RPT - US Translator To Release Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin,' 'Fairy Tales' In English In 2022

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st December, 2021) Fans of the Russian national bard Alexander Pushkin will likely have a chance early next year to read new verse translations into�English of Pushkin's masterpiece "Eugene Onegin" as well as Pushkin's beloved "Fairy Tales,"�translated by US poet Julian Henry Lowenfeld.

"I have nearly completed my translation of 'Eugene Onegin' and I just finished the 'Fairy Tales.'" Lowenfeld told Sputnik.� "The 'Fairy Tales' will be coming out by January or February. I hope 'Eugene Onegin' will come out next year by Pushkin's birthday - June 6th."

Lowenfeld added that his translation of another Pushkin masterpiece, the epic poem 'The Bronze Horseman,' is also complete and almost ready for publication as well.

Besides translations, Lowenfeld is undertaking other activities to promote Pushkin's literary legacy. Some projects are planned in cooperation with Moscow's Alexander Pushkin Sheremetyevo International Airport; others with the State Kremlin Orchestra, the Botanical garden of Moscow State University, the State Pushkin Museum.

In addition, Lowenfeld is working with foundations dedicated to celebrated English language poets such as America's national poet Walt Whitman and the celebrated Irish poet William Butler Yeats Foundation.�

"All three great poets celebrated common themes - love, freedom, compassion, honor, and human dignity," he said.

Lowenfeld explained that translating Pushkin's masterworks requires the translator to be a poet too, in order to convey what lies beyond the words themselves.

"The music in the words is vital" Lowenfeld said. "In order to do a translation really well, it is not enough to just translate the meaning of the words. You really do have to recreate the feeling. So, you literally, in fact, have to put the energy that was felt by the poet into yourself and allow it to come out in a new language."

Lowenfeld compared such a state of mind with "opening the window of my soul" and "allowing Pushkin to walk in."� It is both amazing and humbling," he said.

The acclaimed American poet pointed out that as a translator he must completely put aside who he is, but in doing so actually reveal who he is.

"It is a very strange thing, but when you do that, when you are true to the music of the poetry, it is actually easier to be literal.�And in all cases the music will guide you and let you know when you are allowed to elaborate or evoke through synonyms whatever may be is necessary in certain spots. That is the challenge and the joy of this work for me," he said.

Asked about his upcoming projects in Russia, Lowenfeld - a dual US and a Russian citizen - said his desire is "to criss-cross Russia by Pushkin" from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad and from Sochi to Murmansk, and also to bring some treasures of American and English-language poetry that share Pushkinian values.

"Possibly we will have a concert with the Kremlin Orchestra, possibly at the Sheremetyevo airport, which is named after Pushkin, and in the Moscow Conservatory. Another project involves the Botanical Garden in Moscow," he said.

Lowenfeld suggested that other planned�activities may�include an English-language performance of "Mozart and Salieri," likely to be staged as a "dinner theater" with subtitles.

"I think it would be a very unique experience for the diners," he said.

Lowenfeld explained numerous other activities have been planned, including the Pushkin festival in Ireland in cooperation with the William Yeats Foundation and a possible event at the Pushkin State Memorial Museum in Boldino in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod province. However, many of them remain conditional on obtaining support from local partners and subject to existing and future COVID-19-related restrictions.

"I am superstitious and don't want to say anything until we do something, but people can be assured that this is my life, this is my passion and I care about it very deeply," he said. "I will be definitely doing as many possible activities next year as I can."

In addition to Pushkin, Lowenfeld has translated into English the verses of other renowned Russian poets, including Mikhail Lermontov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Anna Akhmatova, Alexander Blok, Osip Mandelshtam.