Semyon Sergeevich Bobrov

Semyon Sergeevich Bobrov

Semjon Sergejewitsch Bobrow ( Russian Семён Сергеевич Бобров ; * between 1763 and 1765 in Yaroslavl ; † March 22nd ^July / April 3rd,  1810 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian poet and official .

Life

Bobrov grew up as the son of a clergyman . At the age of 19 he entered the spiritual seminary in Moscow. In 1780 he moved to the gymnasium of Moscow University , in 1782 he enrolled at Moscow University , where he graduated in 1785. From 1784 he went public with pamphlets. After completing his studies, he went to St. Petersburg. In 1787 he joined the Senate Department for Heraldic Affairs. He also worked as a translator in the Admiralty College and was a member of the Legislative Commission. From 1792 he served in the Black Sea Admiralty Administration under Admiral NS Mordwinow and spent around ten years in southern Russia.

In the 1800s Bobrow published in magazines that the society of literature, science and art lovers (russ .: Вольному обществу любителей словесности, наук и художеств ) were close, like the Nordic messenger , lyceum and flower garden (russ .: С еверный вестник , Лицей, Цветник ), in 1807 he officially became an employee of the company. In 1805 he took his pamphlet "processes in the realm of shadows, or the fate of the Russian language" (russ .: Происшествие в царстве теней, или Судьбина российского языка ) on the language debate on the part of " archaists " some what negative reactions of the so-called " Karamsinisten " evoked who slandered him as "Bibris" (from the Latin bibere - to drink). These epigrammatic allusions to Vyasjemsky , Batyushkows and Pushkin - who called him "the heavy bibrus" - saved Bobrov's name from being forgotten ...

Towards the end of his life he became a drinker and lived in poverty. He died of tuberculosis in St. Petersburg and was buried in the Volkovo Cemetery.

Literary activity

He was a truly weighty writer, as evidenced by the titles of his huge books, e. B. Рассвет полночи, славы или Созерцание, торжества и мудрости порфироносных, браненосных и мирных гениев России, с исследованием дидактических, эротических и других разного рода в стихах и прозе опытов (about "coming of midnight, or viewing to fame, work and wisdom of the ruling, warring and civil geniuses of Russia, with an appendix of instructive, erotic and various other views in verse and prose ”). Besides long poems ( "Таврида, или Мой летний день в Таврическом Херсонесе" (about "Tauris, or My summer day on the Tauric Chersonese"), the aforementioned "Рассвет полночи», «Древняя ночь вселенной, или Странствующий слепец» ) wrote and translated Bobrow odes and works of moral and didactic content; he was one of the first in Russia to be interested in English literature .

He was a mystic, but his mysticism was bright and humane; his mystical feeling was fed by literature, which aroused in him a love of symbolization, which he then often exaggerated and pushed to extremes. Many of his contemporaries emphasized his talent for poetry. Derschawin in particular was “entranced” by his work, Krylow wrote in 1822 about the “arbitrary and untamed” of the “genius Bobrow”, Küchelbecher spoke of the “sublimity” of his talent, and Griboyedov finally sharpened his own artistic mastery by doing that well-known "Taurien ..." read over and over again.

In addition to such positive evaluations, however, there were also completely opposite evaluations: long before Vyazyemsky, Batyushkow and Pushkin, Radishchev mockingly recalled him in his poem “Bowa”. His contemporaries were unable to appreciate Bobrov as a literary theorist with solid and even far-sighted insights. In his day, Bobrow found it an uphill struggle to put the won thought appropriately and concisely in words. “The language is easy, but how deceptive too! It is not uncommon for it to lose its correctness on the way through our hearing ... ”(Russian: « Язык легок, но сколь обманчив! Вещь, проходя чрез слух, нередко теряет правою » . He boldly coined neologisms and explained: "It seems that familiar and well-worn terms do not give the word the strength and power that fresh, bold and quasi-patriotic enthusiasm does" (Russian: «Обыкновенные и ветхие имена, кажетлпридаес яналпридет бы слову той силы и крепости, каковую свежие, смелые и как бы с патриотическим старанием именые ). From the multitude of words he coined, mostly cumbersome and clumsy new creations, some have found their way into everyday and literary language. He was particularly fond of using Slavism , which attracted AC Shishkov's sympathy and at the same time made him a mockery of the Karamzinists. He emphasized that "rhyme cannot make the essence of the music of a poem" and that often "the expression of the most beautiful feelings and most important thoughts is damaged and the poetry almost always destroys the soul" if the author makes the slightest concession. Long before Benediktow , Balmont and the Symbolists at the end of the 19th century, Bobrow felt the longing for the "unheard of sound" and the "mysterious language" and was the first to speak of the beauty of blank verse .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Зайонц Л. О. Бобров // Словарь русских писателей XVIII века. - Вып. 1. - Л .: Наука, 1988. - С. 96-99.
2. ↑ Р — в В. Бобров // Русский биографический словарь. - Т. 3: Бетанкур-Бякстер. - СПб., 1908. - С. 124-125.
3. ↑ Минчик С. С. Грибоедов и Крым. - Симферополь: Бизнес-Информ, 2011. - С. 143, 184-186.
4. ↑ Альтшуллер М. Г. С. С. Бобров и русская поэзия конца XVIII - начала XIX в. // Русская литература XVIII в. Эпоха классицизма. - М. - Л .: Наука, 1964. - С. 224-246.