recent past, since the complexity, nuances and diversity of an era are best perceived when we can also examine it through the lens of the artists – he said. He added that, in addition to delighting, making people think and, where appropriate, confronting people with themselves, the works also have documentary value. At the commemorative conference organized by the Zsigmond Móricz County and City Library and the Institute of Language and Literature of Nyíregyháza University, Attila Ulrich, deputy mayor of Nyíregyháza, also gave a speech.
Before the event, the participants laid a wreath at the plaque placed at the poet’s former school, Nyíregyházi Evangelical Kossuth Lajos High School. Sándor Rákos was born in Kálmánháza in the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties in 1921, and completed his high school studies in Hajdúnánás and Nyíregyháza. His first poems were published in 1940, between 1944 and 1945 he was an employee of Nyírségi Magyar Nép, and then worked in the press department of MOKÉP until 1949. He was the editor of Révai and then Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, and from 1951 he worked as a freelance poet, literary translator and essayist.
His first book of poems, Az eb zaszul, was published in 1949, his early volumes were characterized by a tragic, rebellious tone, an expression of the hopelessness and absurdity of life. His second volume, published in 1952, was followed by several years of silence, and it was only from 1957 that he was able to publish more or less regularly his collections of poems, translations and prose. From 1947 until his death, he was a member of the Hungarian Writers’ Association, for several years he also led the literary translation department of the association as president.
