Beschreibung:

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) On the warring translations of A Sportsman's Sketches. 1855 Autograph letter signed (‘Iv. Turgenev’) to August Viedert, Saint Petersburg, 20 October 1855. In Russian. Three pages, 210 x 136mm, on a bifolium. Provenance: Serge Lifar (1905-1986), stamp to upper left of p.1 – Sotheby’s, 10 June 2009, lot 107 (part). On the warring translations of A Sportsman's Sketches, and the health of the poet Nikolay Nekrasov. Turgenev has been in Saint Petersburg for five days, but has only just received Viedert's letter with his translations of two further tales from A Sportsman's Sketches, Pevtsi (Singers) and I malinovoy vodi (Raspberry water). He fears that Viedert may not have received his last letter, written upon receiving August Boltz's German translation of part two of A Sportsman's Sketches, 'which in many respects rivals Charrière's translation [the notoriously bad French translation by Ernest Charrière (1854)] ... Apparenty this is my fate with translations – and most importantly for you, after your labours, this whole story must have been unpleasant. But now this sad situation cannot be helped, and I can only wish that the second volume you are preparing will come out, and that it will reward you somewhat for your troubles. The translation you have sent is excellent, so there is nothing left to wish for – and I fully authorise you to declare this as and when you wish'. Turgenev reports on his recent work: 'I wrote a great story in the country, which will appear in Sovremennik in the coming year. I am also engaged in the publication of the translation of Horace's Odes by [Afanasy] Fet. [Nikolay] Nekrasov is here, and not only will not leave for the whole winter, but will not leave his room. It has been discovered that he had, not consumption of the throat, but an old syphilitic disease in his throat ... and the doctors hope to improve it enough that by the spring he will be able to travel abroad'. There has been an article about Turgenev in the journal Illyustratsii 'which modesty did not allow me to finish': he quotes Griboyedov, 'such praise cannot be beneficial'. Published in New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 1991, 41-42. The appearance of a competing German translation of A Sportsman's Sketches by August Boltz (1819-1907), although very poor, effectively put paid to any hope of publication of the second part of Viedert's own translation. The 'great story' Turgenev refers to is probably the first chapters of his novel Rudin, published in Sovremennik in 1856. The poet and editor Nikolay Nekrasov (1821-1877) was the proprietor of the journal Sovremennik, in which a number of Turgenev's works were first published: he was a notorious hypochondriac, and it was apparently not unusual for him to spend days at a time sprawled on his couch, as foreseen here by Turgenev. Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.