Russian literary-critical reception of Burns at turning of the XIX–XX centuries

La recepción rusa literaria-crítica de Burns a la vuelta de los siglos XIX-XX

The history of literary criticism of the legacy of Robert Burns in Russia is unexplored. Reflecting on this scientific problem, we can call the first part of the bibliographic index of «English Literature in Russian Criticism», the factual foundation, which, among other diverse data, contains background information on Burns in Russia, which is far from being complete, but, undoubtedly, is necessary and important for a researcher (Girivenko and Nedachin, 1994). The accessible to researchers materials, primarily associated with the translational reception, have been interpreted by them either in the fragmentation or in the process of accumulating factual data, or with certain ideological requirements, which are not entirely justified from the positions of today. Given, that the latest publications on this matter appeared three decades ago, in the era of Marshak’s monopolization of «rights» for the Russian Burns, there was an urgent need to prepare new studies, systematically comprehending both the numerous materials that have become available in recent years and the new translations of the post-Soviet period. In this regard, it is natural that the series of prepared by us articles, considering the Russian translations of Robert Burns – from the beginning (1800) to our days has emerged.

Among the publications of the last few years, devoted to the perception of the legacy of the Scottish poet in Russia, studies of the significant role of Burns in the poetic self-determination of Nekrasov in the mid-1850s, Marshak case is considered in the aspect of Burns' perception in Russia as a source of infinite semosis, Kofanov (2010), who made interesting parallels between Esenin’s Song of Bread» and «John Barleycorn ballad. Some interesting materials are being published in the continuation of the series of works Art translation and comparative literary criticism, issued under our edition. In particular, the cycle of essays by the well-known translator Feldman (2015) Burns, Marshak and others» was published there, revealing the features of reading of difficult places in Burns’ texts, a dialogue and polemics with the great predecessor Marshak. Here were also published the articles of Tikhomirova (2014) «Pseudo translations of Viatkin from Robert Burns» (devoted to several publications in the Siberian press of the early XX century, disguised as translations from Burns with the aim of overcoming censorship obstacles) Tikhomirova (2014), of Dika (2017) How Robert Burns first spoke in Ukrainian (about the translator Vasil Kulik, who published John Barleycorn in the newspaper Pravda in Lviv in 1874).

Burns studies in Scotland can be compared with Pushkin studies in Russia, which is not surprising, since it was Burns who became a symbol of the Scottish poet, the keeper of national traditions, customs, and dialect language elements for the whole world. The Robert Burns World Federation, publishing a yearbook «Burns Chronicle» in Kilmarnock for almost a century and a half, recently became interested in the perception of Burns in the former USSR countries. Thus, «Burns Chronicle 2017» published our article «At the Source of the Russian Reception of the Poetry of Robert Burns», which comprehends the early stage of the appeal to the works of the Scottish author in Russia – 1800–1830-ies. In the «Indian Journal of Science and Technology» there were published our articles, devoted to the problems of reading Burns in Soviet Russia, and the activities of the brightest Russian translators of Burns (Feldman, 2015). In this article, we turn to the stage of the Russian literary and critical reception of Robert Burns – the turn of XIX – XX, when the centenary of the Scottish poet’s death (1896) and the publication of his works in Russian (1897, 1901, 1904) stipulated a considerable interest in his legacy.

The material for analysis was a literary criticism of Burns’s work and their Russian translations. Selected material has a chronological restriction – the boundary of the XIX – XX century. The facts of the previous and subsequent time are exclusively used for comparative purposes. The study is theoretically and methodologically based on the work of the following classics of Russian literary criticism as Bakhtin (1908) and also on the issues of the Russian-English literary, historical and cultural interaction. When first preparing the article, we collected the material on the topic, having thoroughly examined the Russian periodicals, which were published on the centenary of Burns’ death and during the publication of the first Russian collection of the Scottish poet; all publications devoted to a particular jubilee were systematized into three large groups – critical responses of Russian translators, literary works, translated news items (chronicles); the critic’s responses to the poet’s book, compiled by Belousov (1897), were considered separately. After that, the materials of the Russian periodicals were written in the context of the era, in particular, we took into account the responses to Burns’s work in Russian journalism of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the specific character of the literary interpretation of the poet’s legacy in the works of the leading scientists of the time, in particular, V.M. Friche, G. Gettner.

