Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
SLAVONIC
PAPERS
NEW SERIES
V O L U M E X V 1982
CONTENTS
Some A p o c r y p h a l
Research
Fellow
Sources o f K i e v a n R u s s i a n H i s t o r i o g r a p h y
of Clare College,
Iulianiya Lazarevskaya
By .
A .
By
S I M O N
F R A N K L I N ,
Cambridge
G R E E N A N ,
Lecturer
in Russian,
University
of
Liverpool
R u s s i a n M i s s i o n s to L o n d o n , 1 7 1 1 - 1 7 8 9 : F u r t h e r E x t r a c t s f r o m the C o t t r e l l P a p e r s
By
I G O R
V I N O G R A D O F F
A .
G .
CROSS,
A n Unknown
Russian,
Professor
of Russian
reign!':
Studies,
P o e m b y A . S. S h i s h k o v By
University
of California
at
M A R K
of
of Sarajevo,
sometime
S V E T O Z A R
Visiting
T h e s e s in S l a v o n i c Studies A p p r o v e d
1977-1981. W i t h a Cumulative
Librarian
Bards a n d
Russian
Tsars
Leeds
A L T S H U L L E R ,
Assistant
Professor
of
P A M E L A
D A V I D S O N ,
Lecturer
in
Russian,
Birmingham
Ivo A n d r i c a n d F o l k L i t e r a t u r e By
University
of
Irvine
V y a c h e s l a v I v a n o v ' s T r a n s l a t i o n s o f D a n t e By
University
English
University
Fellow
K O L J E V I C ,
Professor
for H i g h e r
Degrees b y
I n d e x , 1907-1981 By j . s.
G .
of English
British
Universities,
SIMMONS,
Oxford
CLARENDON
Literature,
Oxford
PRESS'OXFORD
Fellow
and
Vyacheslav Ivanov's
Translations of Dante
By P A M E L A
DAVIDSON
I . Vita Nuova
A t one stage or another o f their development, a l l o f Ivanov's projected
translations o f Dante's works were linked w i t h the Sabashnikov
brothers' publishing-house. I n 1910 this publishing-house decided to
found a new series, entitled T a m y a t n i k i m i r o v o i literatury'. It is clear
from the original p l a n for this series, d r a w n up i n 1910, that Dante
was one o f the authors who was to be represented among its p u b l i c a
tions; the series was to include five sections, ' A n t i c h n y e pisateli',
'Narodnoe tvorchestvo', 'Slavyanskii m i r ' , ' K l a s s i k i m i r a ' , and
' V o z r o z h d e n i e E v r o p y ' ; Dante's name figures twice, amongst the
authors listed i n the last two sections o f the series.
Ivanov's first involvement w i t h the Sabashnikov series was as a
translator o f the Greek classics. I n 1911 Ivanov undertook to translate
Aeschylus's tragedies a n d poems by Alcaeus a n d Sappho for the series.
T w o years later, having established himself as one o f Sabashnikov's
translators i n the field o f classical antiquity, Ivanov sought to widen
his scope a n d to turn to the translation o f Dante's works. T h e reasons
for this were partly economic; as Ivanov wrote to M . V . Sabashnikov
from R o m e o n 20 J a n u a r y 1913, he found that he worked better i n
Italy than i n Russia, a n d therefore wished to stay o n i n Italy beyond
the a u t u m n , for longer than he had originally planned ; this decision
entailed sacrificing the income from a course o f lectures w h i c h Ivanov
w o u l d have read i n St. Petersburg had he returned to Russia. Ivanov
was therefore looking for extra translations to take o n i n order to make
his extended stay i n Italy financially feasible. I n his letter, he made
the following suggestions to Sabashnikov:
2
1 0
former students who attended this course recalls that Ivanov used the
Vita Nuova as his basic language teaching text d u r i n g the second
semester o f this course; the students w o u l d read aloud a n d translate
from the Vita Nuova into Russian, a n d Ivanov w o u l d correct their
Italian pronunciation a n d improve their t r a n s l a t i o n . It is possible
that Ivanov's choice o f the Vita Nuova as a language teaching text
was linked to his o w n interest i n translating the Vita Nuova, a n d that
he wished to use the class as a forum for discussing techniques o f
translation o f this work.
