Vyach. Ivanov’s Unknown Translation from Nietzsche
Publication Title:
Vyach. Ivanov’s Unknown Translation from Nietzsche
Abstract:
This article for the first time analyzes a draft translation of selected chapters from Friedrich Nietzsche’s work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” made by the Russian poet and intellectual Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov (1866–1949). Special attention is paid to the history of the translation: Nietzsche was an important figure for Ivanov and had a significant influence on his studies, so the desire to translate his works was longstanding, but the draft published here dates back to 1919, when F.F. Zelinsky invited Ivanov to participate in a project at the «World Literature» publishing house. The project of publishing Nietzsche’s “Selected Works” was not accomplished, and Ivanov’s translation remained incomplete. Nietzsche’s style is especially difficult for any translator of his work: some other Russian translations (by Y. Antonovsky, D. Borzakovsky, and J. Golosovker) are used for a comparative analysis of Ivanov’s translation. It is concluded that only Ivanov’s interpretation can be regarded as a translation from style to style, since he refuses to translate word by word and attempts to develop a special style: this style is characterized by using bookish vocabulary and archaisms, rejection of colloquialisms and neologisms, retention of rhetorical figures and rhythm. At the end of the article, the translation is published with variants that allow us to follow Ivanov’s work on the text.
References:
(Sources)
Collected Works
1. Ivanov, Vyach. Avtobiograficheskoe pis'mo S.A. Vengerovu [Autobiographical letter to S.A. Vengerov], in Ivanov, V.I. Sobranie sochineniy. T. 2 [Collected Works. Vol. 2]. Bryussel': Foyer Oriental Chrétien, 1974, pp. 5–22.
2. Nitsshe, F. Sobranie sochineniy v 2 t., t. 2 [Collected Works in 2 vols., vol. 2]. Moscow: Mysl', 1990. 829, [1] p.
3. Nitsshe, F. Tak govoril Zaratustra: Simvolicheskaya poema [Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Symbolic Poem], in Nitsshe, F. Sobranie sochineniy. T. I [Collected Works. Vol. I]. Moscow: Izdanie M.V. Klyukina, [1900]. 360 p.
4. Nitsshe, F. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy. T. 1–2, 3, 9 [Complete Works. Vol. 1–2, 3, 9]. Moscow: Moskovskoe kn-vo, 1909–1912.
Individual Works
5. Bryusov, V. Perepiska s Vyacheslavom Ivanovym. 1903–1923 [Correspondence with Vyacheslav Ivanov. 1903–1923], in Literaturnoe nasledstvo. T. 85. [Literary Heritage. Т. 85]. Moscow: Nauka, 1976, pp. 428–545.
6. Bryusov, V. Urbi et Orbi. Stikhi 1900–1903 g. [Urbi et Orbi. Poems 1900–1903]. Moscow: Skorpion, 1903. 190, IV p.
7. Ivanov, V.I. O trekh prevrashcheniyakh [On the three transformations], in RO RGB. F. 109 (Vyach. Ivanov). Kart. 7. № 8, 11 ff.
8. Ivanov, Vyach. O lirizme Bal'monta [On Balmont's lyricism], in Apollon, 1912, № 3–4, pp. 36–42.
9. Ivanova, L. Vospominaniya: Kniga ob ottse [Memories: A book about my father]. Paris: Atheneum, 1990. 431 p.
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13. Zelinskiy, F.F. Drevnegrecheskaya literatura epokhi nezavisimosti. Ch. 2: Obraztsy [Ancient Greek Literature of the Age of Independence. Part 2: Samples]. Petrograd: Ogni, 1920. 228 p.
14. Zelinskiy, F.F. Pis'mo Vyach. Ivanovu [Letter to Vyach. Ivanov], in RO IRLI RAN. F. 607 (Vyach. Ivanov). № 252, 2 ff.
(Articles from Scientific Journals)
15. Deppermann, M. Die grosse Loslösung: Nietzsches Denkmodell als Kontext für die Erfahrung der Krise bei Vjačeslav I. Ivanov, in Studia Slavica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 1998, vol. 43, pp. 115–134.
16. Kotrelev, N.V. Vyach. Ivanov – professor Bakinskogo universiteta [Vyach. Ivanov – Professor of the Baku University], in Uchenye zapiski Tartuskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1968, issue 209, pp. 326–339.
(Articles from Proceedings and Collections of Research Papers)
17. Etkind, E.G. V'yuchnoe zhivotnoe kul'tury (Ob arkhaicheskom stile Vyacheslava Ivanova) [The pack animal of culture (On the archaic style of Vyacheslav Ivanov)], in Etkind, E.G. Tam, vnutri: O russkoy poezii XX veka. Ocherki [There, inside: On Russian poetry of the XX century. Essays]. Saint-Petersburg: Maksima, 1997, pp. 135–148.
18. Magomedova, D.M., Tamarchenko, N.D. Problema granits iskusstva i zhizni u Vyach. Ivanova i Nitsshe [The Problem of the Borders of Art and Life in Vyach. Ivanov and Nietzsche], in Dialog kul’tur – kul’tura dialoga [Dialogue of Cultures – Culture of Dialogue]. Moscow: RGGU, 2002, pp. 59–77.
19. Stammler, H. Vyacheslav Ivanov and Nietzsche, in Vyacheslav Ivanov: Poet, Critic and Philosopher. New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 1986, pp. 297–312.
(Monographs)
20. Grätz, K. Kommentar zu Nietsches «Also sprach Zarathustra» I und II. Berlin; Boston: de Gruyter, 2023. 970 p.
Key words:
literalist translation, stylistic technique of archaization, translation strategies
The DOI index:
10.17588/2076-9210.2025.2.161-169
Publication file:
