Gáspár Nagy


Gáspár Nagy was a Hungarian poet and writer.

Life

He graduated from the Benedictine Grammar School of Pannonhalma where he studied Library Science in Szombathely, then Aesthetics and Sociology in Budapest.
He was editor of Móra Ferenc Publishing House, secretary of Hungarian Writer’s Association, co-editor, with Sándor Csoóri, of Hitel the first legally permitted oppositional periodical and literary editor of the Hungarian Catholic Radio.
In 1974, he married Marta Szabo; they had one son, and two daughters.
From the very beginning his poetry was determined by the ideas of the two important facts of the Central-European history: 1956 and 1968. The Budapest Autumn and the Prague Spring motivated him to protest against the Communist dictatorship and his poems stimulated the democratic changes in Hungary in 1989. His legendary “political system changing” poem "Öröknyár, elmúltam kilenc éves", was published in 1984 in the October issue of the Új Forrás periodical. The brave poem was about the unmarked grave of Imre Nagy, and about the unnamed murderers.

One day he must be buried
and we must not forget
to appoINt the murderers!

The hidden initials of Imre Nagy appear in the last two letters of each line. This hidden meaning escaped the notice of the censors and the poem was published. The authorities retaliated, stripping him of his post as Secretary to the Hungarian Writers Union.

Selected bibliography

The founder of the award Pal Molnar