Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak

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Samuil Jakowlewitsch Marschak on a 1987 Soviet postage stamp.

Samuil Marshak ( Russian Самуил Яковлевич Маршак , scientific. Transliteration Samuil Jakovlevic Maršák ; born October 22 . Jul / 3. November  1887 greg. In Voronezh , † 4. July 1964 in Moscow ) was a Russian-Jewish writers ; best known for his children's literature and translations of English poems (including Shakespeare's sonnets ).

Life

Childhood and youth

Marschak came from a Jewish family whose roots go back to the famous Rabbi Aaron Shmuel Kajdanower, who lived in the then Polish-Lithuanian kingdom in the 17th century . His father Jakow Marschak was a factory foreman in Voronezh, while his mother devoted herself to raising children. Since Marschak's father was not satisfied with his working conditions, the family moved three times within four years. Marshak attended high school in Ostrogoshsk , but could not graduate because his parents moved to Saint Petersburg in 1901 . There he made the acquaintance of the Russian critic and art historian Vladimir Stasov , who showed great interest in the advancement of Samuil, who had already attracted attention through his first poems. Within two years the then 15-year-old Marschak got to know such celebrities of Russian cultural life as Maxim Gorky , Ilya Repin and Fyodor Chaliapin . During this time Samuil wrote several poems in Yiddish , which appeared in 1905 with the help of Stassov in the journal Das Jewish Leben . In 1906 he made the acquaintance of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi , one of the founders of the Jewish workers 'party Poalei Zion, and published translations of Salomon Anski's Di shvue , the hymn of the Jewish workers' movement in a Lithuanian magazine . A year later, his translations of the works of one of the most famous Jewish poets of the Tsarist empire Chaim Nachman Bialik into Russian appeared.

Beginning of career

In 1907 Marschak was accepted into the editorial team of the satirical magazine Satirikon , which was very famous at the time . During this time he became acquainted with Alexander Blok and turned to symbolism , which had brought him great popularity beyond the narrow borders of the capital's literary circles. In 1911 Marschak traveled with his friend, the poet Jakow Godin, as a correspondent for the "Vseobschtschaja gaseta" (German: Allgemeine Zeitung) to the Middle East, where he also met his future wife Sofja Milwidskaja: They married in January 1912. Few Months after the wedding, the two went to England ( London ), where Marschak studied English from 1912 to 1914. During this time, Marschak mainly translated the works of William Black , Robert Burns and William Butler Yeats into Russian. In 1914 he returned to Russia . During the First World War , Marschak looked after refugee children.

After the February Revolution of 1917 , his father and Samuil's family traveled south to the Kuban area , where he soon found work. Samuil initially stayed in revolutionary Petrograd and only traveled south to his family shortly before the October Revolution . However, soon afterwards he received news of the death of his mother, who was staying in Petrograd, so that he had to return in December. Since he wanted to escape the turmoil of the revolutionary era, he was back with his family in Jekaterinodar at the beginning of 1918 . However, there he experienced the full force of the Russian civil war ; the city was occupied and plundered several times by red and white troops. There Marschak published a volume of poetry under a pseudonym in 1919, in which he spoke out in favor of the democratic reorganization of the country, but at the same time castigated the anti-Semitism of whites, which was negatively criticized by the local rulers. Marshak had to fear for his freedom and even his life at times, so that he received the Soviet troops advancing on August 25, 1920 with open arms. This probably secured him the goodwill of the Bolsheviks as well. After the establishment of Soviet power, Marschak was appointed head of the children's homes and children's colonies section in 1920 and was then dramaturge at the children's theater there from 1921 to 1923 .

Children's author

With the active cooperation of Elisaveta Wassiljewas, Marschak succeeded in building a “children's town” in Yekaterinodar, which later became the model for the so-called “pioneer houses” throughout the Soviet Union. Marschak wrote his best children's fairy tales during these years, including "The Cat House", "The Magic Wand" or "Petrushka", which later became part of the classics of Soviet children's literature. Marschak's fame as an organizer and children's book author led to the fact that in 1923 he received an invitation as head of the literary department of the youth theater in Leningrad , which he also accepted. Shortly thereafter, the collection of poems for children, “Little Children in a Cage”, was published several times. In the same year he started the children's magazine “Worobej” (German: “Der Spatz”), which has been published since 1924 under the name of New Robinson . Marschak succeeded in persuading a number of later famous authors such as the poets Boris Pasternak and Ossip Mandelstam , the essayists Konstantin Fedin and Boris Lavrenjow or the naturalist Vitali Bianki to collaborate in the magazine. He became a sponsor of Boris Schitkow and Evgeni Schwarz .

