H.C. Andersen in Ukraine: historical and social background

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H.C. Andersen in Ukraine: historical and social background

Inga Kapustian,

Assessing the modern reinterpretation of H.C. Andersen's literary work requires highlighting the main issues that constantly concern scientists, researchers, and readers. Furthermore, his poems, novels, travelogues have existed for many years in Russian translations (by P G. Hansen, A.V Hansen, L. Braude). As Ukraine was previously a part of the Russian Empire, then later a part of the Soviet Union, the translations of Andersen's tales basically were from Danish into Russian. H.C. Andersen's presence in Ukrainian culture is thus a complex network of translation and dissemination, which is influenced by the country's social and political history.

The aim of this article is to cover the following three aspects: the main features of the translation history in Ukraine, socio-political context's influence on the translation and introduction of Andersen's tales and the cultural understanding of H.C. Andersen's universality as well as his locality. There is an increased recognition that more attention needs to be paid to the areas of studying the genealogy of translating H.C. Andersen's works into the Ukrainian language and the critical and cultural understanding of them. The article highlights the value dominants in Andersen's work and their influence on upbringing and personality development.

Key words: literary heritage, fairy tale classification, H.K. Andersen, translation studies, nationality, universality.

Інга КАПУСТЯН,

Статтю присвячено вивченню особливостей літературної творчості Г.К. Андерсена. Аналізуються різні погляди вчених, літературознавців на специфіку творчого доробку митця у контексті розвитку традицій романтизму, виокремлено характерні для літературної казки Г.К. Андерсена особливості, її новаторство, внутрішній зв'язок ідеї автора та психологізації образів. Оцінюючи сучасне переосмислення творчості митця, автор висвітлює основні проблеми, які постійно хвилюють науковців, дослідників, читачів. Проблемою перекладу літературної спадщини письменника у різні періоди займалися вітчизняні науковці, однак і наразі ця тема недостатньо вивчена. Крім того, його вірші, романи, подорожі багато років існували в російських перекладах (П.Г. Хансен, А.В. Хансен, Л. Брауде). Оскільки Україна раніше входила до складу Російської імперії, а потім до складу Радянського Союзу, переклади казок Андерсена в основному були з данської на російську. Таким чином, присутність Андерсена в українській культурі є складною мережею перекладу та ретранслювання, на яку впливає соціальна та політична історія країни. Наразі ця тема є актуальною і потребує додаткового дослідження, оскільки з'являються нові сучасні переклади художньої спадщини Г.Х. Андерсена. Метою цієї статті є висвітлення таких трьох аспектів: основні риси історії перекладу в Україні, вплив соціально-політичного контексту на переклад і впровадження казок Андерсена та культурне розуміння універсальності Г.К. Андерсена, а також його локальності. Зростає визнання важливості вивчення генеалогії українського перекладознавства, інтерпретації творів Андерсена українською мовою та їх критично-культурологічне осмислення. У статті з'ясовується вплив творчості письменника на розвиток науково- літературних традицій та сприйняття світу читачем. Окреслено основні етапи літературно-критичного осмислення творчості письменника та вплив ціннісно-акмеологічного контексту творів митця на соціально-педагогічні проблеми суспільства скандинавських країн за часів життя автора. У статті виокремлено ціннісні домінанти у творчості Г.К. Андерсена та їх вплив на виховання і розвиток особистості.

Ключові слова: літературна спадщина, класифікація казки, Г.К. Андерсен, перекладацькі студії, національність, універсальність.

Introduction

The Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen is known and loved throughout modern Ukraine. H.C. Andersen is famous for his fairy tales which have been canonized, translated and subject of extensive studies in the country. Interpretations of the most famous, most popular genres of H.C. Andersen literary heritage are usually attributed to the problem of the modern understanding of his literary works, namely fairy tales, novels and essays.

Assessing the modern reinterpretation of H.C. Andersen's literary work requires highlighting the main issues that constantly concern scientists, researchers, and readers. Furthermore, his poems, novels, travelogues have existed for many years in Russian translations (by P.G. Hansen, A.V. Hansen,

L. Braude). As Ukraine was previously a part of the Russian Empire, then later a part of the Soviet Union, the translations of Andersen's tales basically were from Danish into Russian. H.C. Andersen's presence in Ukrainian culture is thus a complex network of translation and dissemination, which is influenced by the country's social and political history.

