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Nicholas Gumilyov, the Poet-Warrior 1886–1921

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

Leonid I. Strakhovsky
Leonid I. Strakhovsky*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

      Fearful sun, menacing sun,
      Like the mad face
      Of God going through space,
      Burn the present, oh! sun,
      That the future may last,
      But protect the past.
    N. Gumilyov: Pearls, 1912

Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov, with his pale face, small black moustache, slightly slanting eyes, and drooping eyelids, with a frail body but a will of steel, might have been, if he had happened to be born in a different age, a Moses, a Mohamed, or a St. Ignatius Loyola. But he was born at the end of the “stupid nineteenth century” in Kronstadt, Russia, the son of a naval doctor, and he was a “poet by the grace of God,” a militant, fighting poet, a crusader about whom another poet said “You never once in life took off your armor.”

Gumilyov's place in Russian literature as a poet, as a writer of prose “excellent in its formal perfection,” as a critic who “felt the leaning of his epoch,” as the acknowledged leader and master of a new literary school — “Acmeism” — has not been evaluated as yet.

Type
Research Article
Information
Slavonic and East European Review American Series , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , October 1944 , pp. 1 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1944

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References

1 This and all other translations in the text are by the author.

2 Struve, Mikhail, “N. S. Gumilëvu,” Russkaja Mysl', 1921, X-XII, p. 87 Google Scholar.

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7 N. Gumilëv, “Pis'ma o russkoj poezii,” A pollon, No. 8, 1910, p. 59.

8 N. Gumilëv, “Žizn' Sticha,” A pollon, No. 7, 1910, p. 16.

9 Lelevich, “Gumilëv,” B.S.E.

10 N. Gumilyov, Put’ Konkvistadorov, St. Petersburg, 1905. Out of print and not available in the United States.

11 Lelevich, “Gumilëv,” B.S.E.

12 Volkov, A., Poezija russkogo imperializma, Moscow, 1935, p. 125 Google Scholar.

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19 Ibid., p. 21.

* Italics supplied (izyskanny).

20 Apollon, No. 1–2, 1914, p. 135.

21 In. Annenski, “O sovremennom lirizme,” Apollon, No. 2, 1909, p. 25.

22 Bryusov, “Sud akmeista,” pp. 96–100.

23 Gumilëv, “Pis'ma,” Apollon, No. 10, 1911, p. 74.

24 Ibid., No. 5, 1910, p. 56.

25 Ibid., No. 1, 1912, p. 72.

26 Ibid., No. 10, 1915, p. 51.

27 Ibid., No. 9, 1910, p. 38.

28 Ibid., No. 6, 1912, p. 54.

29 Ibid., No. 5, 1914, p. 35.

30 Ibid., No. 6, 1912, p. 54.

31 Ibid., No. 5, 1914, p. 35.

32 Gumilëv, “Žizn’ Sticha,” p. 6.

33 Gumilëv, “Pis'ma,” Apollon, No. 5, 1911, p. 76.

34 Ibid., No. 5, 1912, p. 50.

35 Id.

36 Ibid., No. 8, 1912, p. 60.

37 Ibid., No. 6, 1912, p. 52–53.

38 Gumilëv, “Žizn’ Sticha,” p. 7.

39 Gumilëv, “Pis'ma,” Apollon, No. 9, 1910, p. 36.

40 Ibid., No. 10, 1910, p. 25.

41 Ibid., No. 10, 1915, p. 52.

42 Ibid., No. 8, 1910, p. 61.

43 Gumilëv, “Žizn’ Sticha,” pp. 8–9.

44 N. Gumilëv, Žemchuga, Moscow, 1910; 2nd cd., Berlin, 1921.

45 Apollon, No. 7, 1910, p. 38.

46 Gumilëv, “Pis'ma,” Apollon, No. 3, 1913, p. 75.

47 Volkov, Poezija, p. 123.

48 Gumilëv, Žemchuga, 2nd ed., p. 14.

49 Ibid., p. 58.

50 V. Dynnik, “Akmeizm,” B.S.E.

51 N. Gumilëv, Čužot Nebo, St. Petersburg, 1912; 2nd ed. Berlin, 1936. The second edition (the only one available in the United States) is not complete, lacking among others a play in verse Don Juan in Egypt and Gumilyov's translations from Theophile Gautier's Emaux el Camées.

51a V. Bryusov, “Antologija izd. Musaget,” Russkaya Mysl', No. 8, 1911, p. 15.

52 V. Bryusov, Dalëkie i blizkie, 1911, quoted after Volkov, Poezija, p. 116.

53 M. Kuzmin, “Pis'ma o russkoi poezii,” Apollon, No. 2, 1912, p. 74.

54 Gumilëv, Čužoe Nebo, 2nd ed., p. 61.

55 Volkov, Poezija, p. 133; Lelevich, “Gumilëv,” B.S.E.

56 Lelevich, “Gumilëv,” B.S.E.

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69 Ibid., No. 1–2, 1914, p. 135.

