Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich is a poet and publicist who lived in our country at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. He is best known for his translation into Russian of Homer’s Iliad; it was this version that eventually became the standard. We will talk in detail about the life, fate and work of the poet in this article.
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich: biography. Childhood
The future writer was born in Poltava on February 2, 1784. His parents came from ancient noble families, almost impoverished by that time. Little Nikolai lost his mother early, and then he almost lost his life - smallpox was a terrible disease in those days. It was the disease that disfigured Gnedich’s face and deprived him of his eyes.
In 1793, the boy was sent to study at the Poltava Theological Seminary. Five years later, it was decided to move the school and its students to Novomirgorod from Poltava. But Ivan Petrovich, Gnedich's father, took his son from educational institution and sent it to the Kharkov Collegium. In those years, this institution was considered the most prestigious Ukrainian school. The future poet graduated from the Collegium in 1800, after which he moved to Moscow for permanent residence.
Here he, together with his longtime friend Alexei Yunoshevsky, was accepted into the Moscow University Gymnasium as boarders. But within a few months, the young man was transferred as a student to the Faculty of Philosophy, from which he graduated brilliantly in 1802.
First publications
During his university years, Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich became close to members of the Friendly Literary Society, which included A. Turgenev, A. Merzlyakov, A. Kaisarov. The poet also made friends with the playwright N. Sandunov. During these years, the young man became interested in tyrant-fighting ideas and became engrossed in F. Schiller.
The year 1802 was marked by a joyful event for Gnedich - his translation was published for the first time. It was the tragedy “Abufar”, written by the Frenchman J. Ducis. At the same time, the writer’s original work was published - the story “Moritz, or the Victim of Vengeance.” And a year later, two translations of Schiller appeared at once - the novel “Don Corrado de Guerera” and the tragedy “The Fiesco Conspiracy”.
But, despite the fact that they started printing it, there is still not enough money, so plans to continue their studies have to be abandoned. In 1802, the poet moved to St. Petersburg. Here he gets a job as an official in the Department of Public Education. Gnedich will occupy this place until 1817.
The writer devotes all his free time to theater and literature. In this area, he achieved considerable success, and also made acquaintance with Pushkin, Krylov, Zhukovsky, Derzhavin and several future Decembrists.
Service
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich quickly gained fame as an excellent poet and translator. This fame opened before him the homes of many high-ranking and noble persons of St. Petersburg, including Olenin and Stroganov. Thanks to the patronage of these people, the writer in 1811 became a member Russian Academy, and then appointed to the position of librarian of the Imperial Public Library, where he was in charge of the department of Greek literature.
Soon Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich became close friends with Olenin. They were united by a common interest in theater and the ancient world. This greatly changed the poet’s financial and professional situation.
Most of all during these years the writer devotes his time to working in the library. By 1819, he had compiled a catalog of all the books that were in his department and recorded them in a special register. In addition, Gnedich often made presentations at library meetings.
Collection of books
In life, Gnedich N.I. was naive and simple-minded. The writer’s biography suggests that his only passion was literature and books. The first helped him receive the title of academician and the rank of state councilor. As for books, Gnedich collected about 1,250 rare and sometimes unique volumes in his personal collection. After the poet’s death, they all went to the Poltava gymnasium according to his will. After the revolution, the books ended up in the Poltava library, and then some of them were transported to Kharkov.
In 1826, Gnedich was awarded the title of corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Throughout his life he was engaged in translations of works by Voltaire, Schiller, and Shakespeare.
Illness and death
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich is a wonderful poet and appreciated by his contemporaries. But not everything in his life was so rosy. Illnesses that began in childhood did not leave him. The writer went several times for treatment to the Caucasus, famous mineral waters. But this only helped for a while. And in 1830, the ailments worsened with renewed vigor, and a sore throat was added to them. Treatment in Moscow with artificial mineral waters had no effect. Despite his state of health, in 1832 the poet managed to prepare and publish the collection “Poems”.
In 1833, the writer fell ill with the flu. The weakened body cannot withstand the new illness, and on February 3, 1833, the poet dies at the age of 49. This ends the short biography. Gnedich Nikolai was buried in St. Petersburg on On his last journey, he was accompanied by Pushkin, Krylov, Vyazemsky, Olenin, Pletnev and other prominent literary figures of that time.
Creation
The idea of nationality has always been at the heart of the writer’s lyrics. Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich sought to portray the ideal of a harmonious and working person. His hero was always full of passions and freedom-loving. This is what caused the poet’s enormous interest in Shakespeare, Ossian and ancient art in general.
Homer's characters seemed to Gnedich the embodiment of the heroic people and patriarchal equality. His most famous work was “Fishermen,” in which the writer combined Russian folklore with Homeric style. It’s not for nothing that this idyll is considered Gnedich’s best original creation. Even Pushkin, in a note to his “Eugene Onegin,” quoted lines from this work, in particular the description of the white nights of St. Petersburg.