The aim of this article is to cover the following three aspects: the main features of the translation history in Ukraine, socio-political context's influence on the translation and introduction of Andersen's tales and the cultural understanding of H.C. Andersen's universality as well as his locality. There is an increased recognition that more attention needs to be paid to the areas of studying the genealogy of translation of H.C. Andersen's works into the Ukrainian language and the critical and cultural understanding of them.

The main outcomes. The past several decades of Ukraine has seen a renewed importance in the impact of historical and social development onto the literary process itself and understanding of literary works translated from foreign language into the native ones. In this context we will consider the reception of H.C. Andersen in Ukraine. First, based on literary, academic, political, social, cultural criteria, it is worth admitting that the history of Ukrainian translation has been developing for many years, successfully promoted in 19 th century as initiation and empirical study. Starting from the beginning of the 20th century the Ukrainian Translation Studies can be divided into four periods:

1. The critical and theoretical period

(1905-1920) is characterized by the development of the translation theory foundations, its system of terms and its methods of analysis within the general framework of Literary Studies.

2. Translation as an academic subject in Ukrainian research (1920-1945) provides the systematization and theorization of the subject under the influence of higher educational and research institutions.

3. Ukrainian Translation Studies within the context of the Soviet Union (late 1940s - early 1970s) posits Ukrainian research as a part of the Soviet school of Translation Studies when scholarly discourse focused on literalism and general methodological prerequisites.

4. The transformation into an interdisciplinary angle of research discourse (1970s till present) expands the methods and area of research involving developments in psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, cultural studies etc.

Furthermore social understanding ofH.C. Andersen tales were under the cast of cultural, political and national upheavals of the Ukrainian society first in the context of Russian empire then the Soviet Union.

Discussion. In the 19th century translation activity in Ukraine has expanded significantly. Most of the talented writers of that time were also translators (see Appendix A). Among the most famous ones we should mention Ivan Franko (Іван Франко, 1856-1916), Lesia Ukrainka (Леся Українка, 1871-1913), Panteleimon Kulish (Пантелеймон Куліш,1819-1897), Levko Borovykovskyi (Левко Боровиковський, 1806-1896), Mykhailo Starytskyi (Михайло Старицький, 1840-1904),Marko Vovchok (Марко Вовчок, 1833-1907), Mark Kropyvnytskyi (Марко Кропивницький, 1840-1910), Mykola Zerov (Микола Зеров, 1890-1937) and others. All of them faced the problem of choosing the literary works for artistic adequate translation, so it was mostly solved in favor of masterpieces of world literature (Бахтин, 1975: 234-407).

The issue of what to translate was largely driven by the norm of Soviet doctrines. During 1930the and on, when Zerov worked as a translator, the list of the artistic works was agreed by the special department which distributed a special regulation what foreign authors could translate and popularize. In one of these documents, edited 1930 (see Appendix B, line 10 from top: "скандинавських літератур") there was a permit on translation of Scandinavian literature. This was a background to include and have censored Andersen's fairy tales.

In 1863, the Valuev circular (Валуєвський циркуляр, Valuievs'kyi tsyrkuliar) was issued, which limited the printing of many publications (religious, educational) and literature recommended for the use in primary literacy training of the people and other works in the Ukrainian language. Thus, the Ukrainian language was forbidden, except for belles lettres works.

The Valuev circular regulation claimed that this type of language which Ukrainian was at that type was a dialect. The circular quoted the opinion of the Kyiv Censorship Committee that "a separate ''Little Russian" (Malorosiia) language never existed, does not exist, and shall not exist, and their "Little Russians" mother tongue used by commoners is nothing but Russian corrupted by the influence of Poland". literary creativity andersen

Further restrictions were placed on Ukrainian by the Ems Ukaz in 1876. It was completely prohibited to use the Ukrainian language in open print for a wide audience. Ems Ukaz (Емський указ, Ems'kyi ukaz), was a secret decree of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, issued in 1876, banning the use of the Ukrainian language in print except for reprinting old documents. The ukaz also forbade the import of Ukrainian publications and the staging of plays or lectures in Ukrainian.

However, even in the absence of elementary conditions for the development of artistic translation skills, this period was marked by an intensive development of the translation of literary works.

In the second half of the 19th century. the flourishing of the creative activity of Mykhailo Starytskyi, who entered the history of domestic translation thanks to his work with Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Serbian folk epic is observed. Artistic translation performed by M. Starytskyi becomes a real laboratory for the creation of new means of poetic language, in particular neologisms (Magocsi, 1996: 456).

