SOURCE: "Gyula Illyés, Poet of a Nation," in The New Hungarian Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 68, Winter, 1977, pp. 54-65.

In the following essay, Ferenczi muses on Illyés's "open door" policy concerning creativity and his promotion of that openness.

There are some magic titles, or metaphors, which give a true description of the attitudes or philosophy of a poet. How revealing Paul Éluard's L'amour de la poésie! How much we know about Robert Goffin from A bout portant, or about W. H. Auden when he says Another Time, or about Stephen Spender when he writes The Still Centre, or about André Frénaud when he argues Il n'y a pas de paradis. Gyula Illyés, poet, writer of prose, dramatist, essayist, translator, announces to the world Nyitott ajtó (Open door), Ingyen lakoma (Free feast), and Kézfogások (Handshakes).

Illyés published a selection of his verse translations...