AN IMPORTANT TRANSLATION
Sanktpeterburg. V tipografii Iakova Treia. 1858.
Small 8vo (162 × 108 mm), pp. xviii, 144; light waterstain to the fore-edge of some leaves; original blindstamped cloth, a few small inkspots to upper board, spine lettered gilt, extremities sunned, slight wear at ends of spine; old bookseller’s stamp to rear pastedown, pencil ownership inscription ‘M. Balakirev’ to front free endpaper and an inkstamped ‘Ex libris M. A. Balakirev’ below, though the signature does not look like the composer’s.
First edition: the first collection of Heine translations made by Mikhailov (1829–1865), ‘poet, writer, translator, and revolutionary … Mikhailov’s translations from French, English, and German received much acclaim. His “Songs of Heine” (1858) were highly praised by Aleksandr Blok’ (Terras).
‘With Mikhailov we come to the central figure in the translation of Heine [into Russian] in the 19th century. No other translator can demonstrate such a great number of translations of superior quality which at the same time convey a broad, many-sided picture of Heine … Together with Mei, Mikhailov is the leading representative of the “poet–translator” (poet–perevodchik) and is often compared by critics to Zhukovsky’ (German Ritz, 150 Jahre russische Heine-Übersetzung (1981), p. 234, my translation).
Levinton, Genrikh Geine 100. Not found in WorldCat.
£1800
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