After this point we find no more evidence o f Ivanov working on
his translation o f the Vita Nuova. It is difficult to say, on the basis
of the evidence w h i c h has survived, whether or not Ivanov ever
completed his translation, for only fragments o f it survive, a n d it is not
clear whether these represent the total o f Ivanov's work on the Vita
Nuova or only a part o f it. It seems likely, however, i n view o f the lack
of coherence among the fragments w h i c h have survived, that these do
not represent the whole o f Ivanov's work o n the Vita Nuova, but only
a r a n d o m selection o f surviving passages.
T h e fragments w h i c h have survived come from six different chapters
of the Vita Nuova. O n l y one of these fragments has ever been published ;
this is Ivanov's translation o f almost the whole o f the third chapter
of the Vita Nuova ; this passage came to be published because it was
used b y Ivanov as the basis o f his celebrated essay on the aesthetics
of Symbolism, O granitsakh iskusstva', first written a n d delivered as
a lecture i n 1913, a n d published i n Trudy i dni i n the following y e a r .
A p a r t from this passage, a l l the surviving fragments o f Ivanov's
translation are to be found i n the Manuscripts Department of the
L e n i n L i b r a r y i n M o s c o w . I n Ivanov's archive, there is a sheaf o f eight
foolscap sheets, boldly headed i n Ivanov's h a n d w r i t i n g 'Dante : Novaya
Zhizn .
These sheets contain the draft o f an introductory note by
Ivanov on the significance o f the Vita Nuova, a n d the text of Ivanov's
translations of various parts of this work. These consist o f the following
passages: Chapter I, the opening introduction to the Vita Nuova, i n
w h i c h Dante announces his intention to recount his memory o f the
events w h i c h occurred after the beginning o f his new life, a n d their
m e a n i n g ; the first half o f Chapter V , w h i c h contains the account of
the way i n w h i c h , when Dante was sitting i n c h u r c h staring at
Beatrice, the people present mistook the object o f his gaze for another
w o m a n who was sitting between Beatrice a n d D a n t e ; the sonnet from
Chapter V I I (of w h i c h Ivanov gives four different versions), i n w h i c h
Dante describes his distress at the departure o f this lady (who had
11
12
n 13
1 1
1 2
1 3
C o n v e r s a t i o n w i t h V i k t o r A n d r o n i k o v i c h M a n u i l o v , K o m a r o v o , L e n i n g r a d , 30 A p r . 1978.
Trudy dni, 1914, n o . 7, p p . 8 1 - 1 0 6 .
GBL, fond 109.
served as a cover for the object o f his true love) from the city, a n d
details the trials a n d torments o f love; the whole o f Chapter X X , i n
w h i c h Dante describes how a friend o f his requested h i m to write a
sonnet treating of love, a n d then gives the text of the sonnet w h i c h
he wrote a n d a prose explanation o f its m e a n i n g ; a n d finally, the
whole o f Chapter X X I , i n w h i c h Dante describes how he wished to
write more on the subject o f love, a n d how Beatrice b y the effect o f
her eyes a n d gaze was capable of evoking love not only i n people i n
w h o m love was dormant, but also i n those from w h o m love was totally
absent; a sonnet o n this subject, followed b y a prose explanation o f
its meaning, concludes the chapter.
T h e first three o f the passages described above are i n the form o f
a rough draft written out i n pencil, whereas the last two passages
(Chapters X X and X X I ) are written i n ink i n a m u c h more finished
version. T h e text of Ivanov's translations o f the two sonnets from these
last two chapters is given b e l o w ; since these translations are finished
versions rather than rough drafts, they w i l l provide us, together w i t h
the published fragment o f Ivanov's translation, w i t h a useful basis
upon which to draw certain conclusions about the general tendencies
reflected i n Ivanov's manner of translation.
