NOTE

CATHERINE SPITZER

ALEXANDER SUMAROKOV'S TRANSLATIONS OF PAUL FLEMING'S SONNETS TO MOSCOW

The purpose of this study is to discuss Alexander Sumarokov's translations of three sonnets written by Paul Fleming1 in 1636, entitled in German: Er redet die Stadt Moskau an, als er ihre vergueldeten Tuerme von fernen sahe, An die grosse Stadt Moskau, als er schiede, and An den Fluss Moskau, als er schiede. In 1755, Sumarokov translated these titles into a simpler and shortened version as: Moskve, Velikomu gradu Moskve, and Moskve-reke. This short analysis provides a rare glimpse into Sumarokov's activity as a literary translator and poet in his own right. A well-known Russian poet, Nikolai Gumilev, states in his article "On Translations of Poetry": "... the translator of a poet must be a poet himself and, besides that, a careful investi- gator and perceptive critic, who, selecting what is most characteristic for each author, allows himself to sacrifice the rest when necessary."2 . A pure classicist in theory and practice, Sumarokov was not in favor of preserving the style of the original. He was a consis- tent supporter of the so-called "beautified" translation, in other words, of an alteration of the original in the spirit of eighteenth- century Russian Classicism: "The creator bestows the thought but does not bestow the words; do not submit to the construction of his locutions, rather, adorn it with words natural to you."3

1. Paul Fleming (1609-40), lyric poet, was at school in Leipzig and afterwards studied medicine there. In 1630 he met Martin Opitz, whose work he admired. Most of Fleming's poetry was published after his death. 2. N. Gumilev, On Russian Poetry (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1977), p. 38. 3. Selected Aesthetic Works of Sumarokoo and Karamzin, trans. H. Nebel, Jr. (Washington, D.C.: Univ. Press of America, 1981), p. 69. Fleming belonged to the school of the German Renaissance poet Martin Opitz, who introduced a metrical reform into German poetry at the beginning of the seventeenth century. "This reform was similar in its basic features to the reform of Russian versifi- cation by Tred'iakovskii and Lomonosov, which established the syllabo-tonic system based on the foot for modern German poetry. Opitz, like the Russian theoreticians who came after him, started from classical quantitative metrics, adapting its terms to the tonic versification of the Germans."4 Another poet of this school, Adam Olearius, found himself in 1634 in the services of the Duke of Holstein who was organizing a commercial mission to Moscow and Teheran. Olearius asked Fleming to accompany him, and though the mission was a failure as a business venture, Olearius and Fleming kept their eyes open and gave a brilliant description of what they had seen. When Sumarokov undertook to translate Fleming's poetry a century later, he was approaching it from a different era and a different literary tradition. His translations bear the stamp of the Classicism of eighteenth-century Russian literature. The poetic means used by the two poets reflect not only the individual styles of Fleming and Sumarokov, but also the styles of their represen- tative literary movements. A comparative analysis of Fleming's sonnets and Sumarokov's translations can contribute to the study of major European literary currents in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and to literary theory of stylistics. Sumarokov, who belonged to an era which stressed patriotism, was understandably attracted to Fleming's sonnets which were dedicated to Moscow. Fleming speaks of the Russian capital with admiration; his sonnets express deep gratitude to the great empire which shows support and hospitality to the Holstein mission. His delight with Moscow's beauty leads him to wishing her inhabi- tants happiness and peace. Sumarokov translates these feelings and thoughts with conviction and emotion. The sonnet was a popular form in Germany during the Re- naissance and it is not surprising that Fleming chose it to express his impressions of his travels. The sonnet, the Italian term for "little song," consists of fourteen lines. Specific rhyme schemes are strictly observed and only a single theme or emotion is expressed. Fleming, with little variation, derives his poetic form from the thirteenth-century Italian sonnet which was perfected by

4. V. Zhirmunsky, Introduction to Metrics (The Hague: Mouton, 1966), p. 185.