Literary translations made in the 19th and early 20th centuries completely fit into the Ukrainian cultural context, enriching it with the work of luminaries of world literature. At the same time, they contributed to the development of the Ukrainian language and literature, which were officially banned by decrees of the tsarist government in 1863 and 1876. The emergence of new means of expression and literary genres that did not exist in Ukrainian discourse (such as sonnets, classical tragedy) was largely due to translations of the famous Ukrainian writers, in particular Ivan Franko, Marko Vovchok, Pavlo Grabovskyi, Mykhailo Starytskyi also contributed to the development of translation into Russian, reproducing in this language the works of Jules Verne (Vovchok) and Taras Shevchenko (Grabovskyi). Despite the tendency to Ukrainization of translated literature, characteristic of the 19th century, artistic translation in Ukraine becomes, according to Maksym Strikha's apt definition, an instrument of nation-building against the background of all kinds of official prohibitions and fulfills this mission until the election of Ukrainian independence.

Translation studies from the late 1910s till the 1940s were not widely studied in Ukraine, and the work of the freestyle competitions was not studied at all. Translation studies in Ukraine in the 1930s significantly weakened, as well as Ukrainian science in general. In particular, the linguistics of this period was characterized by M. A. Zhovtobryukh "....comparative-historical linguistics as bourgeois and hostile to the Soviet science of language, and administrative removal of many from active scientific activity experienced workers of linguistic science (Шмігер, 2009: 203).

Repression played its role. Ukrainian translation studies on the Soviet territory the second half of the 1930s, as well as the first half 1940s (wartime) was extremely poor. Stalinist rhetoric was a mandatory attribute of most scientific articles (until the mid- 1950s); a complete reassessment of the theoretical foundations of study and criticism, activities of journals, positions of researchers to "approach" the Marxist methodology sed a sharp reduction in critical publications.

Ukraine discovered the legacy of H. C. Andersen in 1873. Then, for the first time, 24 fairy tales of the Danish writer were published in Ukrainian, translated by M. Starytsky ("Andersen's Fairy Tales with a Short Biography"). The works of H. K. Andersen were translated into Russian by the Ukrainian writer Marko Vovchok. Subsequently, H. K. Andersen was translated by P. Grabovskyi, M. Zahirnia (M. Grinchenko: 50 fairy tales, united under the name "Andersen's Tales", 1906, 1918, 1919), Olena Pchilka, M. Rylskyi, and others. The collection "Princess on a Pea" (1956) and "Fairy Tales" (1964, 1970, 1977) were translated by O. Ivanenko. Andersen's works were also translated into Ukrainian by Yuriy Fedkovich, Maria Grinchenko, Agatangel Krymskyi, Halyna Kyrpa, Olga Senyuk and others.

Beginning in the prerevolutionary period, H.C. Andersen's authorship was translated by M. Starychenko (later the name Starytskyi), Yu. Fedkovych and published in Kiev in 1873. Since that time and later Soviet and post-Soviet time the scholars translated fairy tales of Andersen from Russian and English variants into Ukrainian. This genealogy and complex web of intermingling source and target languages - as well as cultures - can be considered as a background for understanding the peculiarities of translation studies.

Mykhailo Starytskyi was mainly the first translator of some Andersen's tales. Over the course of his life he worked as a writer, translator, playwriter but all these activities were involved with the establishment of new Ukrainian literature. He was born on November 2 (14), 1839 in the village of Klishchyntsy, Zolo- tonsky district, Poltava province (now Cherkasy region). He came from a noble family. Father, Petro Ivanovich, a retired captain, died when the boy was eight years old. In 1852, his mother, Anastasia Zakharivna, also died. She came from the Lysenko family (A famous Ukrainian composer). Left as an orphan, Mykhailo was brought up in the family of his great-uncle, Vitaly Romanovych Lysenko, the father of the composer Mykola Lysenko.

Starytskyi's first works were published in 1865. Starytskyi was a true teacher of young Ukrainian writers and played a major role in the organization of literary and public life in the 1890s. Starytskyi began his poetic work with translations from Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Mykola Nekrasov, Heinrich Heine, George Byron, Adam Mickiewicz, Serbian songs, etc.

The book of fairy tales, translated and published by Starytskyi, was called as "Andersen's Tales with his short biography". This edition was unique in its translation and illustrations. The biography of H.C. Andersen and 11 drawings added to the fairy tales, the collection contains 24 fairy tales, comprised 362 pages, was printed in Kyiv, 1873 (Київ).

Mykola Murashko (Микола Мурашко) (1844-1909), was born in Bucha, Kyiv region, created eleven drawings and a portrait of the writer especially for this publication. At that time, he was already a well-known graphic designer. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he became friends with Ilya Repin (Ілля Рєпін), a very famous painter for already that time.

