Born in Târgu Mureș, (Transylvania) on January 15th, 1954. He continued his studies at the Institute of Catholic Theology in Alba Iulia. He graduated in Library science and Literary translation in Bucharest.
In 1990, he moved to Slovakia. In 1994, he founded AB-ART Publishing, of which he is the director since then. He is a member of the Hungarian Writers’ Union, of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Paris, of the Eminescu Academy, of the Writers’ Union of Romania, of the Hungarian PEN Club, of the Writers’ Association of Slovakia. As the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry and the translator of more than twenty books of poetry and fiction, Attila F. Balázs has received numerous awards and prizes in acknowledgement of his various literary activities (Opera Omnia Arghezi Prize (Romania, 2014), Lucian Blaga Prize (Romania, 2011), EASAL Prize (Paris, 2020), Madách Prize (Slovakia, 1992), World English Writer’s Union award, (India, 2019),Lukijan Mušicki Award, (Belgrad, Serbia, 2019), International prize Dardanica, Brussel / Prishtina,2019, Honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature, China, 2018, Camaiore International Prize, Italy, 2021.
His works have been translated in 25 languages. As an invited poet, he is a regular participant of diverse literary festivals all around the world.
- Masks, Poems, Madách Publisher, 1992
- The Juice of the Cat. Short Stories, Microgramma, 1992
- Naked Knights. Selected and New Poems, AB ART, 2002
- Hungarian Who is Who in Slovakia. 2000
- My Cross of Words 50 Years 50 Poems, Lilium, 2004
- Portrait Gallery. Bratislava, AB ART, 2004
- Casanova’s Metamorphoses – Premeny Casanovu. Bilingual (Hungarian-Slovakian) Edition Plectrum, 2005
- Missa Bestialis. Poems translated into Romanian by A. Iancu, Limes, Cluj, 2008
- Escape from the Ghetto. Literary translations, AB ART , Bratislava, 2008
- A Bag of Cherries. Contemporary Romanian Poetry, AB ART , Bratislava, 2009
- Poems – Poezii Bilingual (Hungarian – Romanian) edition, 2009
- Minimal, Poems, AB-ART Bratislava, 2010
- Blue, Poems, AB-ART Bratislava, 2011
- Metamorfozele lui Casanova, Short Stories translated by Ildiko Foarţă, Grinta, Cluj, 2011
- Casanova átváltozásai, Short Stories in hungarian, AB-ART, 2012
- Gordiev jazol, poems in Macedonian translated by D. Dincev, Matica, Macedonia
- Most beautiful poems, in Hungarian, 2012, AB ART, Bratislava
- Minimal (poem in Portuguese, translator José Eduardo, 2013, Editora Aty, Porto Alegre, Brazilia
- Casanova’s Metamorphoses Short Stories in English, translator Adrian George Sahlean, 2013, Ekstasis Editions, Vancouver, Canada
- Cravata lui Villon, poems in romanian trad. Serban Foarta, Tipo Moldova 2014
- Blue / Kék, poems translated in English by Erzsébet Csicsery, Libros Libertad, Canada, 2014
