1st Edition
Russian Writers on Translation An Anthology
Since the early eighteenth century, following Peter the Great’s policy of forced westernization, translation in Russia has been a very visible and much-discussed practice. Generally perceived as an important service to the state and the nation, translation was also viewed as a high art, leading many Russian poets and writers to engage in literary translation in a serious and sustained manner. As a result, translations were generally regarded as an integral part of an author’s oeuvre and of Russian literature as a whole.
This volume brings together Russian writings on translation from the mid-18th century until today and presents them in chronological order, providing valuable insights into the theory and practice of translation in Russia. Authored by some of Russia’s leading writers, such as Aleksandr Pushkin, Fedor Dostoevskii, Lev Tolstoi, Maksim Gorkii, and Anna Akhmatova, many of these texts are translated into English for the first time. They are accompanied by extensive annotation and biographical sketches of the authors, and reveal Russian translation discourse to be a sophisticated and often politicized exploration of Russian national identity, as well as the nature of the modern subject.
Russian Writers on Translation fills a persistent gap in the literature on alternative translation traditions, highlighting the vibrant and intense culture of translation on Europe’s ‘periphery’. Viewed in a broad cultural context, the selected texts reflect a nuanced understanding of the Russian response to world literature and highlight the attempts of Russian writers to promote Russia as an all-inclusive cultural model.
Translators’ Preface
Part I: Russian Writers and Translators on Translation
Tsar Peter I (1672-1725)
Edict 4438, On the Preparation of Translators of Books for Instruction in the Sciences
Antiokh Kantemir (1708-1744)
Foreword to the Epistles of Horace
Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765)
Russian Grammar
Materials for a Russian Grammar
Foreword on the Usefulness of Church Books
Aleksandr Radishchev (1749-1802)
A Journey from Petersburg to Moscow (excerpt)
Aleksandr Shishkov (1754-1841)
On Translating Classical Poets
A Conversation between Two Friends about Translating Words from One Language into Another (excerpt)
Nikolai Karamzin (1766-1826)
Letter to Ivan Dmitriev
From the Foreword to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
Scenes from Sakuntala, an Indian Drama
Andrei Turgenev (1781-1803)
Letters to Vasilii Zhukovskii
Nikolai Gnedich (1784-1833)
Homer’s Iliad Translated by Nicholas Gnedich. Foreword
Vasilii Zhukovskii (1783-1852)
Homer’s Odyssey. In Place of a Foreword
Commentary to Nala and Damayanti
Letters
Sergei Uvarov (1786-1855)
Letter to Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich on the Greek Hexameter
Petr Viazemskii (1792-1878)
Adolphe. A Novel by Benjamin Constant. A Note from the Translator
Letter to A.I. Gotovtseva
Nikolai Polevoi (1796-1848)
Review of Lara, The Bride from Abydos. A Turkish Novella by Lord Byron in Ivan Kozlov’s Translation
Review of Goethe’s Works. First Edition
Aleksandr Bestuzhev-Marlinskii (1797-1837)
Old and New Literature in Russia
Russian Literature in 1823
Vilgelm Kiukhelbeker (1797-1846)
On the Greek Anthology
On the Direction of Our Poetry, Especially Lyrical Poetry, over the Last Decade
On Von der Borg’s Translation of Russian Poetry
Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837)
On M. Lémontey’s Introduction to the Translation of Ivan Krylov’s Fables
Letter to Nikolai Golitsyn
On Milton and Chateaubriand’s Translation of Paradise Lost
Petr Kapnist (1830-1898)
On Nikitin
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852)
What is the Ultimate Essence of Russian Poetry?
On the Odyssey as Translated by Zhukovskii
Letters
Vissarion Belinskii (1811-1848)
A Literary Explanation
Russian Literature in 1841
Thoughts and Observations on Russian Literature
Review of The Exile, a Historical Novel Translated from the German
Review of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. A Dramatic Production. A Composition of William Shakespeare. Translated from the English by Nikolai Polevoi
Review of The Works of Aleksandr Pushkin, Article 1
Review of The Works of Aleksandr Pushkin, Article 2
Review of The Works of Aleksandr Pushkin, Article 3
Review of Shakespeare. Translated from the English by Nikolai Ketcher
Review of The Poetry of V. Zhukovskii, Volume 73
Review of Gogol’s Work in French
Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883)
Review of Schiller’s William Tell Translated by F. Miller
Review of Goethe’s Faust, A Tragedy Translated by Mikhail Vronchenko
Letters
Afanasii Fet (1820-1892)
Poems of Catullus. Translations and Notes by A. Fet
Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-1881)
On Account of the Exhibition.