Among the writer’s works it is worth highlighting the following:
- "The Beauty of Ossian."
- "Dormitory".
- "Peruvian to Spaniard."
- "To a friend."
- "On the mother's coffin."
"Iliad"
In 1807, Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich began translating the Iliad. The poems were written in hexameter, which was close to the original. Moreover, this was the first Russian poetic translation of Homer. The work lasted more than 20 years, and in 1829 the full version of the translation was published. The work had enormous socio-cultural and poetic significance. Pushkin called it a “high feat.”
The very idea of translation came to Gnedich in his distant childhood, when he first read Homer’s work. Many people did this before him famous writers, including Lomonosov and Trediakovsky. But not a single attempt was successful. This state of affairs gave Gnedich’s translation even more weight and significance.
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich lived a rather amazing life. Brief biography a writer can only be composed of interesting events that happened to him:
- Olenin at one time introduced Gnedich as a famous and excellent translator into salons Grand Duchess Catherine and Empress Maria Feodorovna. Acquaintance with the reigning person became decisive for the poet. Thanks to her help, the writer was awarded a lifelong pension so that he could devote all his time to translating the Iliad.
- Gnedich was the first to begin publishing poems by the still young and unknown Pushkin.
- The writer was awarded two orders for his literary work - Vladimir IV degree and Anna II degree.
Today, not every schoolchild knows who Nikolai Gnedich was and what contribution he made to Russian literature. Nevertheless, his name has been preserved for centuries, and the translation of the Iliad is still considered unsurpassed.
1784 - 1833
Country: Russia
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich (1784 - 1833), poet, translator. Born on February 2 (13 NS) in Poltava into a poor noble family. In 1793 he was admitted to the Poltava Theological Seminary, then studied at the Kharkov Collegium, after which he entered the Noble Boarding School at Moscow University in 1800. I always studied with great interest and devoted a lot of time to the ancient Greek language and literature. From a young age he became known for his translations of French plays. In 1802 he left for St. Petersburg, where he received a rather modest position as an official in the Department of Public Education.
Literary interests and a good knowledge of ancient Greek and several European languages early determined his path as a translator. He contributed both translations and original poems in magazines published by members of the Free Society of Lovers of Science and Arts, with whom he became close.
Beginning in 1811, he served for many years in the Imperial Public Library without interrupting his studies. literary creativity. The most famous were his poems “The Hostel” (a free translation from the French of Thomas’s ode, 1804), “A Peruvian to a Spaniard” (1805), and a translation of Voltaire’s tragedy “Tancred” (1810).
In 1807, Gnedich began translating Homer’s Iliad, in which he found “all aspects of heroic life.” He devoted 20 years to this work. To translate the poem, he had to “search for the internal possibilities of Russian verse,” capable of expressing the meaning and spirit of ancient images , ancient worldview and worldview. He settled on the Russian hexameter as a size capable of conveying Homer's verse.
In the memory of subsequent generations, Gnedich remained primarily as the author of the first complete poetic translation of the Iliad. “With the name of Gnedich,” wrote Belinsky, “the thought of one of those great feats that constitute the eternal gain and eternal glory of literature is connected. Translation of the Iliad.” Gnedich’s translation into the Russian language is a merit for which there is no worthy reward.”
After the publication of the Iliad, Gnedich published a collection of poems (1832), which included 77 works written in recent years life.
After a serious illness, on February 3 (15 n.s.) 1833 N. Gnedich died.
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich, poet, translator, public and theatrical figure, born 2(13).II, 1784 in Poltava in the family of a poor landowner.
He received his primary education at the Poltava Seminary and the Kharkov Collegium.
In 1800 he became a student at Moscow University. Nikolai Ivanovich “was remarkable for his tireless diligence and patience, his love for ancient languages.”
He participated in almost all student theater productions, recited beautifully, and was not without stage talent. keen interest in ancient culture, a thorough study of the Greek language, a constant search for a high ideal - all this prepared Gnedich to work on the translation of Homer's Iliad, work to which more than 20 years of her life were devoted.
In 1803, without completing his university course, Nikolai Ivanovich moved to St. Petersburg and entered the service of the department of public education as a scribe. In the literary circles of St. Petersburg, he was known as the author of the novel “Don Corrado de Guerrera, or the Spirit of Vengeance and Barbarism of the Spaniards” (1803) and a translator of plays by Ducie and Schiller. Schiller's drama "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa" (1803) and a later translation of Voltaire's "Tancred" (1810) enriched the repertoire of Russian theaters, and Voltaire's play brought Gnedich great fame and was performed on stage until 1824.
Soon after Nikolai Ivanovich moved to St. Petersburg, his first poems appeared in metropolitan magazines:
“The Hostel” (1804 - “Northern Messenger”) and “Peruvian to the Spaniard” (1805 - “Flower Garden”).