- La metamorfosis de Casanova, in spanish translated by Rafael Soler, El Quirófano Ediciones, Ecuador, 2014
- Luna pe cale de a se ineca, short stories in Romanian, Editura Arc, Chisinau
- Casanova’s Metamorphoses, Short Stories in Serbian, translated by Jolánka Kovács, Sremska Mitrovicá, 2015
- Missa Bestialis, Poems translated in English by Lucia Gorea, Libros Libertad, 2015
- Istegin Hususiyeti, poems in Turkish translated by Müesser Yeniay, Siirden Yayincilik, Istanbul, 2015
- Minimal, poems in Slovakian translated by Jitka Roznova, SZMIT, Dunajska Streda, 2015
- Villon nyakendője, poems, ART Danubius, 2015
- Kis Odüsszeia, translations from the poetry of the world, 2016
- Chair impassible, poems in French translated by S. Pallai, Éditions du Cygne, Paris, 2016
- O mie de tentacule si-o franghie, poems in Romanian translated by Mihók Tamás, Paralela 45, 2017
- Pritja e përjetshme, poems in Albanian, translated by Baki Ímeri, 2017
- Avqustda qar, poems in Azerbaijani translated by Mehmet Ismail. Edebiyyat, Baku, 2019
- ЛОВ НА ЛЕПОТУ, poems in Serbian translated by Jolánka Kovács, Алма, Belgrad, 2019
- XÁC THỊT VÔ CẢM, poems in Vietnamese translated by Văn Minh Thiều, Nhà xuất bản Cygne, Hanoi, 2019
- La metamorfosis de Casanova, Short Stories in Spanish, translated by Rafael Soler, Libros del Genio Maligno, Granada, Spain, 2020
- Blue, poems translated in Italian by Laura Garavaglia, Quaderni del Bardo edizioni, 2020
- BLUE / ZAMAWATI, poems translated by:Ezra Nyakundi Mose, Christopher Okemwa, Kistrech Theatre International, 2020
- CORPO INDIFERENTE / KÖZÖMBÖS HÚS, translated by Cinzia Demi, foreword Tomaso Kemény, puntoacapo Editrice, 2020
- 2020 Újrafestett rácsok, poems, Hungarovox, Budapest, 2020
- Iubiri ce purifica, translated by Nicolae Dabija, Chisinau, 2021
- La cravata di Villon, translated by Eliza Macadan, Di Felice Edizioni, 2021
- Villon’s tie, poems translated by Elisabeth Csicsery Ronay, USA, 2021
- Albastru, translated by Serban Foarta, Cosmopoli, Bukarest, 2021
- Európai váróterem, poems, Vámbéry, Slovakia, 2021
- 2021 Biến đổi Casanova, Hanoi, Vietnam.
His literary translation works:
- Contemporary Romanian Poems, Bratislava, 2007
- Mircea Petean: Anna Poems, Bratislava, 2008
- Varujan Vosganian: Blue Shaman, poems, Bratislava, 2009
- Gabriel Chifu: Boardgame, poems, Bratislava, 2009
- Angela Baciu:Poezii / Poems, Cluj-Napoca, 2009
- Vasile Dan: Liquid Mirror, poems, Bratislava, 2010
- Lucian Blaga: Poems, Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest, 2011
- Ioan Es Pop, Nem mertem kiáltani soha, AB-ART, 2012.
- Robert Serban, Illatos koporsó, Poems, l’Harmattan, Budapest. 2012.
- Carolina Ilica, Valamivel több, Poems, AB-ART, 2012.
- Rade Siljan, Évszázadok, Poems, AB-ART, 2012.
- José Eduardo Degrazia, A szerelem geometriája, poems, AB-ART, 2013.
- Turczi István, Strainul, poems, Europa, Craiova, 2014.
