Fragmentary Translations and the Value of Poetry: Early Eastern Slavic Verse Translations from Homer

Abstract

The present contribution analyses Eastern Slavic (Ukrainian and Russian) fragmentary translations of Homer’s poems, as they appear in the historical and political writings of Maciej Stryjkowski, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Justus Lipsius translated in Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg from the early 17th century till the early 18th century. The author’s main interest is in examining verse texts inserted in the prose narrative which were occasionally translated in verse — a notable practice for a culture like Russian which did not develop written verse till early 17th century. The study emphasizes various reasons for choosing the verse form for translation (Homer as a historical source, a teacher in political rhetoric, a model intellectual as regards relations between the state and men of letters) and demonstrates that Eastern Slavs had experience with adopting Homer into verse long before 1748, when the first Russian fragmentary verse translation from Homer was published by Mikhail Lomonosov. The article also focuses on the verse translations from Homer by Lomonosov included in his Rhetorics. These are based on S.Clarke’s Latin translation from the bilingual Homer edition by J.G.Hager (1745). Translations which form the part of Maciej Stryjkowski’s Chronicle (1660–1670’s) and Justus Lipsius’ Monita et Exempla politica (1712–1722) are published for the first time, accompanied with an analysis of their textual history