Vladislav Khodasevich
Vladislav Felizianowitsch Khodasevich (Russian Владислав Фелицианович Ходасевич; * 16 Maijul / May 28 1886greg in Moscow, .. † June 14, 1939 in Paris) is one of the most important Russian poets of the so-called Silver Age. In German-speaking Khodasevich has so far remained largely unknown.
Life
Khodasevich was a poet, prose writer, translator and literary critic. He came from a Polish noble family, was of Jewish descent and married to the writer Nina Berberowa. His mother was Sofija Jakovlevna (1846-1911), the daughter of the Hebrew writer Yakov Brafman (1824-1879), his older brother Mikhail F. Khodasevich (1865-1925), a well-known Russian lawyer. Khodasevich was broke into contact with Valery Bryusov, with Maxim Gorky, on whose invitation he stayed in Sorrento, with Andrei Bely and with which he frequented in Berlin and later. Chodassewitschs volumes of poetry The way of the grain ( зерна Путём, 1917), severity lyre ( Тяжёлая лира, 1923) and the European night cycle ( Европейская ночь, 1927) are among the most lyrical works in Russian literature of the 20th century. His reviews fostered the career of the young Vladimir Nabokov, who Khodasevich in his autobiography sat a respectful memorial. Khodasevich also wrote a 1931 published biography about the Russian writer Gavriil Derzhavin ( Державин, 1931, 2007 into English, but has not yet been translated into German). Chodassewitschs wife Berberowa describes in her autobiography I am from St. Petersburg life with her husband in the poverty of exile.
Chodassewitschs life was marked by exile: he lived from June 1922 to November 1923 in Berlin. In 1923 he emigrated to Prague, then to Paris. 1932 was the separation of Berberowa. Shortly before his death appeared his work on Alexander Pushkin ( О Пушкине, 1937). In his memoirs Necropolis ( Некрополь, 1938) Khodasevich describes his encounters with major writers, in addition to Bely and Brussow with Alexander Blok, Mikhail Gerschenzon ( 1869-1925 ), Nikolai Gumilev, Fyodor Sologub, and also tells of the background to the emergence of the novel The fiery Angel ( ангел Огненный, 1907-1908, German 1910) by Bryusov, the template for the opera the Fiery Angel (1927 ) by Sergei Prokofiev. The book was published a few weeks before his death. Khodasevich died in 1939 in exile in Paris.
Works
- European night. Selected poems. German from seep. Tübingen 1985.
Letters
- Zinaida Hippius: letters to Nina Berberowa and Vladislav Khodasevich. From the Russian by seep ( poems) and Johanne Peters ( letters ). Edited by Siegfried Heinrich. Berlin 2002 ( German / Russian).