Sándor Weöres

Sándor Weöres (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈʃaːndor ˈvørøʃ]; 22 June 1913 – 22 January 1989) was a Hungarian poet and author.

Born in Szombathely, Weöres was brought up in the nearby village of Csönge. His first poems were published when he was fourteen, in the influential journal Nyugat ("West"), through the acceptance of its editor, the poet Mihály Babits. Weöres attended the University of Pécs, first studying law before moving on to geography and history. He ultimately received a doctorate in philosophy and aesthetics. His doctoral dissertation The Birth of the Poem was published in 1939. It was in 1937 that he made the first of his travels abroad, going first to Manila for a Eucharistic Congress and then visiting Vietnam and India. During World War II Weöres was drafted for compulsory labor, but was not sent to the front. After the end of the war, he returned to Csönge and briefly lived as a farmer.

In 1948 Weöres again travelled abroad, living in Italy until 1949. In 1951 he settled in Budapest where he would reside for the rest of his life. The imposition of Stalinism in Hungary after 1948 silenced Weöres and until 1964 little of his work could be published.