Lajos Áprily | |
|---|---|
 A pre-1940 photo of the writer | |
| Born | Lajos Jékely (1887-11-14)14 November 1887 Brassó,Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 6 August 1967(1967-08-06) (aged 79) Budapest,Hungary |
| Pen name | Lajos Áprily |
| Occupation | poet, translator |
| Language | Hungarian |
| Citizenship | Hungarian |
| Alma mater | Reformed College in Kolozsvár; University of Burgundy |
| Period | 1921–1965 |
| Genre | literary translation |
| Literary movement | impressionism, lyricism |
| Notable works | Vers vagy te is,Idahegyi pásztorok,Rönk a Tiszán |
| Notable awards | Attila József Prize, 1954 |
| Spouse | Ida Schéfer |
| Children | Zoltán Jékely |
Lajos Áprily (birth nameLajos Jékely; 14 November 1887 – 6 August 1967) was aHungarian poet and translator who won the 1954Attila József Prize for his contributions to Hungarian literature. Áprily was born 14 November 1887 in Brassó,Austria-Hungary (now the city ofBrașov inRomania) and died 6 August 1967 inBudapest; he was the father ofZoltán Jékely (1913-1982), also a poet and translator.
Áprily's poems usually made use of classical forms and versification; they are characterized by impressionistic descriptions of nature. Major themes of his poetry are nature, family, grief over the loss of loved ones, and the ideas of peace, humanity and mutual respect between individuals and nations. His basic mood is warm, melancholic, reserved and unpretentious. He was a champion of disciplined, tight forms; his style embodied elegance, taste and refinement. From 1921 to 1965 he published several collections of poems and translations from French and Russian; he also wrote verse dramas, translatingPushkin'sEugene Onegin,Ibsen'sPeer Gynt and other works.
Lajos Áprily's original name was Lajos Jékely. He attended elementary and secondary school in Parajd (nowPraid, Romania) and Székelyudvarhely (nowOdorheiu Secuiesc), two towns which still have Hungarian-speaking majority populations. From 1899, he studied at the ProtestantReformed College in Kolozsvár (nowCluj-Napoca). His teachers included famedmusicologist andfolkloristJános Seprődi (1874–1923) and Hungarian writer and editor Dezső Kovács (1866–1935). To this day Cluj retains a sizable ethnic Hungarian minority population.
In 1909 Jékely earned his teacher's degree and became instructor ofGerman andHungarian language and literature atBethlen Gábor Kollégium in Nagyenyed (Colegiul Național Bethlen,Aiud, Romania). In 1911 he married Ida Schéfer; in 1913, whilst they were still living in Nagyenyed, their eldest son, the poet, writer and translator Zoltán Jékely, was born.
After Kovács had reprimanded him over the supposed "modern tone" of some of his poems, Jékely refrained from publishing for several years. In 1918, however, he began using the pen name Lajos Áprily for his writings in the magazineUj Erdély ("New Transylvania"). He soon became a member of three literary societies,Erdélyi Irodalmi Társaság,Kisfaludy Társaság andKemény Zsigmond Társaság. By 1923 he had earned a degree inFrench language at theUniversity of Burgundy inDijon.
In 1926 he and his family returned to the town where he had studied from the age of 12, when it had been known as Kolozsvár, but in 1920, it became part of Romania. Here he taught languages and literature at the Reformed College. In 1928 he became editor ofErdélyi Helikon.
In 1929 the family moved fromRomania toBudapest, where in 1934 the poet was named as director ofBaár-Madas, at that time a boarding school for girls. One of his pupils there was the polyglot poet and translatorÁgnes Nemes Nagy (1922-1991). In the fall of 1935 he began a half-year study tour in northern and western Europe. In 1942 the family moved back toParajd inTransylvania (the Northern part of which returned to Hungary in 1940) for a short time, before they resettled in 1943 to Szentgyörgypuszta, a farm nearVisegrád.
