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Abstract:

This article traces the course of Ivan Bunin’s personal and creative relationship with the admiral, traveller, astronomer, translator and literary critic, Nikolai Azbelev (1857–1912). There were two strands to it. The first was discussing some aspects of Bunin’s translation of Byron’s “Cain” into Russian and of Azbelev’s translations of stories by Kipling, two instalments of which were published under Bunin’s editorship in 1908. The second was Bunin’s reading of Azbelev’s book of lectures “Unity in the Organisation of the Universe” (1902). Certain images in Bunin’s poetry and prose can in all probability be attributed to its influence: the title of the sketch “Zodiacal Light” from Bunin’s book “The Temple of the Sun” (1917) coincides with a paragraph in one of Azbelev’s lectures; Bunin’s “starry” images may have been prompted by particular passages and illustrations in Azbelev’s book, while it reinforced Bunin’s artistic vision of the total unity of the world and his choice of Giordano Bruno as a poetical alter ego (in the poem “Giordano Bruno”), and so on. This account of Azbelev’s probable influence on Bunin’s artistic world is part of a more general discussion of the development of Bunin’s creative worldview and the peculiarities and logic of the influence on Bunin of the most varied personal meetings and impressions, including transitory ones.

Keywords: Ivan Bunin, Nikolai Azbelev, Poetry, Astronomy, Artistic World, Poetic Translation.