The illustrations for Andersen's fairy tales became a continuation of Murashko's work in the autolithography technique. Autolithography is a type of lithography: the printed form on a lithographic stone, zinc or aluminum plate is made by the artist himself, not by printers. The works of Mykola Murashko turned out to be amazing - they convincingly transport the reader/viewer to Andersen's fantastic world. Intrigue is added by the gentle color scheme chosen by the artist. Murashko also created a realistic portrait of of H.C. Andersen. Looking at the illustration it is clear to trace the features of how Andersen fairy tales inspired the artist to interweave local and universal values. An image of a bandur player on the back cover also the details of other illustrations to the tales (clothes, silhouettes of Cossacks) are associated with Ukraine. The fairy tales became a "mirror" for Ukrainian readers to consider their native life through the "window" of Andersen texts. The luxurious nature was drawn by Murashko from his native landscapes, which he loved so much. "I feel that my sweet, beloved nature does not let me go without teaching me something," said the artist. Murashko, in addition to nature, also loved children very much. Two years after the publication of the first Ukrainian translation of Andersen's fairy tales, the artist opens the Kyiv Drawing School. He took care of it for 26 years - from 1875 to 1901. During this time, the school graduated many artists who became famous, but that is another story.

In 1906, Andersen's fairy tales were published in Kyiv (published by B. D. Grikchenko), translated by Maria Zahirnaya (B. Grinchenko's wife). This collection includes 16 fairy tales ("Nightingale", "Mother", "Little Mermaid", "Christmas Tree", "Gypsy Needle", "Girl with Matches", "New Royal Clothes", etc.). The second edition was published in 1918.

Most scholars would agree that the period from 1920 till 1950^th was a period of Soviet state censorship everywhere. It was expressed either in a complete ban on the publication or display of a particular work of literature or art, or a thorough reworking of the content and meaning of the work. Against a background of different social upheaval, Ukrainian literature also suffered and experienced radical change. While Ukrainian intellectuals and literati developed and cast national identical values, which were intended to lead to a certain renaissance, revival in Ukrainian literature, a "milestone" appeared in the literary discourse. Due to the incredible input of scholars a new wave of literary translation in 20^th century began. During this upsurge, H.C. Andersen and his tales were performed to Ukraine with the aim to educate and enlighten Ukrainian (Soviet at that time) children as well as adults.

Any person understands that children are the future of the nation and the country. Western children's literary works, we speak about Andersen in this context, were an effective medium to advocating humanism, love and friendship but with the spiritual world of the western works. But during 1920-1950 works of print such as the press, advertisements, and books were censored by Glavlit (The main literary publication), an agency established on June 6, 1922, ostensibly to safeguard top secret information from foreign entities but in reality, to remove material the Soviet authorities did not like. Therefore, in the USSR, even harmless children's fairy tales were censored, and the fairy tales of H.C. Andersen were not an exception.

Since Hans Christian Andersen was admitted as a true Christian author and religion was essential to his life and works, his Christian morality can be traced in many of Andersen's fairy tales the translation of his famous tales was significantly affected by the sociopolitical environment of the soviet time.

The fairy tale "The Snow Queen" is especially strong in this sense. However, the merciless Soviet censorship "cut out" any hints of faith in God and divine providence. So, in the original, angels are constant characters in a fairy tale.

"De l0b omkring med spejlet, og til sidst var der ikke et land eller et menneske, uden at det havde v$ret fordrejet deri. Nu ville de ogsa flyve op mod Himmelen selv for at g0re nar af englene og "Vorherre." Jo h0jere de fl0j med spejlet, des sterkere grinede det, de kunne n$ppe holde fast pa det; h0jere og h0jere fl0j de, n^rmere Gud og englene; da sitrede spejlet sa frygteligt i sit grin, at det for dem ud af h^nderne og styrtede ned mod jorden, hvor det gik i hundrede millioner, billioner og endnu flere stykker...".

In the first excerpt, translated in 1930, the words angels, God were omitted and instead only the word "Sky" was used. The general meaning of the sentences with the images of God and angels was reduced to this sense: Then the scholars of the devil school wanted to fly to the sky and have fun there. The higher they rose, the more the mirror grinned.