- Új Dánia, Anthology of Moldavian poets, Parnasszus, Budapest, 2014
- Augusto Rodriguez, Örültek csókja, poems, AB-ART, 2014
- Rafael Soler, Visszaút / Maneras de volver, Poems -ART, 2015
- Müesser Yeniay, A rózsaszedés szertartása, Poems, AB-ART, 2015
- Nicolae Spataru: Álmatlanság Európáért, Poems, AB-ART, 2015
- Tudor Arghezi: Poezii Poems , bilingv, Tg-Jiu, 2016
- Nedeljko Terzic, Robaj és csend, poems, AB-ART, 2015
- Metin Cengiz, Fekete és fehér, poems, AB-ART, 2015
- Kis Odüsszeia, selected literary translations, Art Danubius, 2016
- Mamed Ismail: Száműzetésben, poems, AB ART, Budapest, 2019
- Jeton Kelmendi: Keserű kávé, poems, AB ART 2019
- Pedro Enriquez: Késélen, poems, AB ART 2019
- Cinzia Demi: Magdolna voltam, poems, AB ART, 2019
- Lulzim Tafa: Szokatlan ima, poems, AB ART, Budapest, 2019
- Kürti László: Despre frauda, poems in romanian, Amanda Edit Verlag, Bukarest, 2019
- Dmitri Csisztiak: Tenger a kőben, poems, Parnasszus, Budapest, 2020
- A négyarcú Bajon torony, poets of the Vietnam War, AB ART, 2020
- Bill Wolak: Nem szeretni veszélyes, poems, AB ART, 2020
- Christopher Okemwa: Tisztítótűz, poems, AB ART, 2020
- Kaiser László: Hoinari, copoi, ingeri, poems, Grinta, Cluj-Napoca, 2020
- Horia Dulvac: Nem mondta senki, poems, AB ART, 2021
- Eliza Macadan: Az idő urnájában, poems, AB ART, 2021
- Simona Grazia Dima: Az élet rejtélye, AB ART, 2021
- Vu Thong Thai: Rózsa antik vázában, AB ART, 2021
- Tran Quang Dao: Repülés álomban, AB ART, 2021
- Az élet egy vers, AB ART, 2021
MAKARSKA
the sun burns my chest
my arm covers my closed eyes
the racket of cicadas comes from the shore
grows louder then softer
words leap about
in the roar of the waves
they don’t reach my consciousness
a plane flies above me
then another
I sit up
I stick the knife into the watermelon
I cut slices
I cool my tongue with a slice
its blood flows down my tongue
the sun walks on water
it laughs at me derisively
I’m following you dear friend!
TRIESTE
After a stormy night
the sky is as clear as the eye
after an afternoon nap
the waves impassively besiege
the concrete breakwaters of the shore
the breeze caresses the bushes and leaves of the trees
the fresh flowers in the girls’ hair
the bored boats pitch in the port
on the shore a girl with taut skin
is absorbed in drawing something in the sand
a lapdog takes tiny steps
sniffing everything
his mistress scans the horizon
no shark attack
no exploding bomb
nobody rapes the solitary girl
no tsunami is heading for land
and no poem is being written
in this lovely boredom
ZURICHSEE
the surface of the water shudders
fish draw
circles
making tiny waves
below the surface
the wild ducks
near the shore
are being hunted
the sky embraces the earth
on the horizon
the celestial waterfall
bewitches
BUDAPEST
the grimy billboard
the worn zebra crossing
is familiar
on the cracked asphalt
the faded boxes
in the shop windows
the aroma of freshly baked bread
in front of the corner shop
the smiling homeless man
in the underpass
it is only your blurred reflection
in the glass palace
that is alien
on this morning in September
which stiffens in a
black-and-white photo
the voice too is familiar
the twin of silence
in the alien rhythms
of the city’s noise
RIO WITHOUT A BALL
street children
for whom everything
is beautiful
and good
and enticing
beyond the shop windows
invisible limits unbearably
narrow their space
like an outgrown shoe
like a tight collar
which hurts their skin
than
once
like untamed colts
they break through the barrier
and they do something
that flashes the illusion of freedom
before them
until Order steps in
in the interests of the common good
however when they wander aimlessly
roam about
meander
attention inward
contemplating
remembering
emptied of all feeling
for they do not know self-pity
the décor and players of the past
touch them only as much
as the episodes of a TV film
stories
other dimensions
places
where one can dream
they cross the grass of the stadium
when the field is quiet
and the grandstands are empty
every good thing
happens to them
at least once a year
the game is a challenge
the ball made of rags
is bright as the moon in their dreams
they dream awake
above the unsleeping roofs
their hands beneath their necks
go numb but they don’t feel it
other dimensions
places where dreams are born in dreams
after they wake up
their dreams are no longer theirs
it is as if they remembered
films seen long ago
in snatches
in a jumble
apathetically
then
solitude thickens around them
preserving their last movements
like the petrified resin
preserves a bug
amber that tells beautiful lies