For the centenary of the death of the Scottish poet, «Russian Wealth», «Monthly Literary Supplement to Niva», «Russian Thought», «The World of God», «The Historical Herald», «The Books of the Week» responded. The materials appeared in these publications were diverse: biographical essays of the translators of the time like popular articles, sponsored by well-known scholars of literature, and small notes on the celebrations of Burns’ days in Scotland. Translators about Burns. When speaking about the emerging decline of English (and especially Scottish) literature at the late XVIII century, Weinberg in the essay «Robert Burns», published in Nos. 9 and 10 of the magazine «Russian Wealth» dated 1896, described Burns as «a very large, truly poetic force», which appeared «thanks to the affirmation in the people of the sense of freedom and nationality, bought by a long-term and bloody struggle» (Weinberg and Weinberg, 1903). Already in the early works of Burns, that «do not rise above the level of mediocrity» in their form and content, Weinberg noted «a pure, spontaneous folk element and a real experience», which allowed simple Bernese songs to become «a precious contribution to the English and, perhaps, all European poetry» (Weinberg and Weinberg, 1903). Considering the Scottish poet not only a creator, but also a thinker, Weinberg correlated Burns and Koltsov «with his Grűblerei over many abstract philosophical questions». He, however, evaluated the Scottish author, with «his deep mind, amazing scent, and skill of somehow instinctively penetrating the very heart of the things, which can only be perceived by the people who got a serious scientific education», much higher than the Russian poet, «a naive, simple-minded, wandering to the touch». Later, in the book «The General History of Poetry in the Principal Moments and Representatives of Its Development» (1903), co-authored by Weinberg and Weinberg (1903), the success of Burns, «a brilliant poet of Scotland», was explained by the growing need «in the real, spontaneous poetry», and his songs, after T. Carlyle, were compared «with the songs of a field lark, rising from a low furrow into the blue sky high above our heads and singing there for us so sincerely».

A small essay by Chumina (1896) Robert Burns Ϯ July 21, 1796, published in No.7 of the Monthly Literary Supplement to Niva, 1896, was mainly devoted to retelling the biography of the Scottish poet, without having any characteristics of his «rare, original talent». Seeing in the works of Burns a deep knowledge of the human heart, brilliant imagination, «the peculiar spirit of his native country», Chumina (1896) called them «a living monument, not only to the poet himself, but also to the fading genius of an ancient, once independent nation». Unlike Weinberg, the translational achievements of who by the end of the XIX were mostly left in the past, Chumina (1896) was having a creative upsurge. She translated at least 22 works of Burns –«Vision» (I stood by the tower, by the old ruins),Death, Satisfaction with Destiny, Prayer, Autumn Fog (It was the first breath of winter), The Sun and the Moon (Folk Song), In a foreign land, Favorites, To Beauty, Thunderstorm, Song (I’m married and not for the light), Unequal, Lord Gregory, «Jenny (Ballad) (Comin’ Thro’ the Rye), «The Joyful Widower», «Matchmaking», «Bruce’s Appeal to the Squad», «Tam O'Shanter», «Tam Glen», «Prediction», «Rendezvous» («O Whistle, and I’ll come to ye my lad…»), «Desired tranquility». Some of translations of Chumina (1896) (this is her maiden name) were printed under the surname of her husband – O.N. Mikhailova. The output of the author’s book by Chumina (1896) Poems (1892– 1897), including, among other things, a selection of translations from Burns, became the basis for nominating her for the Pushkin Prize 1899. The reviewer of the book, Batyushkov, in his analysis dwelled in detail on the Burns translations, in which he did not see «characteristic properties of a folk singer poetry <...>, a style reformer, a commoner poet, possessing the spontaneous talent, the bold familiarity, the passionate tone, sometimes very sharply transiting from a serious, deep sense to a joke, to a humorous or caustic-accusatory remark, as if inserted in brackets» (Batyushkov and Chumina, 1903); as a result, the reviewer approached the idea that the book by Chumina (1896) did not deserve the Pushkin Prize, and suggested to confine to an honorable response.

