N. S. Gumilev as a translator and an editor of “Robert Sothey. Ballads” of the publishing house “Vsemirnaya literature”

Abstract

N. Gumilev. The purpose of the publishing house was to produce collections of translations of the most famous literary works and to get Russian readers to acquaint with the world literature. Gumilev’s “Ballads” of Southey has pursued the same goal but with the characteristic of the Russian tradition of this poet’s reception. For the English public, Southey was mainly known as an author of historical epic poems, but in Russian literature he was more of a ballad master. This perception has made a lodgement thanks to the first and major translator of his poetry, V. A. Zhukovskiy whose favorite genre was a ballad. In the introduction to the collection of poems Gumilev has drawn attention to the importance of Zhukovskiy for the tradition of Russian Southey and has dedicated the whole book to this idea. Six ballads, the third part of all poems in the book are connected with Zhukovskiy: four of them were translated by him as individual poems and two more were included in a short hexametric novel “Two tales and one more” (“Mary, the maid of the Inn” and “Jaspar”). M. Gor’kiy didn’t like the idea of including Zhukovskiy’s translations in the book, but for Gumilev it was the question of high importance and he has struggled for it. His choice of the only ballad for his own translation also prove this concept: he has chosen “The Surgeon’s Warning”, Southey’s self-parody for one of his most noted poem in Russia thanks to Zhukovskiy’s translation.