ENThis article is devoted to Professor Algis Kalėda, a renowned Lithuanian literary scholar, specialist in Polish literature and Lithuanian comparative literary studies, and a prominent translator of Polish literature. Over the years he worked at scholarly institutions in Lithuania (including the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Vilnius University Centre of Polish Studies, Vilnius Pedagogical Institute) and Poland (including Warsaw University, Jagiellonian University, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań). He collaborated with leading researchers from all over the world. Professor Kalėda left us the great legacy of his scholarly works and literary translations (from such authors as Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska and Stanisław Lem). The title of the article, “What remains of life?...”, is a quote from Czesław Miłosz’s poem “Notatnik: Bon nad Lemanem”, translated into English by George (György) Gömöri and Clive Wilmer: “From a Notebook: Bon on Lake Geneva”, Poetry Nation Review 9, Vol. 6 No. 1, September–October 1979, https://www.pnreview.co.uk/ cgi-bin/scribe?item_id=6270.