Literary scholars about Burns. In his arguments about Burns, that saw the light in the pages of «Russian thought», the famous researcher of English literature Ivanov (1896) proceeded from the message that «reality carries more poetry and truth in it, than the finest patterns of skilful poets» and that «the poetry is achieved by marvelously prosaic, uncomplicated means, by the most ordinary truth» (Ivanov, 1896). Perceiving the works of Burns through the prism of his biography, Ivanov (1896) was trying to explain his works by a concrete life situation, whether it was an endless infatuation with women, farming, meetings in Edinburgh salons, etc. The extraordinary sensitivity of Burns to heart impressions», expressed in numerous love interests, the researcher considered as one of the manifestations of «his infinitely humane and loving nature. In The Cotter’s Saturday Night Ivanov (1896) saw the amazing ability of the poet, through unpretentious narrative, to make the characters close, native to readers, to evoke a sincere feeling of complicity and empathy in them: The poet was able to brighten up the barely lit hut and rough peasant faces, burned by the sun and beaten by the wind, with sincere poetry and majestic simplicity (Ivanov, 1896: 10). It was his endless searches, the throws between mistakes and repentance, passion and self-abasement, unspeakable mental torments and the exertion of strength that, in the opinion of Ivanov (1896), revealed the poet to be the most sincere of sinners and the noblest of men. Terner (1896) in the article «Robert Burns», published in the magazine The World of God, conducted a traditional for mid-XIX parallel between Burns and Alexander Koltsov, a poet, gifted with equally noble aspirations, condemned to a petty life, unusual to his nature, who, as it seemed, had a great moral energy; both poets, having found themselves in the most unattractive environment, continued to feed the ideals of love and friendship in their hearts, continued to worship the beauties of nature and reflect on the destiny of man, the mystery of life and death. At the same time, the researcher first drew attention to the quatrain «Had we never loved so kindly» from the poem «Ae fond Kiss, and then we sever», known under two titles – One tender kiss and «A Farewell to Clarinda», which interested M. Yu. Lermontov; he made his own word for word translation («Had we never loved so tender, Had we never loved so blind, had we never met or parted, Our hearts would not be torn by grief»), having quoted a translation of Lermontov (If we were not children, / If we did not blindly love / Did not meet, did not say goodbye, / We would not have been suffering) and noted that Lermontov «introduced a new idea in the first line of translation, better to say, transposition If we were not children that little corresponded to the original». Terner (1896) also called the source, due to which the Burns quatrain became known to Lermontov – the poem of Byron «The Bride of Abydos», in which it was used as an epigraph (Bakhtin, 1908). A little later, in 1908, Bakhtin (1908) published a separate «historical and literary note» «Lermontov and Robert Burns», in which, without adding anything fundamentally new, he said: «So far, as I know, it was not indicated, that these lines <«If we were not children…» by Lermontov> represent the translation of one quatrain from the poem by Robert Burns» (Bakhtin, 1908); since then, in all Lermontov publications, references are given to Bakhtin (1908) as the pioneer of the topic. The explanation of the inaccuracy admitted by Lermontov is very simple: the young poet (the first edition of the translation. Refers to 1830, the final (IRLI, f.1, No. 4, L.222) – to 1832) confused the English kindly (gently) with the German Kind (child).

Terner (1896) identified several characteristics of Burns poetics. First, it is the completeness of his statement, the ability to outline a clear, well-defined image through a few details, often one or two epithets. Secondly, the flexibility of the language, the ability to convey through the word all the variety of meanings, subtexts: «… how can you convey the picturesque phrase bickering brattle in another language, when describing the small field mouse, the nest of who was lost by a plow and who flew in terror? These words do not just represent the haste of a frightened mouse, but a crunch under the feet of an animal, running along a compressed field, as well» (Terner, 1896). Thirdly, the truthfulness, the sincerity in describing the daily suffering and joys, the truthfulness in portraying feelings, the ability not only to sing the beauty, but also to expose tyranny and untruth, and to glorify «with a bold sincerity <…> the healthy fun and good fellowship» (Terner, 1896). Fourthly, the simplicity and passion of the tone of works, free from being banal, vulgar, low-lying, and filled with musicality: «… it’s not just a tweet, painted with rhetorical figures. They are distinguished by a kind of melody, they do not have to be translated into music, and they themselves include music» (Terner, 1896). Notes on the celebration of Burns’ days in Scotland, published in the August issues of the «Books of the Week» and the «Historical Herald», based on festive events (the celebration in Dumfries, the exhibition in Glasgow, the installation of the statue of the poet in Nivernsea) as an informational occasion, focused on a general assessment of creative merits of Burns, his place in the history of national literature. So, in the note of «Books of the Week» Burns was described as a «truly national poet», a lyricist and a satirist, whose creative reputation only grows with the years, «as education spreads»: «Hundreds of Scottish workers know his poems by heart. They have been translated into almost all European languages». The distinctive features of Burns, according to the author of the note, were his ability to «pave the way with the force of his own mind and talent», his interest in political processes, being «the child of the revolutionary age, <…> the radical by feelings and beliefs» Werkmeister (1966), who insisted on the reforms in Scotland. Being alien to atheism, having respectful and friendly relations with the Scottish liberal clergy, Burns at the same time rose up «against the narrow and oppressive policies of the dominant church».