Ivanov's translation o f the sonnet beginning ' A m o r e e '1 cor gentil
sono u n a cosa' from Chapter X X o f the Vita Nuova reads as follows:
:
,
?
.
- , .
, , ;
.
,
, .
.
,
.
.
T h e next translation is o f the sonnet beginning ' N e l i occhi porta
la m i a donna A m o r e ' , from Chapter X X I o f the Vita Nuotfa:
;
,.
;
, .
, ;
,
. ?
, ?
,
[ ; ]
.
14
,
,
, .
I f one begins to compare Ivanov's translations from the Vita Nuova
w i t h the text o f the original, one r a p i d l y becomes aware of the fact
that they are full o f minor distortions and inaccuracies. By 1913, the
year i n w h i c h the contract for the translation o f the Vita Nuova was
signed, Ivanov had already spent many months residing i n Italy, and
his knowledge of Italian was fluent. It was not therefore a question
of Ivanov failing to catch the meaning of the original ; it was more a
question, as we shall see, o f his attempting to b r i n g Dante more firmly
into the orbit o f Symbolist attitudes by investing the text o f his works
with features w h i c h were characteristic of his o w n particular under
standing of Dante and the medieval world-view as precursors o f the
Symbolist mode of thinking. Ivanov's translations of Dante's works are
acts of interpretation, w h i c h allow one to see w i t h particular clarity
some o f the distinctive ways i n w h i c h Ivanov adapted Dante to fit
into the Symbolist spiritual outlook and aesthetics.
T h e first, most general, tendency w h i c h emerges from Ivanov's
translations o f Dante is one w h i c h is endemic to the nature of
Symbolism as a movement, and w h i c h derives from the Symbolists'
view o f the role o f the Symbolist artist in society and the nature o f
his art. Ivanov's ideas on this subject can be found i n two essays w h i c h
he wrote i n 1904, T o e t i c h e r n " and ' K o p ' e A f i n y ' .
Ivanov's
spiritual and artistic golden age was the classical world of A n c i e n t
Greece, i n w h i c h man had been i n touch w i t h the mystical essence
of the universe and when it had been possible for 'boi'shoe*
or 'vsenarodnoe iskusstvo' to exist i n the form of universal myths. T h i s
ideal unity of m a n and the universe had, however, been broken, and
in the present day 'boi'shoe iskusstvo" was no longer possible. M a n
could only strive to create 'maloe iskusstvo' of w h i c h one particular
type w o u l d eventually lead h i m back to the ideal of universal art.
T h i s was keleinoe iskusstvo\ a form o f art i n w h i c h the artist
1 5
1 4
acknowledged the fatal split between himself and the world, and
retired to meditate i n solitude i n order to create an intuitive, personal,
and mystical art whose symbols w o u l d be the seeds of future myths.
T h e present stage of Symbolist art was identified by Ivanov w i t h
'keleinoe iskusstvo'. In this scheme Dante played an extremely important
role. O n the one hand, he was held up as the last true representative
of 'bol'shoe iskusstvo" ; the M i d d l e Ages were seen as the last period i n
history when a collective, unified spirit had informed a society and
its culture. O n the other hand, Dante's art was also seen to contain
features of 'keleinoe iskusstvo\ and as such was presented to the
Symbolist as a model to imitate in order to travel the path back to
ideal universal art. T h i s is the reason why Ivanov chose the following
lines from the Purgatorio ( X X V I I , 8 8 - 9 0 ) as the epigraph to his first
collection of poetry, Kormchie zvezdy (1903) :
Poco potea parer l i del di fuori
M a per quel poco vedev'io le stelle
D i lor solere e pi chiare e maggiori.
