Babits, Mihály

Mihály Babits, (born Nov. 26, 1883, Szekszárd, Hung., Austria-Hungary—died Aug. 4, 1941, Budapest), Hungarian poet, novelist, essayist, and translator who, from the publication of his first volume of poetry in 1909, played an important role in the literary life of his country.

Babits studied Hungarian and classical literature at the University of Budapest and was a teacher in provincial secondary schools until forced to resign during World War I because of his pacifist views. Thereafter, he devoted all his energies to literature. He belonged to the literary circle that included Endre Ady, Zsigmond Móricz, and Dezső Kosztolányi, whose works were published in the periodical Nyugat (“The West”; founded 1908), one of the most important critical reviews in Hungarian literary history. Babits became its editor in 1929.

Babits was an intellectual poet whose verse is difficult to understand. Self-centred and withdrawn in his early period, he later turned his attention to contemporary social problems. Among his novels, Halálfiai (1927; “The Children of Death”), a sympathetic portrayal of the decaying middle class, is outstanding. His translations include plays of Sophocles, Dante’s Divina Commedia, medieval Latin hymns, and works by Shakespeare and Goethe.