Excerpt from The Diary of a Writer
Nikolai Nekrasov (1821-1878)
Notes on the Publishing Policy of The Contemporary in 1850
From the Editors of The Contemporary
A Review of October Journals from 1855
Aleksandr Ostrovskii (1823-1886)
From the Translator
Letters
Aleksandr Druzhinin (1824-1864)
Letters from a Foreign Subscriber. Letter IV
Letters from a Foreign Subscriber. Letter VII
Schiller as Translated by Russian Poets
Nikolai Chernyshevskii (1828-1889)
Review of Songs of Different Nations, Translated by N. Berg
News of Literature, Art, Sciences, and Industry
Schiller as Translated by Russian Poets
Mikhail Mikhailov (1829-1865)
A Letter to the Editor of the Journal Notes of the Fatherland
Lev Tolstoi (1829-1910)
A Preface to Wilhelm Von Polenz’s Der Buttnerbaur [The Peasant]
Nikolai Dobroliubov (1836-1861)
Works of Roman Writers Translated into Russian
Maksim Gorkii (1868-1936)
World Literature
The Literary Endeavours of the Peoples of the USSR
Letters
Valerii Briusov (1873-1924)
Violets in a Crucible
A Few Reflections on Translating Horace’s Odes into Russian Verse
On the Translation of Virgil’s Aeneid
From the Editor: An Introduction to Armenian Poetry Translated by Russian Poets
A Letter to S.A.Venegerov
Anatolii Lunacharskii (1875-1933)
Introduction to Issue One of the Herald of Foreign Literature
Aleksandr Blok (1880-1921)
Heine in Russia
Kornei Chukovskii (1882-1969)
Translations Old and New. From A High Art
Osip Mandelshtam (1891-1938)
Torrents of Hackwork
Aleksandr Fadeev (1901-1956)
For the Cause of World Peace
On Soviet Patriotism and Soviet National Pride
Answers to Questions from English Writers (excerpt)
On the Universal Significance of Chinese Culture
Mikhail Lozinskii (1886-1955)
The Art of Poetic Translation
Samuil Marshak (1887-1964)
The Art of the Poetic Portrait
Robert Burns Turns Two Hundred
The Poetry of Translation
Nikolai Gumilev (1886-1921)
Poetic Translations
Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
On Lozinskii
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)
Letters
Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1867)
The Poetry of Pablo Neruda
Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941)
Two Forest Kings
Nikolai Zabolotskii (1903-1958)
Translator’s Notes
Letters
Nikolai Chukovskii (1904-1965)
The Tenth Muse
Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982)
The National Borders of Poetry and Free Verse
Arsenii Tarkovskii (1907-1989)
The Opportunities of Translation
Aleksandr Tvardovskii (1910-1971)
On Translations by Samuil Iakovlevich Marshak
Mikhail Lozinskii (1886-1955)
The Art of Poetic Translation
Samuil Marshak (1887-1964)
The Art of the Poetic Portrait
Robert Burns Turns Two Hundred
The Poetry of Translation
Nikolai Gumilev (1886-1921)
Poetic Translations
Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
On Lozinskii
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)
Letters
Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1867)
The Poetry of Pablo Neruda
Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941)
Two Forest Kings
Nikolai Zabolotskii (1903-1958)
Translator’s Notes
Letters
Nikolai Chukovskii (1904-1965)
The Tenth Muse
Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982)
The National Borders of Poetry and Free Verse
Arsenii Tarkovskii (1907-1989)
The Opportunities of Translation
Aleksandr Tvardovskii (1910-1971)
On Translations by Samuil Iakovlevich Marshak
Nikolai Liubimov (1912-1992)
Translation Is Art
Efim Etkind (1918-1999)
A Master of Poetic Composition (An Approach to Benedikt Livshits’s Heritage)
Sergei Osherov (1931-1983)
Several Answers to a Questionnaire from the Bulgarian Union of Translators
Stylistic Perspective and the Translation of Historical Novels
Mikhail Gasparov (1935-2005)
Briusov and Literalism
Bella Akhmadulina (1937- )
A Poem Offered for Translation
Elena Shvarts (1948-2010)
A Few Thoughts on the Translation of Russian Verse
Part II: Russian Poets on Translation
Alexander Sumarokov (1717-1777)
Epistle on the Russian Language
Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883)
Epigram on Nikolai Ketcher
Nikolai Nekrasov (1821-1878)
A Business Conversation
Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900)
The Birthplace of Russian Poetry
Osip Mandelshtam (1891-1938)
Tatars, Uzbeks and Nentsy
Arsenii Tarkovskii (1907-1989)
The Translator
Novella Matveeva (1934- )
The Translator
Iulia Neiman (1907-1994)
A Translator to a Poet
Leonid Martynov (1905-1980)
Poets
Ivan Elagin (1918-1987)
Like a Scarecrow in the Garden
Samuil Marshak (1887-1964)
1616-1949
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)
For Paolo Iashvili
Sergei Osherov (1931-1883)
Sonnet
Boris Slutskii (1919-1986)
I Translate from Mongolian and Polish
Vera Zviagintseva (1894-1972)
To a Translator Friend
Aleksandr Gitovich (1909-1966)
If I were to Speak of Translations
Maria Petrovykh (1908-1979)
The Editor
Natalia Gorbanevskaia (1936- )
To Czesław Miłosz
Biography
Brian James Baer is Professor of Russian and Translation Studies at Kent State University where he is a member of the Institute for Applied Linguistics. He is author of Other Russias: Homosexuality and the Crisis of Post-Soviet Identity (Palgrave 2009), co-editor of Beyond the Ivory Tower: Rethinking Translation Pedagogy (2003), editor of Contexts, Subtexts, Pretexts: Literary Translation in Eastern Europe and Russia (Benjamins 2011), founding editor of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies, and general editor of the Kent State Scholarly Monograph Series in Translation Studies.
Natalia Olshanskaya is Professor of Russian Language and Literature at Kenyon College, USA. She has taught courses in translation studies at the Odessa State University (Ukraine), at the University of St Andrews (Scotland), and at the College of William and Mary (Virginia, USA). She has worked as interpreter and translator, and has published numerous articles on the theory and practice of translation. In 2011 she received a Mellon research grant to pursue research on the translation of Roma literature in Soviet Russia.