Marschak's success in publishing the children's magazine led in 1926 to his appointment as head of the children's book publisher "Detgis" (Russian abbreviation for state publisher for children's literature ), which was then located in Leningrad. In this position he was the one who was responsible for the composition of the publishing program and thus for the ideological "correctness" of published books. The fact that Marshak, who was never a member of the Communist Party, had such leverage is attributed to his good relations with Maxim Gorky. Immediately after his death, Marschak also lost his post and moved to Moscow in 1938, where he lived as a highly valued but influential writer. Shortly before his departure, several employees of the editorial staff of Detgis-Verlag were victims of purge campaigns in the wake of the Great Terror , including Daniil Charms and Tamara Gabbe ; Marshak himself, however, was not affected by the Stalinist reprisals.

During the Second World War , Marschak worked on the Pravda newspaper and published satirical posters . He was several times with the fighting troops at the front, where he organized "literary evenings" for the soldiers and officers. For these services he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, First Class, in 1945. During this time he wrote several plays, including The Twelve Months , which premiered in 1947 and was filmed several times in the 1970s.

After the Second World War

After the war, Marschak secretly collected money in order to send the Jewish children from the Baltic countries, whose parents were murdered during the National Socialist rule, to Palestine illegally, which was also successful in several cases. In 1948 a memorial volume “Ghettolieder” was published in New York , in which the fate of the Jewish population during the Holocaust was remembered. This volume contained several poems by the Jewish poet Chitin from Lithuania , the translation into English of which was done by Samuil Marschak, who was unable to publish these poems in the Soviet Union after the war.

After the murder of the famous Jewish actor Michoels and the smashing of the “ Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee ”, the anti-Semitic hysteria in the USSR reached its peak. Marschak, who had been involved in the Zionist movement before the revolution and was a long-time friend of Michoels, was harassed and suspicious of the regime in the course of the campaign against so-called " cosmopolitanism ", which was primarily aimed at Soviet citizens of Jewish origin observed. To prove his loyalty to the Soviet power, Marschak wrote several emphatically anti-Western, especially anti-American, poems in which he celebrated the unity of the Soviet people and explicitly referred to the Jewish population as part of the “great Soviet family”. In 1950 he was the author of the text of the oratorio "The Guardians of Peace", the music of which came from Sergei Prokofiev and in which the Stalinist regime was described as a "haven of peace". This submission on the part of Marshak not only saved him from persecution, but also brought him two Stalin prizes, the Order of Lenin and official celebrations to mark his 60th birthday. He was also appointed head of the Children's Book Commission of the Soviet Writers' Union.

Despite this, Marshak's Jewish origins and his non-party status continued to be attacked by Soviet ideologues. He was accused of "poisoning" the consciousness of Soviet children together with other children's book authors of Jewish origin, especially Kornei Tschukowski and Lev Kassil as representatives of the "children's book aestheticism". Only after Stalin's death did the persecution of Marschak and other Jewish authors cease. In the last years of his life, Marschak devoted himself to the promotion of young poets, translations from English and published two volumes of poetry. It was officially declared a “classic of the Soviet children's book” and was allowed to represent Soviet culture in western countries. In 1955 he traveled to Scotland for Robert Burns' anniversary . On April 22, 1963, Marschak was awarded the Lenin Prize for life's work.

Marshak's grave is in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery .

Marshak as a translator

Marschak's literary activity consisted not only of writing books and poems for children and, in later years, also for adults. He was also valued and recognized as a translator of English books into Russian. The authors he has translated include Robert Burns, William Black, William Butler Yeats, but above all William Shakespeare , whose literary work Marschak had occupied his entire life. A true masterpiece was the translation of his sonnets and dramas, which for the first time enabled a broad reading public in the Soviet Union to become familiar with the works of Shakespeare. In addition, Marschak translated the works of Heinrich Heine and Jewish authors who wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew , respectively .

Personal

Marshak had three children:

  • Natanel (1914-1915)
  • Immanuel (1917–1977) who became a well-known scientist
  • Jakow (1925-1946)

Works (German language editions)

