Poet Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich: biography, creativity and interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich - a poet and publicist who lived in our country at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. He is best known for his translation of Homer's Iliad into Russian, and it was this version that eventually became the reference. 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 ancient noble families, almost impoverished by that time. 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 him of 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, together with the students, to Novomirgorod from Poltava. But Ivan Petrovich, Gnedich's father, took his son from the educational institution and sent him to the Kharkov Collegium. In those years, this institution was considered the most prestigious Ukrainian school. Collegium future poetgraduated in 1800, after which he moved to permanent residence in Moscow.

Here, together with his old friend Alexei Yunoshevsky, he was admitted to the Gymnasium of Moscow University as boarders. But in less than a few months, the young man was transferred as a student to the Faculty of Philosophy, from which he brilliantly graduated in 1802.

First publications

In his university years, Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich became close to members of the Friendly Literary Society, which included A. Turgenev, A. Merzlyakov, A. Kaisarov. The poet also made friends with the playwright N. Sandunov. During these years, the young man is fond of tyrannical ideas, read out by F. Schiller.

1802 is marked by a joyful event for Gnedich - his translation is published for the first time. It was the tragedy "Abufar", written by the Frenchman J. Ducis. At the same time, the writer's original work, the story "Moritz, or the Victim of Vengeance", was published. A year later, two translations of Schiller appeared at once - the novel "Don Corrado de Guerera" and the tragedy "The Fiesco Conspiracy".

But money, despite the fact that it began to be printed, is still not enough, so plans to continue my 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 fame opened 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 became a member of the Russian Academy in 1811, and then was 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 financial and official position of the poet.

Most of all in these years the writer spends time working 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 sheet. In addition, Gnedich often made presentations at library meetings.

Collection of books

In life, Gnedich NI was naive and simple-minded. The biography of the writer suggests that his only passion was literature and books. The first helped him get the title of academician and the rank of state councilor. As for books, Gnedich collected about 1250 rare and sometimes unique volumes in his personal collection. After the death of the poet, they all left the Poltava gymnasium by will. After the revolution, the books ended up in the Poltava library, and then some of them were transported to Kharkov.

BIn 1826, Gnedich was awarded the title of Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Throughout his life he has been translating the works of Voltaire, Schiller, Shakespeare.

Sickness 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 went several times to be treated in the Caucasus, famous for its mineral waters. But it only helped for a while. And in 1830, the ailments worsened with renewed vigor, besides, a sore throat was added to them. Treatment in Moscow with artificial mineral waters had no effect. Despite the state of he alth, in 1832 the poet managed to prepare and publish the collection Poems.

In 1833, the writer falls ill with the flu. The weakened body cannot withstand a new illness, and on February 3, 1833, the poet dies at the age of 49. This concludes the short biography. Gnedich Nikolai was buried in St. Petersburg at the Tikhvin cemetery. Pushkin, Krylov, Vyazemsky, Olenin, Pletnev and other prominent literary figures of that time accompanied him on his last journey.

Creativity

At the heart of the writer's lyrics has always been the idea of nationality. Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich sought to portray the ideal of a harmonious and hardworking person. His hero was always full of passions and freedom-loving. This is what caused such a huge interest of the poet in Shakespeare, Ossian and ancient art in general.

Homer's characters seemedGnedich as the embodiment of the heroic people and patriarchal equality. His most famous work was "Fishermen", in which the writer combined Russian folklore with Homeric style. No wonder this idyll is considered the best original creation of Gnedich. Even Pushkin, in a footnote to his "Eugene Onegin", quoted lines from this work, in particular a description of the white nights of St. Petersburg.

Among the writer's works, the following should be highlighted:

• "The Beauty of Ossian".
• "Hotel".
• "Peruvian to Spaniard".
• "To a friend".
• “On the coffin of the mother.”

The Iliad

In 1807 Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich took up the translation of the Iliad. The poems were written in hexameter, which was close to the original. In addition, it was the first Russian poetic translation of Homer. The work lasted more than 20 years, and in 1829 the complete version of the translation was published. Labor was of great socio-cultural and poetic significance. Pushkin called it a "high feat."

The very idea of translation came to Gnedich in early childhood, when he first read Homer's work. Before him, many well-known writers did this, including Lomonosov and Trediakovsky. But none of the attempts were successful. This state of affairs gave Gnedich's translation even more weight and significance.

Interesting facts

Gnedich Nikolai Ivanovich lived a rather amazing life. A short biography of the writer can only be compiled from interesting events that happened to him:

• Olenin once introducedGnedich as a well-known and excellent translator in the salons of Grand Duchess Catherine and Empress Maria Feodorovna. Acquaintance with the reigning person was decisive for the poet. Thanks to her help, the writer was granted a life pension so that he could devote all his time to translating the Iliad.
• Gnedich was the first to publish 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.