Fritz Mierau: a German biographer, publisher and researcher of S.A. Yesenin's creative works

S.A. Yesenin's poetry German reception, which has almost a century of history, is represented by the names of more than sixty translators and more than a dozen researchers. A special place in this row belongs to the famous Slavicist Fritz Mierau, who devoted about half a century to the popularization of Yesenin in Germany. As a publisher of six collections, an author of five scientific papers and a comprehensive biography of the poet, Mierau can rightly be called a "kulturtraeger", whose activity is unprecedented. The study of the creative works and destiny of S.A. Yesenin made by F. Mierau expresses itself especially in the literary nature of the epilogues to the collections of the translations, as well as in the scientific articles, in which the attention is more focused on the translational perception of the Russian author's poetry in Germany. Both branches are interrelated and complement each other, representing a comprehensive study. Mierau represented all Yesenin's creative works as a single and indivisible entity, that cannot be divided into some periods or particular literary schools. Already in 1965, the researcher identified the concepts of nature and homeland as the key categories in Yese-nin's poetry, with particular attention to the latter, and became sure that the Russian poet sang of his country in many works and under different names of it. Mierau said that contrast as the main feature of Yesenin, providing both ease and complexity of understanding his poetry, was embodied in the German translation. Analyzing translations made by P. Celan, A. Christoph and R. Kirsch, the researcher first speaks about the creative translation strategy in relation to Yesenin's lyrics. Harmony, simplicity and the spirit of nation itself as the main characteristics of the Russian poet's works were fully represented in the translations made by Kirsch, according to Mierau's opinion. The scientific article published in 1966, on the perception of Yesenin's poetry in Germany, was the first precedent study of the receptive history of the Russian author; it laid the foundation for the further study of Yesenin's works in the framework of comparative studies. The image of Yesenin, developed in the individual perception of the researcher, is contradictory and, therewith, harmonic. Numerous comments on the contrast in his works and cycles, moods prevailing in them, poet's creative solutions are combined with the understanding of his lyrics as the detection of harmony. Mierau as a literary critic tried to explain in simple terms to German readers the complexity of Yesenin's poetry associated with the surface simplicity and profound subtext.

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