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

The publication of these letters in Petersburg in 1921 and in Moscow and Berlin
in 1922 under the title Perepiska iz dvukh uglov (A Correspondence from Two Corners)
preserved the spontaneity and authenticity of the original exchange while extending it
into the public domain (a similar effect was achieved by Gogol’ when he published his
Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends). Like the earlier essay ‘Kruchi’,
the correspondence set up the parameters of the debate in a lively, provocative manner
without offering any single solution to the many questions it raised. This open-ended
quality was undoubtedly part of the reason for its huge appeal and influence in post-war
Europe. In 1926 the letters were published in a German translation in Martin Buber’s
journal Die Kreatur, followed by book versions in 1946 and 1948. In 1930 a French
translation by Hélène Iswolsky and Charles Du Bos appeared in Vigile, accompanied by
Ivanov’s letter to Charles Du Bos, reproduced in a book edition of 1931 with an
introduction by Gabriel Marcel. 1932 saw the publication of an Italian translation,
revised by Ivanov and introduced by Ol’ga Deschartes (the pseudonym of his
companion Ol’ga Shor). Translations into Spanish (1933), Hebrew (1943), Dutch
(1945), and English (1947, 1948, and 1966) followed in rapid succession. 26
It is interesting to note that the English translation of 1966 appeared in an
anthology introduced by Isaiah Berlin, who accompanied Bowra on his first visit to
Ivanov in Rome in 1947, as we shall see in Chapter 4. In his comments on the
correspondence (described as ‘the swan song of the old intelligentsia’) he characterised
Ivanov as ‘a greatly gifted, civilized, and influential symbolist poet, […] who speaks as
a “Hellene” and an heir of Byzantium’, and emphasised his search for ‘a synthesis of
26 For details see Pamela Davidson, Viacheslav Ivanov: A Reference Guide (New York: G.K Hall, 1996),
xxxviii-xlii.
25