  • Mister Twister . Kiev / Charkow, State Publishing House of the National Minorities of the USSR 1935. First GDR edition: Translated from the Russian by Hedda Zinner . With illustrations by Frans Haacken . Berlin / Dresden, the children's book publisher 1950.
  • Friend Fahrigkeit . German by Erwin Johannes Bach . Drawings by MJ Konashevich . Engels, Deutscher Staatsverlag 1938.
  • Jack's house . Engels, German State Publishing House, 1939.
  • The ride on the donkey. A story for young and old . Brought in German verse by Erich Wildberger . Berlin / Leipzig, People and Knowledge 1946.
  • Little children in the cage . Adaptation by Erich Weinert . With illustrations by Yevgeny Ivanovich Tscharuschin . Berlin, Holz Verlag 1947.
  • The 12 months. Fairy tale . Translated from Russian by Cilli Foreigner . Vienna, Globus 1947. Published in parallel in Germany: The twelve months. A fairy tale game in four acts . Translated from the Russian by Miron Broser . Berlin, Bruno Henschel and son 1947.
  • The colorful book . Translated from the Russian by Alfred E. Thoss and Nadeshda Ludwig . Drawings by Vladimir Vasilyevich Lebedew . Berlin, Publishing House Culture and Progress 1949.
  • On peace watch . Translated from the Russian by Paul Wiens . Binding and drawings based on the original by Marta Menter-Matthes . Berlin, the children's book publisher 1952.
  • Where does the table come from? Translated into German by Paul Wiens. Berlin, the children's book publisher 1952.
  • How your book was printed . Translation from Russian by Paul Wiens. Text illustrations based on originals by Heinz Völkel . Berlin, the children's book publisher 1952.
  • What does a year mean? German by Else Kornis . Drawings by Orest Georgievich Wereiski . Bucharest, Jugendverlag (d. ZK d. VdWJ) 1952.
  • See what a distracted man . German by Gerty Rath . Illustrations by W. Konaschewitsch. Bucharest, Jugendverlag (d. ZK d. VdWJ) 1954.
  • The striped kitten . German by Gerty Rath. Illustrations by Vladimir Lebedev. Bucharest, Jugendverlag (d. ZK d. VdWJ) 1955.
  • The cat house. A fairy tale in verse . Translation from Russian and post-poetry by Martin Remané . Pictures by Erich Gürtzig . Berlin, Der Kinderbuchverlag 1957. New edition in Tabu-Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-930777-45-2 .
  • The spherical brothers. A picture book . Adaptation by Bruno Tutenberg , pictures by Hildegard Haller . Berlin, the children's book publisher 1959.
  • From the clever little mouse . Berlin, the children's book publisher 1959.
  • From the hippopotamus . German by Pauline Schneider . Illustrations by K. Rotow . Bucharest, youth publisher (d. ZK d. VdWJ) 1960.
  • Blob of dachshunds . Translated from the Russian by Vladimir Vishnyak . Moscow, publishing house for foreign language literature 1960.
  • The big bag . Re-composition by Martin Remané. Illustration by with José Sancha . Berlin, the children's book publisher 1961.
  • The penguins rock, chic, shock / two kittens . Illustrated by A. Laptev . Prague, Artia 1964.
  • The smart things. Fairytale comedy in three acts and six pictures. / About me. In: Soviet literature. Monthly journal of the Writers' Union of the USSR, issue 1 1965.
  • Poems for children . German by Michail Schaiber . Drawings by Mai Mituritsch . Moscow, Progress 1966.
  • The animal house. A story of verse . Post-poetry by Johannes Bobrowski . Illustrations by Ingeborg Meyer-Rey . Berlin, Der Kinderbuchverlag 1967. New edition 1996: ISBN 3-358-00117-2 .
  • Bearded and striped . Re-composition by Martin Remané. Illustrations by Lauretta Rix. Berlin, the children's book publisher 1967.
  • How the cat got a name . Translated from the Russian by Marianne Schilow . Illustrations by Gerhard Lahr , Berlin, Der Kinderbuchverlag 1968.
  • Bear decency / The two gray cats . German by Michail Schaiber. Drawings by K. Rotow. Moscow, Progress 1969.
  • Fairy tale of the stupid mouse . German by R. Weber . Illustrations by Lija Majorowa . Moscow, Malysh 1970.
  • Where did the sparrow have lunch? Illustrations by Lija Majorawa. Moscow / Berlin, Malysch / Young World 1976.
  • Small dog traveling . Illustrations by Erika Meier-Albert . Stuttgart, Thienemann 1976.
  • Samuil Marshak . A selection by Gerlind Wegener . Berlin, Verlag Neues Leben 1977. Series: Poesiealbum 121.
  • The bear child . Illustrations by W. Kurtschjewski . Moscow, Malysh 1978.
  • Little animals in zoo quarters . Post-poetry: Robert Weber . Illustrations: Lija Majorowa. Moscow, Malysh 1980.
  • The 7 things. A travel story in verse / written down by Samuil Marschak . Translated into German by Marianne Schilow. Ingeborg Meyer-Rey painted the pictures. Berlin, the children's book publisher 1991.
  • The man from under the roof is wrong with the matter (1928). Translated from English by Harry Rowohlt . Illustrated by Marc Rosenthal . Hamburg, Carlsen 1999, ISBN 3-551-51493-3 .
  • with Valentin Dmitrijewitsch Berestow , I. Kipnis , Sergei Wladimirowitsch Michalkow , Kornei Iwanowitsch Tschukowski : The Chicken in the Birch Tree - Stories and Poems . Translated by Aljonna Möckel. Illustrations by Vladimir Suteev . Leipzig, LeiV 1997.

Awards

literature

  • Matvey Geyser. Marshak. Moscow, 2006.
  • Vospominanija o Marshake. Vorkuta, 2002 (German: memories of Marschak)

See also

Web links

Commons : Samuil Marschak  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maxim D. Shrayer (Ed.): An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: 1801–1953 . Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry. ME Sharpe, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-7656-0521-4 , Samuil Marshak ( online ).
  2. ↑ a b Samuil Marschak biography. Retrieved April 10, 2018 (Russian).
personal data
SURNAME Marshak, Samuil Jakowlewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Маршак, Самуил Яковлевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Voronezh
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1964
Place of death Moscow