Vyacheslav Ivanov and C.M. Bowra: a ... - UCL Discovery

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Dear Warden, Many, many thanks for the duple 36 joy given me by two “things of beauty”. 37 In your Greek versions I am admiring abundance, expressiveness, colours, plasticity of the poetical language you command with sovereign power. Most happily you have built your odic strophes both harmonizing with the musical movement you would render as harmonious. Your Swinburne seems to me – and this is your merit! – clearer and sunnier, more measured in his outbursts, more definite in outlines, more transparent, more serene, more Greek (I except the lines 33-36, which are rather biblical). As to Coleridge's fragment, the version (I have compared it with the original) is a master-piece of interpretation; but even the splendid dithyrambic raiment is unable to make the queer and confused poem Hellenic. The instructive experiment shows that some emanations of romanticism are absolutely reluctant to the spirit and style of Greek poetry. Of course, you have well done giving back his right name to the oriental hero of a legend that is obviously a minoan letter (‘I am not sure that they are really Hellenic - I wish they were’), also copied out by him on the same sheet (RAI, Bowra folder). With these two words and their development in his poem, Ivanov is responding reassuringly to Bowra’s doubt over the Hellenic qualities of his versions, suggesting that Bowra must have been inspired by the Greek Muse in order to render into Greek two English poets (the ‘Northern lyre’), formed by such a different cultural climate. It is somewhat puzzling that Ivanov has put the adjective ‘έλληνίδας’ (Greek) in the final line in the feminine form of the accusative plural; one would expect the masculine form if he had in mind the Hellenization of a north European people. He may have been struggling to fit the words to the metre (iambic trimeter), or have intended the adjective ‘Greek’ to qualify an implied feminine noun such as ‘Muse’ or ‘spirit’, as in the phrase discussed above,‘“Ελληνίδ” έμπνει’ (breathes the Greek). 36 ‘Double’. 37 Ivanov’s phrase ‘two “things of beauty”’ echoes the opening line of Keats’s ‘Endymion: A Poetic Romance’(1817): ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.’ Ivanov is thanking Bowra for his two Greek versions of Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’ and Swinburne's ‘When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces...’, sent to him with letter 4. 104
survival. 38 I am glad that you have got now my “Translucidity” too. 39 On the next occasion I will write in Russian. 40 Long since I have no news from Prof. Konovalov, no answer came even 41 business-questions; I wonder not without apprehension whether all's right with him. 42 My best wishes for the coming Holidays and the New Year! Yours truly V. Ivanov 38 In line 1 of his Greek version Bowra replaced Coleridge’s Kubla Khan (the Mongol ruler and founder of the Yuan dynasty in China in the thirteenth century) with Minos, a Cnossian king of Crete (έν Κνωσω̃ βασιλεὺς Μίνως) famed for his magnificent palace and maze. 39 Bowra mentioned that he had acquired a copy of Prozrachnost' in letter 4. 40 Ivanov did not keep this threat; his next (and last) letter was in French. 41 This word has been inserted, as the manuscript is torn at this point. 42 Konovalov had last written to Ivanov over three months ago on 29 August 1946 (RAI, opis’ 3, 111); he then fell silent for four months. Ivanov wrote to Konovalov on 20 October 1946 and again on 9 December 1946 (a draft of the first letter is in RAI, opis’ 3, 112; the second letter does not survive in RAI, but is referred to by Konovalov in his next letter). On 22 December 1946 Konovalov wrote to Ivanov, apologising for having fallen behind with his affairs during a hard semester and resuming discussion of several projects for the publication of Ivanov’s works (RAI, opis’ 3, 111). 105
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BIRMINGHAM SLAVONIC MONOGRAPHS No.
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Дорогой друг мой, м
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Illustrations Photograph of V.I. Iv
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Transcription and Transliteration I
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INTRODUCTION Vyacheslav Ivanov (186
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classical tradition of humanism to
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tradition’. 1 Although Ivanov beg
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he overlooked them because of his h
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‘zhiznetvorchestvo’ (creation o
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(Transparency, 1904), Eros (1907),
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humanism; as we shall see below, th
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his transformation of the Russian l
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The publication of these letters in
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edition then formed the basis of th
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Жил Диониса новый с
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CHAPTER TWO Bowra as a Classical Sc
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company of a Russian friend's siste
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who initiated him into the art of t
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made possible his election to the O
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the United States, that he discusse
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intuitions, was able to recognize i
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Moscow during the war years. 2 The
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(tiny little corner): 'это то
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of the existing anthologies of Russ
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(unchanged) in 1947 and then follow
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Pindar or Alcaeus.’ 21 In his bri
Page 53 and 54: Уединенная душа. 26 A
Page 55 and 56: К закатным пристан
Page 57 and 58: succeeds in conveying the power and
Page 59 and 60: Dimitrii, who also omit all referen
Page 61 and 62: all a great personality in contact
Page 63 and 64: ight now it’s impossible to deter
Page 65 and 66: covering several pages; 16 distichs
Page 67 and 68: to the task of translation. A key t
Page 69 and 70: connection advanced by Ivanov and p
Page 71 and 72: you, poet, so much sympathy, compre
Page 73 and 74: mutans carmina in aes raucum’) in
Page 75 and 76: conventional morality. These aspect
Page 77 and 78: Bowra's interpretation and admired
Page 79 and 80: members of a common humanist tradit
Page 81 and 82: details of his meetings with Akhmat
Page 83 and 84: of Svet Vechernii back to Oxford, t
Page 85 and 86: he was clearly anxious to define in
Page 87 and 88: the way in which his generation of
Page 89 and 90: έστίν. 79 This Christian versi
Page 91 and 92: These are not just empty truisms. I
Page 93 and 94: Bowra were discovered in Wadham Col
Page 95 and 96: [To C. M. Bowra, Oxford high-priest
Page 97 and 98: prospere vigeant! 12 Iam ante quinq
Page 99 and 100: Dear Sir, 3 Ivanov - Bowra 1 Octobe
Page 101 and 102: Praestantissime poeta, 28 4 Bowra -
Page 103: 5 Ivanov - Bowra 9 December 1946 33
Page 107 and 108: implies. 47 How hard it is, for ins
Page 109 and 110: Dear Professor Ivanov, 7 Bowra - Iv
Page 111 and 112: With all good wishes to your family
Page 113 and 114: compatriotes non-initiés. 64 Vos t
Page 115 and 116: Dear Professor Ivanov, 10 Bowra - I
Page 117 and 118: your book. 81 I have also written t
Page 119 and 120: His subsequent support for the publ
Page 121 and 122: Works by V.I. Ivanov 1 SELECT BIBLI
Page 123 and 124: Ivanov, Vyacheslav, Dionis i pradio
Page 125 and 126: Berlin and Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verl
Page 127 and 128: Bowra, C.M., Early Greek Elegists,
Page 129 and 130: London: Duckworth, 1974, 48-85. Aub
Page 131 and 132: Vena 1998, ed. Sergei Averintsev an
Page 133 and 134: Konovalov, S., ed., Vyacheslav I. I
Page 135 and 136: Swinburne, Algernon Charles, Atalan
Page 137: INDEX OF NAMES AND WORKS 137
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