Obscene parodic poetry of Ivan Bunin and the art of translation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the demonstration and literary translation analysis of twelve (yet unpublished in Poland, thus unknown to a wide range of readers) indecent parody poems written by Ivan Bunin (1870–1953). Bunin’s obscene works create just a fraction of the Nobel Prize winner’s body of work. Nevertheless, they are not to be overlooked because of their peculiar artistic overtone and their social significance. According to the author of the article, Bunin’s indecent writings should be looked at through the prism of the emigration, a point of view which requires from the reader vast knowledge of the reality of not only the times the author spent in exile in France, but also the Soviet reality of life under the Bolshevik’s rule. The following works were used in the article for the purpose of interpretation and analysis: Новые басни Эзопа (Aesop’s new fables, four texts), Отрывки из оперы «Курва-блядь Оленушка» (Fragments of the opera “Whore-bljad Olonushka”), Песнь о вещем Грузине (The song about a Georgian bard), a poem about incipit Пришлось когда-то дьявольскому роду... (It happened once to the devil’s kind...), Русские писатели и издатели в Париже (Russian writers and publishers in Paris, three texts), Европейскому певцу (To the European singer, two versions).