Sava Babić (Cyrillic: Сaвa Бaбић, Palić, January 27, 1934 – Beograd, November 23, 2012), was a

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

n writer, poet, translator and university professor.

His life

Sava Babić's parents arrived to Vojvodina from

Hercegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia. It has never had strictly defined geograp ...

. From the autumn of 1941 he studied at a Hungarian school. He finished the high school in

Subotica Subotica ( sr-cyrl, Суботица, ; hu, Szabadka) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, ...

. In 1953 he passed the school-leaving exam, then studied Yugoslav literature at the University of Belgrade. He worked for several publishing houses and cultural institutions. Since 1974 he taught at the universities of

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...

, then

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, where in 1993 he founded the Department of Hungarian Language and Literature, and worked as its head till 1999, when he retired. In 2007 he received the Golden Cross of Merit of Hungary. Babić is also an honorary citizen of

Balatonfüred Balatonfüred (german: Bad Plattensee, sk, Blatenské Teplice) is a resort town in Veszprém county, in Hungary, with a population of 13,000, situated on the northern shore of Lake Balaton. It is considered to be the capital of the Northern lake ...

.

His first translation was a novel of

Tibor Cseres Tibor is a masculine given name found throughout Europe. There are several explanations for the origin of the name: * from Latin name Tiberius, which means "from Tiber", Tiber being a river in Rome. * in old Slavic languages, Tibor means "sacred pl ...

: ''Hideg napok''. It was an important gesture of reconciliation between Serbs and Hungarians, because Cseres's book describes Hungarian war criminals reminiscencing in judicial custody about their crimes and killings of non-Hungarian population in 1942 raids in southern Bačka. Babić translated also the works of Sándor Petőfi,

István Örkény István György Örkény (5 April 1912, Budapest – 24 June 1979, Budapest) was a Hungarian writer whose plays and novels often featured grotesque situations. He was a recipient of the Kossuth Prize in 1973. Biography He was born to a wealthy ...

, Miklós Hubay,

Gyula Illyés Gyula Illyés born ''Gyula Illés'' (2 November 1902 – 15 April 1983) was a Hungarian poet and novelist. He was one of the so-called ''népi'' ("from the people") writers, named so because they aimed to show – propelled by strong so ...

Tibor Déry Tibor Déry (18 October 1894 in Budapest – 18 August 1977 in Budapest) was a Hungarian writer and poet. He also wrote under the names Tibor Dániel and Pál Verdes. György Lukács praised Dery as being "the greatest depicter of human b ...

Gyula Krúdy Gyula Krúdy (21 October 1878 – 12 May 1933) was a Hungarian writer and journalist. Biography Gyula Krúdy was born in Nyíregyháza, Austria-Hungary. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a maid working for the Krúdy family. His ...

István Eörsi István Eörsi (; 16 June 1931, in Budapest – 13 October 2005, in Budapest) was a Hungarian writer, novelist, political essayist, poet and literature translator. He was born in educated Jewish family. After completing English and German litera ...

Sándor Weöres Sándor Weöres (; 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 journ ...

, Ádám Bodor, Lajos Szabó, Ottó Tolnai and Péter Esterházy.
He also translated all books of

Béla Hamvas Béla Hamvas (23 March 1897 – 7 November 1968) was a Hungarian writer, philosopher, and social critic. He was the first thinker to introduce the Traditionalist School of René Guénon to Hungary. Biography Béla Hamvas was born on 23 Marc ...

. Some works of Hamvas were published in Serbian language before the Hungarian edition.
Babić recently translated some works of

Imre Madách Imre Madách de Sztregova et Kelecsény (20 January 1823 – 5 October 1864) was a Hungarian aristocrat, writer, poet, lawyer and politician. His major work is ''The Tragedy of Man'' (''Az ember tragédiája'', 1861). It is a dramatic poem appro ...

and Sándor Márai, but these translations have not been published yet.

His works

*''Na dlanu'', Osvit, Subotica, 1971. *''Neuspeo pokušaj de se tarabe obore'', Stražilovo, Novi Sad, 1978. *''U senci knjige'', Stražilovo, Novi Sad, 1981. *''Kako smo prevodili Petefija'', Matica Srpska, Novi Sad, 1985. *''Razabrati u pletivu'', Novi Sad, 1986. *''Preveseji'', Institut za južnoslovenske jezike, Novi Sad, 1989. *''Ljubavni jadi mladog filozofa Đerđa Lukača'', Tvoračka radionica, Beograd, 1990. *''Pet više pet'', Dnevnik, Novi Sad, 1990. *''Mađarska Civilizacija'', Centar za geopoetiku, Beograd, 1996. *''Bokorje Danila Kiša'', Umetnička Radionica, Kanjiža, 1998. *''Granice isčezavarju, zar ne?'', Slobodan Mašić, Beograd, 1999. *''Hamvas hárs'', Művészetek háza, Veszprém, 1999. *''Milorad Pavić mora pričati priče'', Beograd, 1999. *''Milorad Pavić mora pričati priče'', Stylos, Novi Sad, 2000.

