Lydia Leonidovna Pasternak ( rus, Лидия Леонидовна Пастернак; March 8, 1902 – May 4, 1989),

married name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also used ...

Lydia Pasternak Slater, was a Soviet research chemist, poet and translator.

Life

Lydia Pasternak was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, then the second most important city of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, the daughter of the Russian impressionist painter

Leonid Pasternak Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (born ''Yitzhok-Leib'', or ''Isaak Iosifovich, Pasternak''; russian: Леони́д О́сипович Пастерна́к, 3 April 1862 ( N.S.) – 31 May 1945) was a Russian post-impressionist painter. He was the ...

and of Rozalia Isodorovna Kofman, a concert pianist. She was the sister of the poet and novelist

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...

, the author of ''

Doctor Zhivago ''Doctor Zhivago'' is the title of a novel by Boris Pasternak and its various adaptations. Description The story, in all of its forms, describes the life of the fictional Russian physician and poet Yuri Zhivago and deals with love and loss during ...

'', and of the architect

Alexander Pasternak Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

. Lydia Pasternak began to study medicine at the Second Moscow University, but changed to chemistry, physics and botany. She continued her academic career in Berlin, after most of the Pasternak family had migrated to Germany as a result of the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

, and received a doctoral degree in chemistry in 1926. Her first career was as a chemist, and in 1928 she joined the German Research Institute for Psychiatry (''Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie''), a Kaiser Wilhelm Society institute in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, where she was an assistant to

Irvine H. Page Irvine Heinly Page (January 7, 1901 – June 10, 1991) was an American physiologist who played an important part in the field of hypertension for almost 60 years while working at the Cleveland Clinic as the first Chair of Research.Frohlich ED, Dus ...

. Together they studied the influence of chemical substances on the brain and published several articles on their results in the journal ''Biochemische Zeitschrift''. Lydia Pasternak left the group in 1935 as the Nazis came to power. Pasternak sought exile in Britain, joining Eliot Trevor Oakeshott Slater, a psychiatrist she had met in Munich. The two married later in 1935 and settled in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where they were joined by Lydia's parents, then by her sister Josephine and her family. They had two sons and two daughters, including

Ann Pasternak Slater Dr Ann Pasternak Slater (born 3 August 1944) is a literary scholar and translator who was formerly a Fellow and Tutor at St Anne's College, Oxford. Ann Pasternak Slater is the daughter of Lydia Pasternak Slater (1902–1989), chemist, translator a ...

, before divorcing in 1946. Her new family responsibilities meant that Lydia Pasternak could not continue her work in biochemistry, but she went on to become a published poet in German, Russian, and English, and she translated the poems of her brother Boris, winner of the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

for 1958, into English.George Butchard
Poet Lydia Pasternak steps out of the shadow
dated August 22, 2012, at rbth.ru, accessed 28 October 2012 Lydia Pasternak Slater continued to live in Park Town, North Oxford, until her death in 1989. As the years went by, she was increasingly able to make visits to her native Russia to visit friends and relations there, although her brother Boris was never allowed to visit his family in England.

Selected publications

*''Boris Pasternak : Fifty Poems, translated by Lydia Pasternak Slater'' (London: Unwin Books, 1963); reissued as ''Poems of Boris Pasternak, translated by Lydia Pasternak Slater'' (London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1984) *''Before Sunrise : poems'' (London: Mitre Press, 1971) *''Contemporary Russian poems, chosen and translated by Lydia Pasternak Slater''. (Bakewell: Hub Publications, 1973) *''Vspyshki magniia : poėziia'' ("Flashes of Magnesium : poems") (Geneva: Poésie Vivante, 1974) *'Texts on

Óndra Łysohorsky Óndra Łysohorsky was the pseudonym of Ervín Goj (6 July 1905 – 19 December 1989), a Czech poet of Silesian origin and awareness. He is known for his works written in Lach language (intermediate dialect between Czech and Polish) which wa ...

', translations (with

Ewald Osers Ewald Osers (13 May 1917 – 11 October 2011) was a Czech translator and poet born in Prague, Austria-Hungary. Career He translated several important Czech poetry works of the 20th century into English, including Jaroslav Seifert, Vítězsla ...

& Hugh McKinley) in Keith Armstrong, David Gill, eds
The Informer international poetry magazine
(Oxford, 1968) *''Lydia Pasternak Slater: Writings 1918-1989: Collected Verse, Prose and Translations'' (Russian Culture in Europe) (London: Peter Lang, 2015) *Articles in ''Biochemie'' ournal of Biochemistry1931–1935

Recordings

*''Boris Pasternak - Poems'' (Lyro Record Company – LYR 1, 7" vinyl, released 1960: seven poems translated and read by Lydia Pasternak Slater)Lydia Pasternak Slater
at 45cat.com, accessed 10 April 2017 *''Boris Pasternak - Poems'' (Lyro Record Company – LYR 2, 7" vinyl, released 1960: five more poems translated and read by Lydia Pasternak Slater

References

Sources

*''Women scientists in Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, from A to Z'' (Berlin: 1999, 107–109) *Page, Irvine H. “The rebirth of neurochemistry” in ''Modern Medicine'' (March 19, 1962: 81) *Nicolas Pasternak Slater, ''Boris Pasternak: Family Correspondence, 1921-1960'' (2012) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pasternak Slater, Lydia 1902 births 1989 deaths Russian Jews Soviet poets Jewish poets Moscow State Pedagogical University alumni Pasternak family