10 Western Works That Have Become… classics in Russia

Homer's ‘Iliad’ translated by Nikolai Gnedich

Before Gnedich, Homer was translated either in Alexandrine verse (which sounded too light) or in prose. The poet set himself the goal of conveying the epic scope and the resonance of Homeric hexameter in Russian. To achieve this, he used dactyl six-foot. As a result, Gnedich's translation was hailed as a national cultural event (1829). Pushkin wrote the following famous lines:

“I hear the hushed sound of divine Hellenic speech;

With my troubled soul I sense the shadow of a great elder.”

True, he also couldn't resist an epigram:

“Gnedich, the poet, was crooked, the interpreter of blind Homer,

His translation is similar in one aspect to the model.”

Homer's ‘Odyssey’ translated by Vasily Zhukovsky

It was no coincidence that critic Belinsky called Zhukovsky "the literary Columbus of Old Russia", who introduced European literature to the country. The poet insisted that translation was not a copy of the original, but a creative collaboration between author and translator, the creation of an ideal work in the translated language. Zhukovsky's translation of ‘Odyssey’ (1849) no longer resonates with the archaic power of Gnedich's. This is a poetic epic, perfectly suited to Zhukovsky's own style.

Ballads of the German Romantics, translated by Vasily Zhukovsky

Through Zhukovsky's translations, the Russian public became acquainted with the ballads of German and English Romantics. Friedrich Schiller's ‘The Goblet’ and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's ‘The Erl King’ became textbook classics, memorized by generations of schoolchildren. Zhukovsky's translations also influenced early Pushkin, Lermontov and other poets of Pushkin's generation.

Shakespeare, translated by Boris Pasternak

Pasternak didn't so much translate Shakespeare as recreate him for the Russian reader. His ‘Hamlet’, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘King Lear’ are full-fledged poetic works. The phrase: "To be, or not to be: that is the question," thanks to Pasternak, is familiar to every Russian. Just like: "For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

Robert Burns, translated by Samuil Marshak

Marshak turned the Scottish poet practically into a Russian folk poet. His translations are so melodic, precise and soulful that Burns's songs and poems (like ‘O, wert thou in the cauld blast…’ and ‘O poortith cauld, and restless love’) read as authentically Russian.

Salinger's ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, translated by Rita Wright-Kovaleva

The translation was first published in 1955 and, for a long time, was the only Russian version: the overwhelming majority of Russian readers are familiar with the book through it. The title of the novel, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, is conveyed metaphorically – ‘Over the Catcher in the Rye’. There are other censorship and ideological discrepancies, omissions and inaccuracies. And yet, for several generations of Russian readers, Holden Caulfield speaks precisely in Wright-Kovaleva's words.

Dante's ‘The Divine Comedy’, translated by Mikhail Lozinsky

This is considered to be the most famous, respected and "academic" translation. For it, Lozinsky received the ‘Stalin Prize’ in 1946. The translator set himself the task of conveying Dante's text with maximum philological accuracy, preserving all the semantic nuances, complex stanzas and rhythmic-syntactic structure of the sentences. The result is a text of incredible density and intellectual depth. The phrase: "Halfway through my earthly life, I found myself in a dark forest," is also familiar to all Russians.

García Márquez's ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, translated by Valery Stolbov and Nina Butyrina

The first translation of the famous novel was completed in the Soviet era (late 1960s) and, like ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, remains one of the most popular and beloved. Butyrina and Stolbov created the dense and poetic language associated with García Márquez's magical realism in Russia.

Tolkien's ‘The Lord of the Rings’, translated by Vladimir Muravyov and Andrey Kistyakovsky (first complete version)

Despite later and more accurate translations, this version has become a cult classic for many Soviet and Russian fans. It’s imbued with an epic grandeur and archaic atmosphere that perfectly suits the Russian reader's perception of the work.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's ‘The Little Prince’, translated by Nora Gal (Eleonora Galperina)

The translation of this parable-fairy tale about a boy wandering the universe has also entered the history of Russian literature alongside the original texts. Gal created a textbook text, in which many phrases have become catchphrases ("We are responsible for those we have tamed" – "Only the heart can see clearly"). Her language is simple, profound and lyrical, which perfectly matches the spirit of the work.