Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich - poet and publicist, who lived in our country at the turn of the 18-19th centuries. Best known for his translation into Russian of the Homeric "Iliad", it was this option that eventually became the standard. We will talk in detail about the life, fate and work of the poet in this article.
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich: biography. Childhood
The future writer was born in Poltava on February 2, 1784. His parents came from an old noble family, almost impoverished by then. Little Nikolai lost his mother early, and then he almost lost his life - smallpox in those days was a terrible disease. It was the disease that disfigured Gnedich’s face and deprived his eyes.
In 1793, the boy was sent to study at the Poltava Theological Seminary. Five years later, it was decided to transfer the school with students to Novomirgorod from Poltava. But Ivan Petrovich, the father of Gnedich, took his son from an educational institution and sent to the Kharkov collegium. In those years, this institution was considered the most prestigious Ukrainian school. The future poet graduated from the collegium in 1800, after which he moved to a permanent place of residence in Moscow.
Here he, along with long-time friend Alexei Yunoshevsky, was admitted to the Grammar School of Moscow University as boarders. But not even a few months passed before the young man was transferred as a student to the Faculty of Philosophy, which he brilliantly graduated in 1802.
First publications
In the university years, Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich became close to members of the Friendly Literary Society, which included A. Turgenev, A. Merzlyakov, A. Kaysarov. The poet also made friends with the playwright N. Sandunov. During these years, a young man is fond of tyrannical ideas, is read by F. Schiller.
The 1802nd is marked for Gnedich with a joyful event - for the first time his translation is published. It was the tragedy of "Abyufar" written by the Frenchman J. Duesis. At the same time, the author’s original work was published - the novel “Moritz, or Victim of Vengeance”. And a year later, two translations of Schiller appear immediately - the novel Don Corrado de Gerera and the tragedy Conspiracy of Fiesco.
But money, despite the fact that it began to print, is still not enough, so plans to continue studies have to be abandoned. In 1802, the poet moved to St. Petersburg. Here he gets a job as an official in the department of public education. Gnedich will occupy this place until 1817.
The writer devotes all his free time to theater and literature. In this area, he achieved considerable success, and also made acquaintance with Pushkin, Krylov, Zhukovsky, Derzhavin and several future Decembrists.
Service
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich quickly gained fame as an excellent poet and translator. This glory threw open before him the houses of many high-ranking and noble persons of St. Petersburg, including Olenin and Stroganov. Thanks to the patronage of these people, the writer in 1811 became a member of the Russian Academy, and then appointed to the post of librarian of the Imperial Public Library, where he headed the department of Greek literature.
Soon Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich became close friends with Olenin. They were united by a common interest in the theater and the ancient world. This greatly changed the material and official position of the poet.
Most of these years, the writer devotes time to work in the library. By 1819, he had compiled a catalog of all the books that were in his department, and recorded them in a special statement. In addition, Gnedich often gave presentations at library meetings.
Book collection
In life, Gnedich N.I. was naive and innocent. The biography of the writer suggests that literature and books were his only passion. The first helped him get the title of academician and the rank of state adviser. As for books, Gnedich collected in his personal collection about 1250 rare, and sometimes unique volumes. After the death of the poet, they all left the Poltava gymnasium by will. After the revolution, books were in the Poltava library, and then some of them were transported to Kharkov.
In 1826, Gnedich was awarded the title of Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Throughout his life he was engaged in translations of the works of Voltaire, Schiller, Shakespeare.
Illness and death
Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich is a wonderful poet and appreciated by his contemporaries. But not everything in his life was so rosy. Diseases that began in childhood did not leave him. The writer traveled several times to the Caucasus for treatment, famous for its mineral waters. But this only helped for a while. And in 1830 the ailments worsened with renewed vigor, and besides, a sore throat also added to them. Treatment in Moscow with artificial mineral waters had no effect. Despite his state of health, in 1832 the poet managed to prepare and release a collection of "Poems."
In 1833, the writer gets the flu. A weakened organism does not withstand a new ailment, and on February 3, 1833, the poet dies at the age of 49. This concludes a brief biography. Gnedich Nikolai was buried in St. Petersburg at the Tikhvin Cemetery. On his last journey he was accompanied by Pushkin, Krylov, Vyazemsky, Olenin, Pletnev and other prominent literary figures of that time.
Creation
The writer’s lyrics have always been based on the idea of nationality. Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich sought to portray the ideal of a harmonious and laboring man. His hero was always full of passions and freedom-loving. This is what caused the poet’s great interest in Shakespeare, Ossian, and ancient art in general.
Homeric characters seemed to Gnedich the embodiment of heroic people and patriarchal equality. His most famous work was Fishermen, in which the writer combined Russian folklore with Homer's style. No wonder this idyll is considered the best original work of Gnedich. Even Pushkin, in a note to his Eugene Onegin, quoted lines from this work, in particular a description of the white nights of St. Petersburg.
Among the writer's writings are the following:
- "The beauty of Ossian."
- "Dormitory".
- "Peruvian to the Spaniard."
- "To friend".
- "On the tomb of the mother."
The Iliad
In 1807, Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich took up the translation of the Iliad. Poems were written with a hexameter, which was close to the original. Moreover, it was the first Russian poetic translation of Homer. The work lasted more than 20 years, and in 1829 the full version of the translation was published. Labor was of great socio-cultural and poetic significance. Pushkin called him "a high feat."
The very idea of translation came to Gnedich in his distant childhood, when he first read the creation of Homer. Before him, many famous writers were engaged in this, including Lomonosov and Trediakovsky. But not a single attempt was successful. This state of affairs gave the Gnedich translation even more weight and significance.
Interesting Facts
He lived a rather amazing life Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich. A brief biography of the writer can only be composed of interesting events that happened to him:
- Olenin at one time introduced Gnedich as a famous and excellent translator into the salons of Grand Duchess Catherine and Empress Maria Fedorovna. Acquaintance with the reigning person became decisive for the poet. Thanks to her help, the writer was assigned a life-long pension so that he could devote all his time to translating the Iliad.
- Gnedich was the first to start publishing poems by the still young and unknown Pushkin.
- The writer was awarded two orders for his literary work - Vladimir IV degree and Anna II degree.
Today, not every student knows who Nikolai Gnedich was and what contribution he made to Russian literature. Nevertheless, his name has been preserved for centuries, and the translation of the Iliad is still considered unsurpassed.