Mihály Babits
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Mihály Babits [pronounced: Mihaai Babich]] (November 26, 1883 in Szekszárd - August 4, 1941 in Budapest) was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator.
He studied at the University of Budapest from 1901 to 1905, where he met Dezső Kosztolányi and Gyula Juhász. He worked to become a teacher and taught at schools in Baja (1905-1906), Szeged (1906-1908), Fogaras (1908-1911), Újpest (1911), and Budapest (1912-1918).
His reputation for his poems in the literary life started in 1908.
He made a trip in Italy in the same year, which made him interested in Dante; he made several other trips in the subsequent years. This experience led him to translate Dante's The Divine Comedy (Hell, 1913, Purgatory, 1920, and Paradise, 1923).
Briefly after the revolution in 1918, he became a professor of world literature and modern Hungarian literature at University of Budapest, but was soon removed for his pacifism after the revolutionary government fell.
In 1911, he became a permanent contributor of Nyugat.
In 1921 married Ilona Tanner, who later published poetry under the name Sophie Török.
In 1923, he moved to Esztergom. In 1927, he became a member of the Kisfaludy Társaság (Kisfaludy Society) and in the same year he was made the curator of Baumgarten Prize.
He became the editor in chief of Nyugat in 1929 (until 1933 along with Zsigmond Móricz) and held this respectable position until his death.
In 1937, he was diagnosed as having cancer of the larynx.
[edit] Work
He is most well-known for lyric poetry influenced by Classical and English forms. He also wrote essays and did many translations from English, French, German, Greek, Italian, and Latin.
[edit] External links
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