The first is a politically pointed adaptation of the philosophical ode of the French poet Thomas; the second is an original work by Gnedich, which is one of the most striking and freedom-loving works of Russian civil poetry early XIX V. Having transferred the action to the Spanish colonies, condemning the barbaric laws of the Spanish enslavers, the author rises to condemn slavery in general, calling for fair revenge on the heads of the tyrants.
Belinsky once wrote that in this work “some poems are remarkable for the energy of feeling and expression.”
The financial situation of Nikolai Ivanovich in the first years of his stay in St. Petersburg remains difficult, and this leaves its mark on the character of the poet and on his early work. “Poverty and pride are the two furies that shorten my life and overshadow its remains with the darkness of sorrow,” the poet notes in his “Notebook.”
In 1807, Gnedich began translating Homer's Iliad. From this time on, Gnedich’s whole life, all his interests are in one way or another connected with the Iliad, Homer, and examples of ancient literature. Considering himself a successor to Yermil Kostrov, Gnedich undertook the translation of canto VII (Kostrov translated 6 cantos) in traditional Alexandrian verse. However, the poet was not satisfied with his work.
In 1809, in a letter to Batyushkov, the poet wrote: “I say goodbye to the world - Homer will be it for me.” But it turned out the other way around: while working on the Iliad, Gnedich found himself in the whirlpool of literary life and social struggle of his time. Nikolai Ivanovich did not stay away from these issues. In a speech delivered at the grand opening of the Imperial Public Library (“Discourse on the reasons slowing down the development of our literature,” 1812), he talks about many things that concern his contemporaries: about the “pride of being a Russian,” about the need to better understand one’s language. He also talks about the education of youth, citing the example of antiquity.
Since 1812, Nikolai Ivanovich has been re-translating the Iliad, proving with his brilliant work what he had previously substantiated theoretically.
In his poem “The Birth of Homer” (1816) Gnedich N.I. notes the lively sound of the Iliad for its time. The words “freedom” and “tyrant” are given a completely new, modern content. An appeal to the times of the ancient republic begins to serve the purposes of civic education rather than aesthetic education. In light of this, the translation of the Iliad was very timely, as it made freer access to literature for a wide range of readers ancient Greece. Gnedich N.I. was close to the Decembrists in understanding the creativity and tasks of the writer as serving society and its noble goals.
“Byronism,” with its deepening into oneself as the only form of protest against existing reality, was alien to the poet. He expects from Russian poets heroic images and themes of “holy sacrifice of oneself for the good of people.” The idea of a writer’s social duty, that a poet is a warrior, was expressed by Gnedich in his “Speech on the Appointment of a Poet” (1821), delivered on the occasion of his election as vice-president of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, and can be directly correlated with some paragraphs of the charter of the Union of Welfare (“Green Book”).
In the process of working on the translation of the Iliad, Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich was in close communication with writers of different generations. He developed a special relationship with young poets. A representative of the older generation, whose poems were included in the lyceum literature program, Gnedich was ideologically close to the youth and became “a judge and friend of young poets.” Under his supervision, Pushkin’s “Prisoner of the Caucasus” was published; Nikolai Ivanovich played a major role in the formation of Ryleev’s creativity, and it was to him that Ryleev brought his “Thoughts”.
While translating the Iliad, Gnedich did not stop writing himself.
In 1821, his idyll “Fishermen” was written (published in 1822 in “Son of the Fatherland”), which was highly appreciated by his readers and which the author himself considered his best work.
Belinsky subsequently noted the special charm, poetry, liveliness of colors and naivety of expression of “Fishermen”, and in the preface to his other idyll, “Syracusan Women” (1820-21), Gnedich himself pointed out the features of the idyll as a “folk” genre. The desire for nationality was very characteristic of Gnedich. One can note the “Military Hymn of the Greeks” (1821), written under the influence of the Greek uprising led by Al. Ypsilanti, and a whole cycle of translations “Common folk songs of modern Greeks” (1824). One of the censors through whose hands these works by Gnedich passed, wrote that the author contributes to the dissemination of ideas “which tended to be admired by the ancient Greeks, who valued republican virtues above all.”
Belinsky gave a deep assessment of Gnedich's translation, calling the Iliad a “classical book,” believing that it “will become the cornerstone of aesthetic education.”
In 1832, the first collection of poems by Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich, prepared by himself, was published. The collection is composed of 77 poems and includes works written by the poet in the last years of his life. It opens with the poem “To My Poems,” which shows how critically Gnedich approached the assessment of his original poetic work.
But he remained in the history of Russian literature, first of all, as a translator of Homer’s Iliad.
Gnedich N.I. an extensive commentary on the Iliad was conceived. He collected a lot of historical material for him, trying to make his translation authentic scientific work. But serious illness and death prevented him from realizing his plans.
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