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

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shall be interested to hear reactions.’ 33 When Berlin moved back to Oxford, Chukovskii may well have taken over the role of Bowra's chief book-buyer in Moscow and procured for him the volumes of Ivanov's verse. Bowra’s ‘Hellenic’ versions of Coleridge and Swinburne Together with his letter of November 1946 Bowra enclosed an eccentric offering, designed to appeal to his new correspondent: reprints of his own Greek versions of two poems by Coleridge and Swinburne (‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces...’), first published in the Oxford journal Greece and Rome in 1934 and 1935. 34 Since Ivanov had initiated his first contact with Bowra by sending him an offprint of his translations of two Russian poets into German, it was entirely fitting for Bowra to respond by sending him his Greek versions of two English poets. In his letter he alludes obliquely to this symmetry by describing his Greek versions as ‘χάλκεα χρυσείων’ (bronze for gold). This elegant inversion of ‘χρύσεα χαλκείων’ (gold for bronze), the phrase used by Homer to describe the famous exchange of gold for bronze armour between Glaucus and Diomedes (Iliad 6, 236), echoed Ivanov’s earlier reference to his own transformation of golden songs into dull bronze (‘aurea 32 Letter from Bowra to Berlin of 25 October ; copy deposited with Bowra’s papers, WCA. Sumner was the Warden of All Souls. Nothing came of Bowra's plan to bring Chukovskii to All Souls, but he and Berlin were both involved in the award to Chukovskii of honorary degrees from Oxford University in 1957 and 1962. 33 Letter from Bowra to Berlin of 5 November ; copy deposited with Bowra’s papers, WCA. The first item on Bowra's shopping-list of books was collections or studies of byliny, evidently intended for his current work on Heroic Poetry, published in 1952 with a dedication to Isaiah Berlin, possibly in recognition of Berlin's heroic exploits acquiring books for him in Moscow. Bowra’s gift to Pasternak prompted a letter of thanks; see Pasternak’s letter to Bowra of 25 December 1945, WCA, Bowra’s papers, cited in Chapter 3. 34 The English originals and Greek versions of Coleridge's ‘In Xanadu did Kubla Khan...’ and of Swinburne's ‘When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces...’ were published in Greece and Rome, III, 9, May 1934, 178-81 and V,13, October 1935, 53-6, respectively. The Greek texts are described as ‘versions’ and signed by C.M. Bowra. Bowra sent Ivanov reprints of these versions. Ivanov's library, RAI, holds a reprint from Greece and Rome, vol. v, no.13, October 1935, with the English original of Swinburne’s poem and Bowra's Greek version; his archive also contains four printed sheets with the text of Bowra’s Greek version of Coleridge’s poem. In both cases the Greek versions are the same as in the original journal publication, but are reprinted on unnumbered pages in a different 72
mutans carmina in aes raucum’) in the Latin distichs that he had sent to Bowra together with his German translations of Russian verse. Bowra's Greek versions were a by-product of his earlier years in Oxford. In November 1923 he joined an informal club of seven members, who met at tea once a fortnight in term to discuss their Greek and Latin compositions in prose and verse; 35 for one of these gatherings, as Bowra subsequently recalled in his memoirs, he ‘audaciously turned Coleridge's Kubla Khan into a Greek chorus.’ 36 This experiment, together with several Greek and Latin versions of English poets composed by other members of the group, subsequently appeared in print in the journal Greece and Rome, founded in 1931; the best versions were later revised and collected in the anthology Some Oxford Compositions, published in 1949. 37 The exercise evidently represented an attempt to recreate the spirit of ancient classical culture in Oxford, while exploring how far the differences between English and Greek or Latin could be overcome through the act of translation. Why did Bowra choose these two particular poems for this exercise? And what prompted him to send his Greek versions to Ivanov many years later? In the case of Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan: Or, A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment’ (1797, first published in 1816), the experiment was of particular interest to both writers. According to Coleridge's own note on its genesis, published as an introduction to the fragment although written much later in 1816, the poem came to him while he slept under the effect of an anodyne prescribed for an indisposition. Greek font, identical to the one used when the versions were later republished in 1949 in an anthology of Oxford compositions. 35 See T.F. Higham’s preface to J.G. Barrington-Ward, J. Bell, C.M. Bowra, A.N. Bryan-Brown, J.D. Denniston, T.F. Higham and M. Platnauer, Some Oxford Compositions (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949), v. 36 Bowra, Memories, 255. 37 For a full listing of the versions published in the journal, see Greece and Rome: Index to the first series. Volumes I-XXII (Oxford: Clarendon Press), 20-22. Bowra contributed a wide range of pieces to the 1949 anthology, including his Greek versions of Coleridge and Swinburne (Barrington-Ward, Some Oxford Compositions, 252-6, 292-8). See letter 11 in Chapter 5 for his plan to send this anthology to Ivanov. 73
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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),
Page 21 and 22: humanism; as we shall see below, th
Page 23 and 24: his transformation of the Russian l
Page 25 and 26: The publication of these letters in
Page 27 and 28: edition then formed the basis of th
Page 29 and 30: Жил Диониса новый с
Page 31 and 32: CHAPTER TWO Bowra as a Classical Sc
Page 33 and 34: company of a Russian friend's siste
Page 35 and 36: who initiated him into the art of t
Page 37 and 38: made possible his election to the O
Page 39 and 40: the United States, that he discusse
Page 41 and 42: intuitions, was able to recognize i
Page 43 and 44: Moscow during the war years. 2 The
Page 45 and 46: (tiny little corner): 'это то
Page 47 and 48: of the existing anthologies of Russ
Page 49 and 50: (unchanged) in 1947 and then follow
Page 51 and 52: 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: you, poet, so much sympathy, compre
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 and 104: 5 Ivanov - Bowra 9 December 1946 33
Page 105 and 106: survival. 38 I am glad that you hav
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
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Ivanov, Vyacheslav, Dionis i pradio
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Berlin and Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verl
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Bowra, C.M., Early Greek Elegists,
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London: Duckworth, 1974, 48-85. Aub
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Vena 1998, ed. Sergei Averintsev an
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Konovalov, S., ed., Vyacheslav I. I
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Swinburne, Algernon Charles, Atalan
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INDEX OF NAMES AND WORKS 137
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