WEORES, SANDOR

born June 22, 1913, Szombathely, Hung. died Jan. 22, 1989, Budapest Hungarian poet who wrote imaginative lyrical verse that encompassed a wide range of techniques and metric forms. Weres, who published his first poem at the age of 15, graduated from the University of Pcs (Ph.D., 1938) and worked as a librarian and as a free-lance writer. He rejected the officially approved subject matter of Socialist Realism to explore such diverse areas as Eastern philosophy, Polynesian myths, and children's nursery rhymes. From 1949 to 1964, his poetry was suppressed by the communist government of Hungary, with a few exceptions such as A hallgats tornya (The Tower of Silence), which was published during a brief period of relative freedom prior to the revolution of 1956. After the publication of Tkzt (1964, The Well of Fire) in Paris, his poetry again became officially tolerated in Hungary. His later works included Psych (1972), a collection of letters and poems by a fictitious 19th-century woman, and several verse dramas. He also edited Hrom verb hat szemmel (1977; Three Sparrows with Six Eyes), an influential anthology of Hungarian poetry. In 1970 Weres received the Kossuth Prize, the nation's highest award. English-language translations of Weres's poetry include If All the World Were a Blackbird (1985) and Eternal Moment (1988).