Maurice Baring’s reception of Alexander Pushkin’s personality and oeuvre can be described in terms of scholarly, educational, editorial, and translation activities. The unique role of this dialogue in the history of the English Pushkin Studies is determined by its immense influence on the perception of Pushkin’s oeuvre in England as well as on the formation of the English canon of Russian poetry. The major ideas of Baring’s concept, outlined in general notions in his Landmarks in Russian Literature (1910) and detailed in An Outline of Russian Literature (1914), can be found in the preface to the authoritative Oxford Book of Russian Verse (1925). Accordingly, Baring could argue that Pushkin’s poetry was in the highest degree endowed with “common sense”, “matter-of-factness”, “plasticity”, and “incomparable beauty” not only in his scholarly books, but also in his teaching handbook, which went through eight editions in the 1920s - 1960s. Equally important for the development of the general attitude to Pushkin in England was Baring’s discursive strategy of replacing the stereotype about the imitative nature of Pushkin’s works with the thesis about its “adaptability.” Both The Oxford Book of Russian Verse and An Outline of Russian Literature clearly reflected Baring’s special, enduring interest in Pushkin’s lyrics in general, and in the poem The Prophet in particular. In Baring’s prose translation, this poem completes the discussion about Pushkin in An Outline... and opens the section about Pushkin’s poetry in The Oxford Book of Russian Verse. Baring’s poetic translation of The Prophet was first published many years later, in 1933, in The Slavonic and East European Review, to be re-published there again in the “anniversary” year of 1937. The significance of this translation (as well as of Baring’s entire concept of Pushkin’s poetry) for the English canon of Russian poetry becomes explicit in a remarkable fact: The Prophet translated by Baring opens not just a section, but the entire collection of Russian poetry in English translations, edited by the famous English scholar and translator Cecil M. Bowra and published as A Book of Russian Verse at least 4 times: in 1943, 1947, 1971, and 1976. In fact, due to Baring’s Pushkin studies, The Prophet for many years was central not only for the English canon of Pushkin’s, but also for the English canon of all Russian poetry. However, despite the beauty of the style and accuracy in conveying the form and meaning, Baring’s translation sets a unique (“Catholic”) perspective for the interpretation of Pushkin’s masterpiece. The author declares no conflicts of interests.
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Jan 1, 2025
Rossimiriam P De Freitas + 1
Open Access
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