Born on 24.05.1925 in Aleniškės (Trakai district). Died 17.05.2006.
He attended Vievis elementary school, Kaišiadorys gymnasium, studied Lithuanian literature at Vilnius University. In 1951, while still a fifth year student, he started working at the Vaga publishing house and stayed there for a long time. He worked as an editor in the editorial offices of translated literature and Lithuanian literature, in 1973-1979 as deputy editor-in-chief, and in 1979-1984 as senior scientific editor of children's and young people's translated literature. In 1985-1988 he worked as a senior research associate at Vyturis Publishing House, and in 1993-1995 he was the chairman of the Committee of the LRS Literature Foundation. In recent years, struggling with a serious illness, the translator worked only at home.
Stasys Sabonis is a renowned translator of Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian and Serbo-Croatian literature into Lithuanian. He started publishing translations in 1953. He introduced Lithuanian readers to the works of M. Bubenov, G. Briantsev, M. Teveliov, I. Shamyakin, R. Tagore, S. Lem, M. Stelmach, I. Andric, D. Grobak, V. Minac, F. Hečko, E. Koš and other writers. Already during his illness, Statys Sabonis translated Serbian and Croatian fairy tales "The Devil's Marriage" (1998), "Slovak Fairy Tales" (1999), "How the Mole Healed the Mouse" (2000) by H.Doskočilová.
Lithuanian theatres have shown his translations of plays by E. Švarc, A. Ustinov, E. de Filip and many other playwrights.
S. Sabonis's translations are characterised by an impeccable language culture, and his works testify to the high skill of the translator-artist. His long experience as an editor and publisher provided rich lessons for young writers entering this difficult field of work, and his sincere, respectful, encouraging, and advising words to younger colleagues were a characteristic feature of his daily life.