Eugen V. Witkowsky (''Евге́ний Влади́мирович Витко́вский''; June 18, 1950 – February 3, 2020) was a Russian fiction and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

writer,

literary scholar Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. T ...

, poet, and translator.

Biography

Witkowsky came from a family of Russified Germans who owned a small cardboard factory in Moscow. He spent his childhood in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, Central Asia, and Western

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. From 1967–1971, he was a student of literary studies at Moscow State University, then took a leave of absence and never returned, becoming engaged in literature and dissident activities. Until censorship was lifted in

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, Witkowsky could only publish poetic translations; he translated and published numerous poems by

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

Christopher Smart Christopher Smart (11 April 1722 – 20 May 1771) was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines, ''The Midwife'' and ''The Student'', and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fie ...

, Robert Southey,

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

; by

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

poets

John Roy Stewart John Roy Stewart or Stuart or Stiuart (''Gaelic'': Iain Ruadh Stiùbhart) (1700–1752) was a distinguished officer in the Jacobite Army during the rising of 1745 and a war poet in both Gaelic and in English. He was the son of Donald, a farme ...

Duncan Ban MacIntyre Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir, anglicized as ''Duncan Ban MacIntyre'' (20 March 1724 – 14 May 1812), was one of the most renowned of Scottish Gaelic poets. He formed an integral part of one of the golden ages of Gaelic poetry in Scotland d ...

Rob Donn Rob Donn (Brown-haired Rob) (1714–1778) was a Scottish Gaelic poet from Sutherland. It is generally assumed that his name was Robert MacKay (MacAoidh),John MacLean (Bard MacLean), and by

Luís Vaz de Camões Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish language, Spanish form of the originally Germanic language, Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese language, Portuguese and ...

, Fernando Pessoa,

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

, Joost van den Vondel, Arthur Rimbaud,

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...

and others. In the 1990s, he was mostly engaged in literary studies, compiling and editing a four-volume anthology of Russian poetry abroad "We lived on a different planet those days", a three-volume collected works of

Georgy Ivanov Georgy Vladimirovich Ivanov (russian: Гео́ргий Влади́мирович Ива́нов; in Puki Estate, Seda Volost, Kovno Governorate – 26 August 1958 in Hyères, Var, France) was a leading poet and essayist of the Russian emigratio ...

, works of

Ivan Yelagin Ivan Perfilievich Yelagin (russian: Иван Перфильевич Елагин; 1725–94) was a Russian Imperial historian, an amateur poet and translator who acted as unofficial secretary to Catherine the Great in the early years of her rei ...

Arseny Nesmelov Arseny (officially transliterated as Arsenii) (also Arsenii and Arseniy) ( ua, Арсеній, russian: Арсений) is a name, derived from Arsenius. Notable people with the name include: Arseny * Arseny Avraamov (1886–1944), Russian avant-ga ...

and others. His three-volume historical fantasy "Paul II" was published in 2000, its two sequels, "Saint Vitus Land" and "Chertovar" in 2001 and 2007 respectively. The latter two novels were selected for the short list of the most prestigious Russian F&SF prize, " The ABS Prize" ("Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Prize"). In 2003, Witkowsky founded website " Vek Perevoda" ("The Age of Translation"
www.vekperevoda.com
with a web forum functioning as a school of poetic translation. In 2005 and 2006, Vodolei Publishers issued two anthologies of Russian poetic translation, based on the site's collections and edited by Witkowsky; this edition will be continued. In 2007, the same publisher printed an anthology "Seven Centuries of English Poetry" in three volumes (about 3000 pages), compiled by Witkowsky and presenting for the first time in a single edition works by almost 500 English-language poets from 1300 to 2000 recreated by 134 translators since the 1800s. This anthology exceeds twentyfold any other previous Russian edition devoted to the poets of England,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and Ireland. Witkowsky was a laureate of several international awards, an Expert of the Translators' Union of Russia, member of the Writers' Union of USSR and Russia since 1983. His mentors in poetry were Arcadiy Shteinberg and

Sergei Petrov Sergei Andreyevich Petrov (russian: Сергей Андреевич Петров; born 2 January 1991) is a Russian football player who plays as a right-back for FC Krasnodar. Career He made his debut for the main Zenit Saint Petersburg squad ...

Works

Prose (novels)

* ''"Paul II"''. Vol. I: "God Forbid!". Vol. 2: "The Day of Piranha". Vol. 3: "A Handful of Power". М., AST;

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

, Folio. 2000. * ''"Saint Vitus Land"''. М., AST;

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

, Folio. 2001. Second edition: М. Vodolei Publishers, 2007 * ''«Chertovar»'' . М. Vodolei Publishers, 2007

Literary studies

* ''From the Contemporary Poetry of

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

''. E. Witkowsky, Ed. М., 1977 * ''From the 17th Century Poetry of

''. E. Witkowsky, Ed. Leningrad, 1983. * ''

''. Collected works (three volumes). E. Witkowsky, V. Kreid, Eds. М., 1994 * ''

''. Colelcted works (two volumes). E. Witkowsky, Ed. М., 1998. * ''Stanzas of the Century – 2''. An anthology of the 20th century Russian poetic translation. E. Witkowsky, Ed. М., 1998. * ''Seven Centuries of French Poetry''. 1300—1999. E. Witkowsky, Ed. SPb, 1999. * ''Phonetic Noise'' (together with L. Latynin ). М., 2002. * '' Robert Southey''.

Ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s. E. Witkowsky, Ed. М., 2006 (bilingual edition) * ''

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

''. Le Fleurs du Mal. E. Witkowsky and V. Rezvy, Eds.. М., 2006.(bilingual edition). * ''

''. Collected works (two volumes). E. Witkowsky, A. Kolesov, Li Men, V. Rezvy, Eds. Vladivostok, 2006 * ''

Alexander Montgomerie Alexander Montgomerie (Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair Mac Gumaraid) (c. 1550?–1598) was a Scottish Jacobean courtier and poet, or makar, born in Ayrshire. He was a Scottish Gaelic speaker and a Scots speaker from Ayrshire, an area which wa ...

''. The Cherrie and the Slae. Sonnets. E. Witkowsky, Ed. and annotations. М., 2007 * ''

''. Complete works. E. Witkowsky, Ed. and introduction. М., 2007 * ''Seven Centuries of English Poetry''. In three volumes / E. Witkowsky, compilation. V. Rezvy, Ed.. Introduction by E. Witkowsky. Reference notes by E. Witkowsky, V. Votrin, A. Prokopiev, V. Rezvy, A. Serebrennikov. Design and typesetting by Marina and Leonid Orlushin. – М.: Vodolei Publishers, 2007. Bk.1: 1032 pp. Bk. 2: 992 pp. Bk. 3.: 1008 pp.

Poetic translations

* ''Uys Krige''. A Ballad of a Great Courage. Transl. from

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

by E. Witkowsky. М., 1977. * ''Stanzas on Immortality''. From Western German poetry. Transl. from German. М., 1987 * '' Joost van den Vondel''. Tragedies. Transl. from Dutch. М., LP., 1988. * '' Constantijn Huygens''. Didactic Pictures. Transl. from Dutch. М, 2002.

External links

Eugen Witkowsky: «The Perpetual Listener» in «Moshkov's Library»

Works on Lib.ru

Witkowsky's blog on LiveJournal

Anthology «The Age of Translation»

Eugen Witkowsky «The Perpetual Listener»
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witkowsky, Eugen V. 1950 births 2020 deaths Writers from Moscow Russian male poets Russian editors Russian and Soviet-German people 20th-century Russian translators Soviet literary historians Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian male writers