Preview

Voprosy literatury

Advanced search
Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Not in Marshak’s style. Little known Russian translations from William Blake in the early 20th century

https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2019-1-178-204

Abstract

The publication consists of a supplementary article and a brief commentary to the little known translations of W. Blake’s works made by Russian poets in the early 20th century. Back in the 1900s—1910s, the Russian authors perceived Blake as a precursor to Symbolists, so e. g. V. Elsner, K. Balmont, and S. Remizova-Dovgello (A. Remizov’s wife), among others, chose to emphasize this particular quality in their translations. Almost completely abandoned in the Soviet period, these translations are reclaiming attention in the article that aims to right the historical injustice and highlight an important trend in changing interpretation of Blake’s oeuvre by Russian translators: from the pronounced Symbolist angle in the versions by the Silver Age authors to S. Marshak’s simplification. Following the article is the translation of Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and A Song of Liberty penned by S. Remizova-Dovgello in a lofty and excessive, baroque style of the Symbolists in the early 1900s. The published poems are based on A. Remizov’s and S. Remizova-Dovgello’s holographs.

About the Author

V. V. Serdechnaya
Kuban State University
Russian Federation

Vera V. Serdechnaya - Candidate of Philology.

149 Stavropolskaya St., Krasnodar, 350040



References

1. Dagdeil, S. (2010). William Blake in Russia. Experience of one seminar. Inostrannaya Literatura, 12, pp. 242-247. (In Russ.)

2. Farjeon, A. (2003). The adventures of Russian painter. The biography of Boris Anrep. St. Petersburg: Izdatelstvo zhurnala Zvezda. (In Russ.)

3. Gracheva, A., ed. (2002-2003). The collected works of A. Remizov (10 vols). Vol. 9-10. Moscow: Russkaya kniga. (In Russ.)

4. Gumilyov, N. (1913). The anthology of modern poetry. 2nd ed., revised and expanded by F. Samolenko. Kyiv. 1912. Apollon, 2, pp. 71-72. (In Russ.)

5. Kaznina, O. (1997). Russians in England. Moscow: Nasledie. (In Russ.)

6. Komarova, E. (2013). The reception of Algernon Charles Swinburne in Russia (last quarter of the 19th — first third of the 20th century). Candidate of Philology. Saratov State University. (In Russ.)

7. Serdechnaya, V. (2015). ‘Russian Blake’ and Boris Anrep. Voprosy Literatury, 5, pp. 225-242. (In Russ.)

8. Sergeeva-Klyatis, A. (2015). Pasternak: His life and personality. Moscow: AST: Redaktsiya Eleny Shubinoy. (In Russ.)

9. Tokarev, D. (1996). Apocalyptical motifs in D. Kharms’s works (in the context of Russian and Western European eschatology). In: D. Lichachev, ed., Russia, West, East: Counter-currents: A collection to honour M. Alekseev’s 100-th birth anniversary. St. Petersburg: IRLI RAN, pp. 176-197. (In Russ.)

10. Vasilieva, T. (1969). Poems by W. Blake (18-19th-century ‘Prophetic books’). Uchenye Zapiski Kishinevskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, 108, pp. 26-311. (In Russ.)

11. Zhegin, L. (1997). My reminiscences of Chekrygin. In: N. Khardzhiev, ed., Articles on Avant-garde. Vol. 1. Moscow: Ra, pp. 172-201. (In Russ.)

12. Zirmunsky, V., Marshak, I., Mikhalkov, S. et al., eds. (1969). The collected works of S. Marshak (8 vols). Vol. 3: Translations of poems by English and Scottish poets. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura. (In Russ.)


Review

For citations:


Serdechnaya V.V. Not in Marshak’s style. Little known Russian translations from William Blake in the early 20th century. Voprosy literatury. 2019;(1):178-204. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2019-1-178-204

Views: 473


ISSN 0042-8795 (Print)