16
For Ivanov these lines expressed the spiritual stance of the Symbolist
artist, looking out from his isolation to the transcendent spiritual truths
of the universe w h i c h for the moment might simply be private symbols,
but would eventually become universal myths. Ivanov later repeated
this tercet in ' K o p ' e A f i n y ' , calling it the symbol of the mystical soul
of'keleinoe iskusstvo\ Blok took up Ivanov's epigraph in an essay on
the poetry and aesthetics of Ivanov, and used it to justify the isolation
and obscurity of Symbolist verse w h i c h w o u l d eventually, i n his and
Ivanov's view, lead to a purer art of universal m y t h .
W h i l e Symbolism was still at the stage of 'keleinoe iskusstvo\ the
process of artistic creation was naturally viewed as one i n w h i c h the
poet retired from the crowd i n order to meditate on his o w n before
producing a work of art w h i c h w o u l d be obscure and unintelligible
to the masses. I n 'Poet i chern"', Ivanov linked this view of the process
of artistic creation to two poems by Pushkin, 'Poet' and 'Poet i tolpa'
(originally entitled ' C h e r n ' ' ) . Ivanov wrote:
17
1 8
, ,
( )
. ,
,
' ' '' .
, ,
, ' 1 6
1 7
1 8
I b i d . 513.
I b i d . 729.
A l e k s a n d e r B l o k , Sobranie sochinenii v vos'mi tomakh ( M . - L . , 1 9 6 0 - 3 ) , v, 1 0 - 1 1 .
SS, i, 711.
21
2 1
SS, i , 6 4 3 - 6 0 .
2 2
Dante has Beatrice fully but lightly covered, Ivanov presents her as
scarcely covered. Similarly, i n the sonnet, the Italian reads e ne le
braccia avea/madonna involta i n u n drappo dormendo', while the
Russian becomes I Gospozhu, pod legkim pokryvalomJV ob"yatiyakh
vladyki vizhu ya\ A g a i n , the same added emphasis on the lightness of
the covering recurs, and Beatrice is found i n the embraces of a 'ruler',
rather than simply carried i n the arms of A m o r .
T h e second of the features peculiar to Ivanov's interpretation of
Beatrice is the l i n k i n g of Beatrice to the figure of Sophia, as described
i n the teachings of the philosopher V l a d i m i r Solov'ev. T h i s was a
c o m m o n tendency among the Russian Symbolists, who sought to
combine two different traditions associated w i t h the expression of a
poet's mystical love of womanon the one hand, the Western European
medieval tradition of courtly love, c u l m i n a t i n g i n Dante's love of
Beatrice (associated i n the popular imagination w i t h the Catholic
cult of the V i r g i n M a r y ) , and on'the other hand, the Russian, Solov'evinspired tradition of worship of Sophia, the spirit of D i v i n e W i s d o m ,
often represented i n Russian iconography and later i n Solov'ev's poetry
as a w o m a n or Hsaritsa?figure.T h e Symbolists were helped i n making
this identification by the fact that Solov'ev's Sophiological poems,
V s y a v l a z u r i segodnya yavilas' . . .' ( 1 8 7 5 ) , ' U tsaritsy moei est'
vysokii dvorets . . .' ( 1 8 7 6 ) , and the famous T r i svidaniya' (1898),
i n w h i c h Solov'ev describes his three encounters w i t h Sophia, appeared
together w i t h Solov'ev's o w n translation of a sonnet from the Vita
Nuova i n Solov'ev's first published collection of v e r s e . T h e language
and imagery of Dante's and Solov'ev's verse blended into one i n the
Symbolists' poetic imagination, and became a single, c o m m o n source
for the expression of their intuitions of mystical love.
c
23
V l a d i m i r S o l o v ' e v , Stikhotvoreniya
( M . , 1891 ) .
2 5
2 6
I d e m , Stikhotvoreniya
SS, i , 517.
Ibid. 859.