Translations

*Bán Imre, Barta János, Czine Mihály: A magyar irodalom története (1976) *Bodor Ádám: Sinistra-körzet (2000) *Csáth Géza: Novellák és napló (1991) *Cseres Tibor: Hideg napok (1966) *Déry Tibor: Szerelem (1979) *Déry Tibor: Kedves bópeer! (1989) *Déry Tibor: Félfülű (1991) *Eörsi István: Fogadás (1986) *Eörsi István: Kihallgatás (1987) *Eörsi István: Keringő a valósággal (1989) *Eörsi István: Emlékezés a régi szép időkre (1990) *Esterházy Péter: Hrabal könyve *Esterházy Péter: A halacska csodálatos élete (2002) *Esterházy Péter: Harmonia Celestis (2003) *Fehér Kálmán: Januári borostyán (1974) *Fehér Kálmán: Pannónia (1984) *Gál László: Mégis (1974) *Göncz Árpád: Elbeszélések és drámák (1992) *Hamvas Béla: Hyperion (1993) *Hamvas Béla: Scientia sacra I. (1994) *Hamvas Béla: Patmosz I-III (1994) *Hamvas Béla: Gond az életről (Babérligetkönyv, Világválság, Száz könyv, A bor filozófiája, Titkos jegyzőkönyv, Unicornis) (1994) *Hamvas Béla: Silentium (1994) *Hamvas Béla: Ugyanis (1994) *Hamvas Béla: Haxakümenion (1994) *Hamvas Béla: Mágia szutra (1995) *Hamvas Béla: Arkhai (1996) *Hamvas Béla: Óda a XX. századhoz (1996) *Hamvas Béla: Tabula smaragdina (1996) *Hamvas Béla: A láthatatlan történet (1996) *Hamvas Béla: Regényelméleti fragmentum (1996) *Hamvas Béla: Az öt géniusz (1996) *Hamvas Béla: Szilveszter (1996) *Hamvas Béla: Szarepta (1999) *Hamvas Béla: Scientia sacra I-II (1999) *Hamvas Béla: Karnevál I-III (1999) *Hamvas Béla: Karnevál IV-VIII (2000) *Hamvas Béla: A bor filozófiája (2000) *Hamvas Béla: Bizonyos tekintetben (2000) *Hamvas Béla: Ugyanis (2000) *Hamvas Béla: Szilveszter (2000) *Hamvas Béla: Anthologia humana (2001) *Hamvas Béla: Reči i damari (Válogatás Hamvas bölcseletéből) (2002) *Heller Ágnes: Szilveszteri symposion (1986) *Hubay Miklós: Analízis (1975) *Illyés Gyula: Ditirambus a nőkhöz (1975) *Illyés Gyula: Kháron ladikján (1988) *Kopeczky László: A ház (1971) *Kosztolányi Dezső: Esti Kornél (1999) *Lukács György: A modern dráma fejlődésének története (1978) *Lukács György: Ifjúkori művek (1982) *Lukács György: Intim dráma (1985) *Lukács György-Eörsi István: Életrajz magnószalagon (1986) *Majtényi Mihály: A száműzött (1975) *Majtényi Mihály: Élő víz (1975) *Oravecz Imre: Halászóember (2000) *Örkény István: Macskajáték (1973) *Pap József: Sebzett szárny (1975) *Popper Leó: Esszék és kritikák (1989) *Róheim Géza: Csurunga népe (1994) *Sáfrány Imre: Menetelés (1971) *Sánta Ferenc: Ötödik pecsét (1988) *Szabó Lajos: Theocentrikus logika (1999) *Szeli István: Székács József és műve (1986) *Tolnai Ottó: Versek (1990) *Weöres Sándor: A teljesség felé (2000) *Szerelem magyar módra (Magyar elbeszélések, 1998) *Az ember, az asszony és a bűn (Magyar írók biblikus írásai, 2000)

References

External links

Author's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babic, Sava 1934 births 2012 deaths Writers from Subotica Translators from Hungarian Translators to Serbian Serbian novelists University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology alumni 20th-century Serbian novelists 20th-century translators