Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich Biography

His parents, the poor descendants of the ancient noble family, died early - and already in childhood the poet knew the loneliness, which became the destiny of his whole life. In childhood, Gnedich visited the smallpox and not only mutilated his face, but deprived of her right eye. All this left on the character of the poet a seal of isolation, and if he did not exude in selfish sadness, then only thanks to the innate energy and early love for mental work.

He entered Moscow University for sixteen years, where he stayed for three years. Here he thoroughly got acquainted with Latin and Greek literature, added to Shakespeare and Schiller and discovered a large recitation talent, playing on the stage of the university theater. Moving from Moscow to St. Petersburg to decorate the place, Gnedich managed to publish two of the translated tragedies of Abusis, and “Fesco’s conspiracy in Genoa” Schiller and one original novel from Spanish life, full of monstrous villains and adventures.

In St. Petersburg, Gnedich decided to serve in the Department of the Ministry of Education. His poems, original and translated, as well as skillful reading, opened before him the houses of Count Stroganov and A. Thanks to the patronage of the latter, Gnedich in G. thanks to the glory of an excellent reader, he got together with the famous beauty-actress Semenova, with whom he passed all the roles of her extensive repertoire and for whom he converted the tragedy of Voltaire.

This friendship was the happiness and torment of his lonely life. Of the original works of Gnedich, the idyll of "fishermen" is considered the best, where there is a classic description of the St. Petersburg white nights, quoted by Pushkin in the note to "Evgeny Onegin". Sincerity and deep sadness blows from several of his lyrical plays; These are: "Perian to the Spaniard", "hostel", "beauty of Ossian", "on the coffin of the mother", "to a friend".

Gnedich’s prosaic works find a large education and taste, and the translation of common new Greek songs made by him is remarkable in the purity and strength of the language. But the glory of Gnedich is based mainly on his translation of the Iliad. Before Gnedich, the Iliad was translated by prose twice: Yakimov in the city, in moreover, in Gnedich, he decided to continue the work of Kostrov and in the city of Uvarov turned to him with a letter in which he proved the superiority of the hexameter over the Alexandria verse.

This letter caused the objections of Kapnist, Voeikov, and others. He destroyed the translated songs that cost him six years of hard work. Only in the city, the translation was warmly welcomed by our best writers, especially Pushkin. Subsequently, Belinsky wrote that "to comprehend the spirit, divine simplicity and plastic beauty of the ancient Greeks was destined in Rus' so far only one Gnedich," and placed his hexameters above the hexometers of Zhukovsky.

But other reviews were not so favorable for Gnedich. Ordynsky found that the tenderness, playfulness and simple -mindedness, which are so characteristic of Homer, were lost in the translation of Gnedich. In the same way, according to Galakhov, “Gnedich told Homeric songs some kind of solemnity, set them up to a rhetorical tone, which was especially facilitated by the excessive and not always legible use of Slavic forms and revolutions.” In fact, the translation of Gnedich is noted not only by great advantages, but also by great disadvantages.

The advantages belong to Gnedich himself: the power of the language, a reverent attitude to the original, so not a single Homeric image in translation is lost and the latter is often painted in Zhukovsky. The disadvantages of the translation are explained by the era in which the translator lived. Members of the "Conversations", the defenders of the "old syllable", Shishkov, Kheraskov, Sokhatsky, Merzlyakov were not yet defeated by Karamzin and his imitators; Slavic turns were still considered a necessary condition for an exalted style, so natural in literature, almost half of the OD and praise.

And what is more exalted by Homer and in general ancient writers? Feelings inspired by classic poets were attributed to them, as if the ancients seemed ancient and excellently venerable to themselves. Hence the elasticity of the tone noticed in the translation of Gnedich, and the Slavic turns corresponding to this tone. You can not call epithets successful, like the "idle" dogs, "horse -handed" husbands, "sound -legged" horses, "clear -domed" mortals, "cunning" belts.

The expression is equally strange: “obvious imperious”, “men touching on the battle”, “oh, attribute, do not untrue”, “Trojans, Bodels of the horses”, “to the shore of their feelings”, “in the Omrak of feelings”. All this, indeed, makes it difficult to read the translation of Gnedich, especially if you recall that the "Iliad" by the majority is read in adolescence.

But all these shortcomings are redeemed by sincerity and strength, believing from the poems of Gnedich. Reinforced classes weakened the already painful organism of the poet. Gnedich died, and his ashes were buried in the new cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, next to Krylov. A monument was erected over the grave with the inscription: "Gnedich, who enriched the Russian literature with the translation of the Omir.

Speech from his lips of his prophetic honey" Iliad ", I, p.The works of Gnedich and especially the "Iliad" have been published many times. The most complete "meeting" is St. Petersburg. For literature on Gnedich, see Tikhonravov and Zhdanov.