The History of Perception and Studying of D. E. Minh’s Creative Works in the Russian Literary Criticism

Abstract

The review of the materials connected with studying and perception of works of the poet-translator Dmitry Egorovich Minh (1818–1885) in the Russian literary criticism is for the first time presented in the article. It is noted that D. E. Minh's activity connected with the creation of the first poetic translation of "The Divine Comedy" by Dante and new interpretations of separate poems of F. Schiller steadily attracted attention of modern to the translator Russian writers and critics, in particular, S.P.Shevyrev, I. I. Panayev, A. V. Druzhinin, N. G. Chernyshevsky, M. L. Mikhaylov, N. A. Nekrasov, A. V. Nikitenko, N. A. Dobrolyubov, Ya. N. Turunov, etc.; thus other aspects of Minh’s creative works, first of all, of his interpretation of English poetry didn't cause interest, except the translations of fragments of J. Krabb’s poems that was caused by specifics of public life of the second half of the 1850th in particular, relevance (in connection with cancellation of a serfdom) of a country question and growth of social contradictions. Essential strengthening of D. E. Minh’s literary reputation was promoted by a posthumous appearance in 1902-1904 of a full translation of "The Divine Comedy" and Pushkin award for it in 1907; subsequently the given translation became a reference point for new generations of the writers addressing to interpretation of Dante’s immortal creation (V. Ya. Bryusov, M. L. Lozinsky). The considerable interest shown to Minh's creative works by bibliographers and authors of reference books of the end of the XIX-XXth centuries (D.D.Yazykov, A. V. Mezyer, I. V. Dobrolyubov, S.D.Yakhontov, S. A. Vengerov, M. M. Kowalewski, I.F.Masanov, N.P.Smirnov-Sokolsky, I. M. Levidova, V. T. Danchenko, etc.), for a long time was combined with a certain limitation of attention to it from the literary critics generally briefly mentioning the translator’s activity at judgment of boundary problems, such as the Russian reception of U. Morris (M.P. Alekseev), perception of Shakespearean dramatic art in Russia in 1870 – 1880s (K. I. Rovda), Dante's creative works and his influence on the Russian and world culture (A. K. Dzhivelegov, I. N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, A. A. Asoyan, etc.) strict censorship at the edition of the translations of the Italian literature in Russia (R. M. Gorokhova), Russian translations of R. Byorns’s poems (Yu. D. Levin), etc. The general idea about the translator’s activity and his achievements was offered in Yu. D. Levin's review included in his book "Russian Translators of the XIX Century and the Development of a Literary Translation" (1985), however its further development (in respect of analytical judgment of Minh’s activity, the analysis of his translations) this subject didn't get. At the same time in a number of the dissertation works prepared in 2000s under the scientific management of D.N.Zhatkin, the called perspective was fragmentary mentioned in connection with works of certain English authors – V. Wordsworth (A. A. Ryabova), J. Krabb (E.I.Ilyazova), T. Campbell (E.V.Komoltseva) and A. Tennyson (V. K. Chernin). DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s4p106