The Image of a Romantic Female-Beloved between Two Cultures: The Attempts at Translating of Adam Mickiewicz’ Love Lyrics by Cossack Officer Ivan Ul’ianov

Abstract

The study of the evolution of the narratives created by the Don Cossacks in the first half of the nineteenth century is a difficult research task because apart from records, only individual texts, often taken out of context, have survived from this time. Nonetheless, research on such topics seems quite promising. The texts of Don authors often clearly demonstrate the mechanism of transformation of the works of high culture of the nineteenth century when interpreted by amateurs. Taking into account the inevitably individual character of such a transformation in each single case, within the framework of a microhistorical approach we have examined a particular variant of such a transformation, that is the translations of Adam Mickiewicz’s love lyrics by a Cossack officer, Ivan S. Ul'inov (1803–1874). He was a nineteenth-century Don public figure, major-general, and writer. His extensive legacy, most of which has never been published, includes hitherto unknown prose translations of the Polish poet's lyrics, made in the 1820s. Nine of the eleven poems translated by Ulyanov are lyrical works about the inaccessibility of the beloved or separation from her. At the same time, within the framework of traditional Cossack matrimonial practices, the main form of interaction between the sexes was the marriage contracted by the will and in the interests of the parents and involving long separations between husband and wife due to regular service outings. Deviations from the traditional Cossack understanding of the gender role of women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are often found in the texts (including autobiographical ones) of other Don Cossacks who were influenced by European culture. In a similar context, Ul'ianov’s inept translations demonstrate how the text about Polish culture changed its meaning when transferred to the Cossack environment: poems on the theme of the inaccessible beloved familiar to the Polish reader were translated into prose about the possibility of a different gender role of a woman, a complete novelty for the Cossack reader.