«The Historical Herald» estimated Burns as the creator of works of both national and world significance: «…bringing the poetry of folk songs to the apogee of perfection, he not only gave new juices to the Scottish and English muse, but caused a rich flowering of folk poetry in the world literature» (Fielding, 1896). When appreciating Burns’ fame in English-speaking countries, the author of «The Historical Herald» noted that his fame was «almost higher than the divine William’s glory», and «not only the Scots, but also the English, exalt Burns to the skies» (Fielding, 1896). This, in his opinion, «strange» phenomenon, was interpreted by the author of the note in a very unusual manner, based on political circumstances: «... a modest poet-settler, who never knew the cosmic sadness, <...> is not dangerous to the upper classes, he never branded them with the red-hot iron in the struggle for truth and freedom, that’s why they recognize his dignity, making much of him» Fielding (1896); as a reverse example, Byron, «the world-famous genius», quoted in the note, was completely unacceptable to the authorities. Significant events in the history of the Russian perception of Burns at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries were the first collections of translations of the Scottish poet. The preparation of Burns publications is connected with the name of Belousov (1897), who not only collected 39 translations of different years, but also wrote an introduction to them, moreover, he himself allegedly translated «<An Excerpt>» (My life is hard) from Burns which, incidentally, turned out to be an original poem, described by Orlov (1939) as «having nothing to do with Burns. Following the book «Robert Burns. Poems in the Translation of Russian Poets, with a Biographical Sketch and a Portrait», prepared by Belousov (1897), there were, one by one, published the following books: Robert Burns. A Biographical Sketch of a Scottish Folk Poet, with Application of his Best Songs» (Andruson, 1901), «Robert Burns and his Works in the Translation of Russian Writers». The Suvorin edition of Burns in 1904 was due to the petition of (Chekhov, 1982). On May 2, 1903, the writer and E.P. Goslavsky visited A. Chehov and appealed to him with a request to ask S.A. Suvorin to publish their works. Apparently, Chekhov (1982) promised assistance, since already on May 3, 1897 Belousov sent him a book of translations from Burns, published in 1897: «I send you a book of poems by R. Burns; it can be offered for publication by Suvorin. If he takes it, I will add something else to the second edition and rewrite the biography». It should be noted that by that time this book was already in the library of Chekhov (1982) with an inscription of Belousov (1897): «To dear Anton Pavlovich from the collector of songs of Burns Ivan Belousov for memory. Moscow. 1897. January, 23» The meeting with the publisher Suvorin soon took place, and Goslavsky were informed on its results on May 11, 1903. Informing Goslavsky on the Suvorin’s refusal to publish his stories, Chekhov (1982) specified that the publisher took the poems of Robert Burns to the Cheap Library. Chekhov (1982) described this in more detail to Belousov (1897): «... I saw Suvorin and talked to him about Robert Burns. He agrees to publish (Cheap Library), he only asks you to write a biography of Burns in more detail and, if you find it necessary, make notes». In his reply Belousov (1897) thanked Chekhov (1982) for helping to arrange a new edition of Burns, promising to improve it, compared to the previous one: “In the second edition I will make big additions, I will rewrite the biography” (Malakhova, 1982: 18). Belousov (1897) informed Chekhov (1982) on the further promotion of the publishing project, in particular, he reported in a letter of March 11, 1904 on receiving a fee: «I received 100 rubles from Suvorin for R. Burns». The published book was sent to Chekhov (1982) with a dedication: «To dear Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1982) from sincerely loving (Belousov, 1897). 19/IV.1904». In the following decades, the assemblages, compiled by Belousov (1897), were taken as a basis for the preparation of the early Soviet editions of Burns.

