Perception of heritage of S. Yesenin in Germany: translations and their editions

Entry of Russian literature into the German cultural space began in the 19 th century due to direct contacts of German writers and Russian authors. New surge in interest to Russian literature falls on post-revolutionary time in Russia and the period of the Weimar Republic in Germany. At the same time German poets paid attention to S. Yesenin's works. N. Shubnikova-Guseva, referring to M. Nikyo, notes that during the lifetime of the poet in 1920 Valdemar Gartman translated a small poem "Coming" (1917) and a poem "Autumn" (1914-1916) into German. These works were published as a part of V. Gartman's article ''Russian revolutionary poetry of the latest generation'' (Der neue Merkur. 1920, No. 2/3, for May-June). Nearly a year later there are Ivan Goll's translations, and in 1927 there are Maria Vys's translations. Thus, Germany became the first country which acquainted the readers with creativity of the original Russian poet. However, the question of German reception of Yesenin's heritage in literature science did not rise so far. As a result of searching we managed to collect the material of about twenty one editions of translations of S. Yesenin in Germany from 1958 to 2012. 1958 was the initial stage of the mass publication of sources in German, connected with S. Yesenin's name. The anthology ''Liebstes Land, das Herz traumt leise'' distinguishes free nature of translations: pronouncement of titles of poems, replacement, addition and omission of some images, syntax change. Possibly, absence of rigid requirements to translations in the 1950s gave a chance to publish these works. Besides A. Christofs and E. Bach's translations realized the main task of the edition of 1958 - acquaintance of the German-speaking reader to the lyrics. In the 1960s active entry of German readers into the world of poetry of Yesenin, was replaced by the calm 1970s. Then the period of intensification of German theory of translation begins: in the 1980s four Yesenin's editions were published, in the 1990s - seven, in the 2000s - four editions, and one in 2010s. Development of equipment and science gave the chance to issue two audio collections in the 2000s, allowing to hear the real voices of the authors. The latest collections of poetry of S. Yesenin reflect the individual approach of the translator to the represented material. Thus, the Russian-German literary connections already developing for over two centuries managed to be embodied in the steady area of comparative literary criticism. Not casually the reception of creativity of the most original Russian poet S. Yesenin is the longest in comparison with reception of this author in other foreign paradigms. It is possible to call German theory of translation a branch of the world Yesenin criticism.

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