Leo Ginzburg was an outstanding Soviet translator and publicist. Having gone through the horrors of World War II, he tells in his books about the pain that a whole generation had to endure. But his main activity was the translation of works from German into Russian.
Biography
Lev Vladimirovich Ginzburg was born on October 24 in 1921 in Moscow. His family was quite ordinary for the Soviet intelligentsia, his father worked as a lawyer. Lev Vladimirovich, as a child, attended classes at a literary studio in the House of Pioneers, taught by Mikhail Svetlov, a Soviet poet and playwright, journalist and war correspondent. Even at school, he intensively studied German. Having reached the age of eighteen, he entered the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History. N. G. Chernyshevsky. However, he was immediately drafted into the army, where he had to serve for more than six years on the Far Eastern Front. There, his poems were published in front-line and military newspapers.
Years later, he entered and graduated in 1950 from the philological faculty of Moscow State University. His first translated and published work was from the Armenian language, which was released in 1952. Later he was engaged in translations of only German literature. Many works of German writers, translated by Leo Ginzburg, date from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. He was interested in books telling about the times of the thirty-year war of 1618-1638, folklore of the inhabitants of Germany and poets of those times. He was the man who breathed life into ancient manuscripts. The biography of Leo Ginzburg indicates that he died after surgery, being in poor condition. After anesthesia, he was not destined to wake up, and on September 17, 1980, the famous Soviet translator died.
The contradictory views on the German people of different times
Lev Vladimirovich, who studied German from an early age and wrote poetry, was extremely contradictory in his literary predilections, as it seemed at first glance. After all, given that he wrote books on anti-fascist topics, filled with bitterness and resentment for the deeds of Hitler and his associates, then, in contrast to this, with what trepidation he treated the works of the Middle Ages of old Germany and later, until the XVIII century.
The depressing feeling that causes a heavy sediment in any person accompanies Ginzburg throughout his prose. He seeks in his books to convey the atmosphere of relations between people during the war and believes that the bitterness of the experience will never be washed away by time. It is forever imprinted in the memory of many people. And on the contrary, translating the texts of German poets and writers, with the inherent lyrics and drama of those times, Lev Vladimirovich seemed to live their lives together with the authors again. This was the philosophy of his relationship to the very concept of translations and the personality of a person.
We can assume that Leo Ginzburg wanted to uncover the essence of the same nation with his work. Show that each person has wonderful and terrible traits. This formula applies to entire nations.
Translations
Most of the works translated by him from German, Old German and Latin are considered the best to this day. Lev Vladimirovich masterfully owned the word. With the ease of a virtuoso, he moved in time into the deep past when these ancient texts were written. His translations are highly appreciated both in Russia and in Germany.
A creative approach to translations of Lev Vladimirovich often implied an increase in the volume of texts. For example, the text of Parsifal was at least doubled in volume. And the "Fugue of Death" by Pavel Celan in the original consists of 30 lines, while Ginzburg translated it into Russian with more than a hundred lines. Among his works are “German Folk Ballads” and the famous “Lyrics of the Vagans”, poems by German poets, poetry and many other works.
Carmina burana
Or, as it translates, Codex Buranus is an illuminated manuscript in Latin in the form of a collection of poems and songs. This collection contains songs on various topics: instructive, banquet, instructive, satirical, love and liturgical dramas.
One of the largest collections of works of medieval vagans and goliards interested Leo Ginzburg. The translation of this work is still considered one of the closest to the original. It sounds great in many languages.
David Tukhmanov wrote the album, including one of the songs translated by Leo Ginzburg called “From the Vagans”, or, as we used to call it, “Student's Song”, “On the French Side …”, or simply “Student”.
Anti-Fascist Journalism
In adulthood, the translator Lev Ginsburg, in addition to working with old texts, was also engaged in journalism. He devoted his work to the theme of bloody and oppressive fascism, which turned out to be closely connected with the fate of the Russian people. Drawing a parallel between fascism and communism, Lev Ginzburg argued in his books on the topic of cowardice, the narrow thinking of peoples under the yoke of totalitarian states. And on the contrary, revelations and remorse for being involved in the events. For what I had to see with my own eyes and pass through my heart, watching the horrors of the Second World War. His published books gained particular popularity among those who also went through the war.
Quote from the book "Only my heart was broken …":
The horror of fascism is that it kills generally accepted morality, eternal moral standards, erases the commandments. What does the Hippocratic oath mean to a camp doctor compared to an order received from some Sturmbanführer?
Criticism
In an atmosphere of musty totalitarianism under the Soviet Union, many publications did not want to publish Ginzburg's works. By happy coincidence, the published book "Otherworldly Meetings" nevertheless appeared in the issue of the magazine "New World" in 1969. In this book, the author described personal interviews with the top of the Third Reich. After publication, the book gained immense popularity. However, such revelations were not approved "from above." This was another reason to change the chief editor. Such topical and hot topics at that time were not censored.
On the other hand, the German Slavic Wolfgang Cossack expressed his opinion on the work of Ginzburg. In his opinion, the author misinterpreted the events that took place in Germany in the pre-war period and during the Second World War, accusing the Germans of all crimes alone.
The last book "Only my heart was broken …"
The last book, “Only my heart was broken …”, written by Leo Ginzburg, was published after his death. This was a particularly difficult manuscript, since the period of its writing coincided with the biggest loss in the life of a Soviet translator. Just at that time, the wife of Leo Ginzburg, whom he affectionately called Buba, died.
“I loved working so that she was close, so that, looking up, I could see her face, almost always shining with kindness, calmness and rarely irritated, evil. I copied many words and lines from her beautiful face ”
According to many readers, this particular book is full of mercy, compassion, confession and nakedness in the face of grief. Putting his whole soul, the writer urges to be more tolerant of loved ones and relatives, appeals to humanity in every person. Surely the death of his wife introduced such a subtle, but sharp note in his manuscript.
The name of his book, Leo dictated to the nurse before the operation, after which he never woke up. These were lines in German, citing Heinrich Heine, whose works so often translated into Russian. This line sounded like Und nur mein Herz brach - "Only my heart was broken."
