András Ferenc Kovács, a Transylvanian Hungarian poet, essayist, literary translator, playwright, and former editor-in-chief of the Látó literary magazine, who died early on Saturday at the age of sixty-four, announced the editors of the Marosvásárhely paper on Saturday.
Our beloved friend and colleague poet Ferenc András Kovács passed away this morning. Poet and friend who knew a lot and was happy to give it. He now knows everything about the immortality of the soul
– wrote the editors of Látó on their social media page, adding that they consider the former editor-in-chief to be their own dead.
András Kovács was born on July 17, 1959 in Szatmárnémeti, completed his high school studies in his hometown, and graduated from the local Kölcsey Ferenc High School in 1978. He completed his higher education at the Babes-Bolyai University (BBTE) in Cluj, and in 1984 he obtained a Hungarian-French teacher’s diploma. Between 1984 and 1989, he taught in places around Székelyudvarhely.
From 1990, he was the editor and deputy editor-in-chief of the poetry section of the literary magazine Látó in Marosvásárhely, and between 2008 and 2019 he was the editor-in-chief.
He published poems from 1977 and children’s poems from 1981, and is the author of half a hundred volumes. His poems have been translated into several languages and in several versions. The leading figure of the fourth Forrás generation, an outstanding figure of contemporary Hungarian poetry. A poet with a virtuoso sense of form, many cultural and artistic references appear in his poems.
He selected Marin Sorescu’s volume of poems titled Dazzle, Federico García Lorca’s Most Beautiful Poems.
His own volumes: the admonitions of Henrik the Sailor; Tierra del Fuego snow; Moving; I spin at the risk of my soul; Hail to the loser; And Christophorus sang; Scintilla Animae (essays); Jack Cole’s Songbook; Angels in Advent frost; Saltus Hungaricus; Fragment; Completory; A knot wrapped in lace. Notes on the issue of Hungarian Mannerism; Winter pretzels; Cute brave watches; Free guest (sonnet wreath); Fatty songs; Sailor Henrik says goodbye; Porcus Hermeticum (Limericks); Überallesbaden singing competitions; Returning from Hellas – Cavafys transcripts; Sleepless Sky; Time Bird Book (69 haiku); Dark Ink, Silent Ink; They were published under the title Jack Cole’s Songbook.
Several volumes of his children’s poems were also published: Kótya-lapótya; Leprechaun dance; The world is Ours; Book of Mice; Gin bug; Market place fair; The card-playing cockatoo; Víg on trot; On the edge of the morning star.
In 1996, he received the József Attila Award. In 2006, he received the Babérkoszorú award of the Hungarian Republic for his exceptionally rich oeuvre in contemporary Hungarian lyric, for his work for the Marosvásárhelyi Látó magazine, for his literary translations, and for his unparalleled poetic skills. In 2010, he was awarded the Kossuth Prize for his life’s work, which fundamentally enriches Hungarian poetry. In 2020, he won the Artisjus Literary Grand Prize for his book of poems Requiem Tzimbalomra. In 2022 he received the Prima Prize and in 2023 the László Bertók Poetry Prize.
The funeral of Ferenc András Kovács will be arranged later.