"Вони всюди бігали з цим дзеркалом, і, нарешті, не залишилося жодної країни, жодної людини, що не відбилися б спотвореними в дзеркалі. Тоді учні чорта захотіли полетіти на небо і там повеселитися. Чим вище вони підносилися, тим більше дзеркало кривилося; вони ледве тримали його. Вони підносилися вище та вище, і раптом дзеркало так затремтіло від жахливої гримаси, що вирвалося з рук, упало на землю і розбилося на тисячу мільйонів, більйонів і ще більше скалок".

The second example, which was translated in the fourth period of translation genealogy, done by O. Ivanenko was a bit different.

Вони всюди бігали з цим дзеркалом, і, нарешті, не залишилося жодної країни, жодної людини, що не відбилися б спотвореними в дзеркалі. Тоді учні чорта захотіли дістатися до Неба, щоб посміятися над ангелами і самим Творцем. Чим вище вони підносилися, тим більше дзеркало кривилося; вони ледве тримали його.

Here you could read the sentences close to the original version : They ran everywhere with this mirror, and finally there was not a single country, not a single person left, who would not be reflected distorted in the mirror. Then the disciples of the devil wanted to reach Heaven to laugh at the angels and the Creator himself The higher they rose, the more the mirror grinned; they could barely hold it.

Through the original text the angels always help Gerda from the beginning to the end of her journey. In the "Soviet" version, the angels are replaced by mysterious "little men". And the girl's path itself symbolizes the path to faith, God, to higher goals. Prayers also help Gerda along the way. They, as it is not difficult to guess, were not mentioned at all in Soviet editions of fairy tales. The fairy tale "Wild Swans" also talks about the path to higher goals, faith in God.

Many of Andersen's fairy tales dealt with the theme of death. But the Soviet censors decided that this topic was unacceptable for the children of Soviet Union, and these very tales were simply not included in the collections, or the topic itself was bypassed. But a fairy tale can talk about this important, but complex topic more simply and gently. And the immortality of the soul that the Little Mermaid dreamed of? It is completely unsuitable for the "worker-peasant" worldview.

In 1969Andersen's collection of fairy tales and stories for adults was published. There was no such censorship during that time as it was the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were relaxed. But the critic discourse of Andersen's literary legacy were under research attention. Many psychologists believe that some of Andersen's fairy tales should not be read to young children. Parents should carefully select fairy tales for the development of their child.

After the October Revolution, children read Andersen's fairy tales in translations by many Soviet writers, in particular from the Danish language by O. Ivanenko. A new edition in her translation, with a biography of Andersen and with color drawings by G. Grigorieva, was published in 1964 by the publishing house "Rainbow". It is impossible not to mention the role of Marko Vovchok (Марко Вовчок, 1833-1907, her surname was aria Vilinska, a Ukrainian writer, translator, publisher of Russian origin), she popularized Andersen's works and translated his fairy tales into Russian, and they were published (see appendix C).

In the editions of the works of Hans Christian Andersen, which saw the light after the collapse of the Soviet Union, you can read texts that are somewhat different from the well-known ones. But almost every one of Andersen's fairy tales contains a topic forbidden in the USSR - belief in God. "The Snow Queen", "Wild Swans", `The Little Mermaid" - all these fairy tales had a religious meaning, they had frequent references to God, the Gospel, angels, priests, as well as various Christian values. For example, from the "Soviet", so to speak, version of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen", important words were deleted, which allow us to look at this work from a completely different angle. In fact, this tale is imbued with a deep religious meaning. In it, the disciples of the evil Troll gathered to laugh not only at all people, as written in the "Soviet" version, but also at angels and God.

When Kay and Gerda were walking together, the girl sang a psalm to the boy that mentioned roses. Kai, in his turn, sang along: "Roses are blooming, charm and beauty, we will soon see the Christ Child." Then Andersen wrote: "The children sang, holding hands, kissed roses, looked at the bright sun and talked to it. It seemed to them that Jesus himself was looking at them from the sun." Of course, these words were not in the censored fairy tale.

H.C. Andersen further writes: "Then little Gerda said the Lord's Prayer, and the cold was so great that her breath froze as it came out of her mouth, and she could see it like a cloud of smoke in front of her. It grew thicker and thicker, till it formed itself into bright little angels, who grew bigger and bigger when they touched the ground. They all wore helmets and carried shields and spears in their hands. More and more of them appeared, and when Gerda had finished her prayer she was surrounded by a whole legion. In the censored version, of course, there was neither the "Our Father" nor these wonderful angels".

Thus, in this article we have defined the brief historical overview of the translation history in Ukraine, socio-political context's influence on the translation and introduction of Andersen's tales and the cultural understanding of H.C. Andersen's universality as well as his locality.

Bibliography