70 Id.

71 Ibid., No. 5, 1914, p. 54.

72 A pollon, No. 9, 1911, pp. 59–64.

73 Ibid., No. 4, 1913, pp. 36–38.

74 Teofil' Got'ye, “Emalii Kamei,” perevod N. Gumilëva, St. Petersburg, 1914. This book is not available in the United States.

75 Levinson, Andrei, “Gumilëv,” Sovremennyja Zapiski, 1922, IX, p. 311 Google Scholar.

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77 A pollon, No. 5, 1914, p. 54.

78 Volkov, Poezijo, p. 207. The article about him in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia states erroneously that he joined a hussar regiment.

79 Peter Struve, “In memoriam,” p. 91.

80 Gumilëv, “Pis'ma,” A pollon, No. 2, 1909, p. 21.

81 N. Gumilëv, Ognenny Stolp, 2nd ed., St. Petersburg-Berlin, 1922, p. 11.

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86 N. Gumilëv, Ditja Allacha. Arabskaja skazka, Berlin, 1922. First published in A pollon, No. 6–7, 1917, pp. 17–57.

87 Ibid., No. 4–5, 1916, p. 86.

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90 Zhirmunski, “Preodolevšie,” p. 51.

91 Gumilëv spent some time in Italy in 1912, as testified by three poems: “Pisa,” “Rome,” “Genoa,” which were dated: “Italy, 1912,” when first published (Russkaja Mysl' No. 7, 1912, pp. 1–3).

92 Ivanov, Preface to Čužoe Nebo, p. 7.

93 Gumilëv, Kolchan, 2nd ed., p. 65.

94 Ibid., pp. 34–35.

95 M. Tumpovskaya, “Kolchan N. Gumilëva,” A pollon, No. 6–7, 1917, pp. 58–69; Zhirmunski, “Preodolevšie,” pp. 49–52.

96 B. Eichenbaum, “Novye stichi N. Gumilëva,” Russkaya Mysl', No. 2, 1916, pp. 17–19.

97 Zhirmunski, “Preodolevšie,” p. 52.

98 N. Gumilëv, “Gondla,” Russkaya Mysl', No. 1, 1917, pp. 67–97; in book form: Berlin, 1936.

99 Gumilëv, Gondla, Berlin, 1936, p. 5.

100 Gumilëv, Gondla, p. 67. For obvious reasons this quotation was omitted by the publishers from the Berlin edition.

101 Volkov, Poezija, pp. 207–208.

102 Lelevich, “Gumilëv,” B.S.E.

103 Leonid Chatsky (Strakhovsky): “N. Goumilev,” Russian Life, No. 2–3, 1921, p. 72.

104 Ivanov, Preface to Pis'ma by Gumilëv, p. 7.

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109 Lelevich, “Gumilëv,” B.S.E.

110 Gumilëv, Kostër, 2nd ed., p. 35.

111 This and sixteen other poems of The Bonfire were reprinted in Russkaya Mysl', No. 1–2, 1922, pp. 3–17.

112 Gumilëv, Kostër, p. 6.

113 Ibid., pp. 42–43.

114 Gil'gamesh. Vavilonski epos, translated by N. Gumilyov, St. Petersburg, 1919.

115 Ibid., Translator's introduction, p. 5.

116 Petrogradskaja Pravda, Sept. 1, 1921.

117 Volkov, Poezija, p. 212.

118 Gumilëv, N., Ognenny Stolp, Petersburg, 1921; 2nd ed., Berlin, 1922Google Scholar.

119 N. Gumilëv, Šafër, Reval (Talinn), 1921;also Petersburg, 1921. The latter edition, published by “The Guild of Poets,” is incomplete.

120 Gleb Struve, “Pis'ma,” p. 240.

121 Gumilëv, Ognenny Slolp, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1922, pp. 16–17.

122 Ibid., pp. 9–12.

123 Gleb Struve, “Pis'ma,” p. 246.

124 Gumilëv, Ognenny Slolp, p. 38.

125 Lelevich, “Gumilëv,” B.S.E.

126 Gumilëv, Ognenny Slolp, pp. 58–60.

127 Gumilëv, Satër, pp. 33–35.

128 Ibid., pp. 5–6.

129 Vladislovlev, Literatura, p. 90; Georgi Ivanov gives the date of August 27 (Georgi Ivanov, “O Gumilëve,” Sovremennyja Zapiski, XLVII, 1931, p. 308).

130 He was actually 34. Georgi Ivanov is also in error when he gives his ago as 40 (Georgi Ivanov, Preface to Čužoe Nebo, p. 3).

131 Pelrogradskaja Pravda, Sept. 1, 1921.

132 Georgi Ivanov, Preface to Čužoe Nebo, pp. 3–4.

133 Ibid., pp. 5–7.