2 6
( M . , 1921), x i i i .
3 1
3 2
,
,
, ' '
, & ^1 '' .
,
Convito 25 [ ] , [ ]
,
,
. ,
e che nel libro della
memoria mia siano scritti con lettere d'oro tutti i dettagli del mio soavissimo
soggiorno neu' Arcadia dell' amist, imperocch voi tutti quanti Gattamori
e Gattamoretti siete proprio principi, principesse e principessine dell'amorosa
amist.
33
3 0
Ibid.
I a m v e r y grateful to N . V . K o t r e l e v w h o has h a d access to F l o r e n s k y ' s p r i v a t e a r c h i v e
for m a k i n g this i n f o r m a t i o n k n o w n to m e .
T s G A L I , fond 142, op. I , ed. khr. 313.
GBL, fond 109.
3 1
3 2
3 3
? ,
[,] !
, ,
.
!'
4
, ,
, , '
, :
['] , .
, ,
?
!
,
, !
.
[,]
: "
, , !"['.]
!
[ ; ]
, , .
[ , ]
, [ , ]
: ?
?
' , ?'
F r o m the point of view of form, Ivanov's translation is faithful to
the original. It keeps exactly to the number of lines of Dante's canzone
four parts of thirteen lines each, followed by an envoi or tornata, as
Dante calls it, of nine lines. Ivanov has used iambic pentameters
throughout, and has successfully reproduced Dante's r h y m i n g scheme.
However, formal perfection i n a translation can sometimes only be
achieved at the expense of exactitude i n reproducing the meaning of
the o r i g i n a l ; there are instances i n Ivanov's translation where a line
or phrase has been added quite gratuitously, without any basis i n
the Italian, evidently i n order to make up an extra line or to preserve
the r h y m i n g scheme. For similar reasons, there are some omissions.
A s i n the case of Ivanov's translations from the Vita Nuova, these
additions and omissions tend to reflect features of Ivanov's own
spiritual outlook. There is the same tendency to prefer the complicated
to the simple. O n the syntactical level, this takes the form of the
introduction of enjambements. Whereas there are no enjambements i n
28
2 9
2 7
2 9
3 5
;
;
,
.
, ,
;
.
36
3 6
SS, i , 5 1 8 - 1 9 .
38
3 7
( M . , 1971 ), 4 6 7 - 8 a n d
4843 8
40
42
3 9
4 1
4 2
44
4 3
4 7
49
50
4 7
See B e l z a , o p . c i t . ( n . 3 9 ) , 7 8 - 9 3 .
B r y u s o v ' s a n d I v a n o v ' s j o i n t i n v o l v e m e n t i n L i t o N a r k o m p r o s a is d e s c r i b e d i n Khudozhestvennoe
slovo. Vremennik literaturnogo otdela NKP, e d i t e d b y V . Y a . B r y u s o v , 1920, n o . 1, p . 6 2 . I v a n o v ' s
' Z i m n i e sonety' a n d B r y u s o v ' s r e v i e w o f I v a n o v ' s Mladenchestvo were p u b l i s h e d i n the same
issue, p p . 1 0 - 1 2 a n d 5 7 .
See n . 11.
O n 7 M a r c h 1929, M . G o r ' k y w r o t e to P . S. K o g a n f r o m I t a l y suggesting that the latter
m i g h t like to p u b l i s h I v a n o v ' s t r a n s l a t i o n o f the Inferno; see Literaturnoe nasledstvo, l x x ( M . ,
1963), 213.
4 8
4 9
5 0
6 1
:
.
,
, ,
.
:
, , .
io
,
:
.
13
,
, ,
16
,
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.
19
-, ,
, .
22
,
;
.
25
.
, ,
.
28
,
.
D . V . I v a n o v k i n d l y m a d e a c o p y o f this t r a n s l a t i o n
publication.
for me, a n d
consented
to its
31
,
,
.
34
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37
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40
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58
;
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67
[.]