Several reviews of individual editions of Burns’s works in Russian, published at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries, were kept on the pages of Russian periodicals. The first book, printed in 1897, was responded by the magazine «The North», the anonymous reviewer of which, discussing the «popular» poetry of a simple Burnsian villager, noted that the latter, thanks to simple songs, ballads and cantatas, created «an entire era of English literature», which was «wafted with a healing whiff, <...> with the air of the Scottish mountains and forests, the width of the fields» (Klyukin, 1987). An anonymous reviewer of «The Bulletin of Education», speaking about the Suvorin edition of Burns, explained the faint popularity of the Scottish poet in Russia, in his opinion, by the lack of worthy reproductions of his texts in Russian. The reviewer of the «Family», on the contrary, pointed out that individual readings of the past, carried out by Kurochkin («The Song of the Pauper»), («The Jolly Beggars»), Mikhailov («To a Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough», «To a Mountain Daisy, On Turning One Down With The Plough», «John Barleycorn», «The Ploughman’s Life»), gained wide popularity among Russian readers, prompted them to «take the opportunity to get more briefly acquainted with their cute author».

In No.1 of the journal «Education», dated 1905, the Suvorin edition was described as fully depicting both the poet’s «proud, freedom-loving soul, and his love for vigorous, sober work, his hatred of violence, and cheerful, mild humor». At the same time, the set of translations, included in the book, received a very critical assessment of the reviewer of «Education»: «Translations are here and there very good; in general, they are quite satisfactory; you can come across <...> the places that are transmitted languidly, stretched and incongruous with the spirit of the original». According to the reviewer of «The Russian Thought», Burns belongs «to a small circle of world poets with God’s mercy, whose soul is an inexhaustible source of deep and true poetry, of poetry that is truthful, sincere, soulful, subtle, artistic and universal in its content». The author of the review in «The Historical Herald», who signed, talked about the «self-taught» peasant poets, singling out Burns, Petőfi, and Shevchenko: «the peasant writers represent something outstanding in only a few cases, and very rarely their names are worthy of being included in the history of literature; of course, they are all interesting for the history of culture. It is necessary to recognize Robert Burns as one of such writers, who is, unfortunately, too little popular with us.

Literary and artistic understanding of the creative work of R. Burns at the turn of XIX – XX centuries is connected both with the activities of leading Russian scientists Storozhenko (1908), and with the emergence of translation studies by Thomas (1910) in Russian. In his «Essay on the History of Western European Literature», Storozhenko (1908) called Burns as «perhaps the most authentic of all poets», who is most indebted to his genius and least to culture and his predecessors. Possessing the features of a true poet – a flair for everything poetic in nature and life and a humane, loving heart – Burns, in the opinion of Storozhenko (1908), concentrated on the creative expression of pantheistic enthusiasm and love for mankind: His poetic heart was with mysterious threads connected with everything, in what the flutter of world life was felt. Among the best works of Burns, the researcher distinguished several poems, describing the sombre nature of Scotland and the mores of its inhabitants with humor and truthfulness, in particular, the poem Tam o’Shanter with the exact reproduction of Scottish superstitions, The Cotter’s Saturday Night, idyllically depicting the daily life of a well-to-do farmer, The Jolly Beggars – an everyday picture in the spirit of Tenier from the life of the scum of human society.

The legacy of Burns was similarly interpreted in «Essays on the History of Western European Literature» by V.M. Friche. Claiming that Burns «lived one life with nature», the researcher backed his judgment with a lyrical meditation about the nature of the Scottish poet: «He could not hear without excitement the loud whistle of a lapwing in the summer afternoon or the wild chirping of a flock of thrushes in the autumn morning. His heart was bleeding at the sight of a field daisy, cut off by his plow, and a field mouse, running away from a shattered mink» (Fritche, 1908). V.M. Friche showed Burns as a writer of the daily life of Scottish farmers with all their labors, worries, family joys, ancient superstitions. Of particular importance for the researcher was Burns’ attention to the figure of a rural ragamuffin, a «former man» who, unlike similar figures in the poems of J.Crabb, turned out to be quite attractive, especially in «The Jolly Beggars», where «a company of feasting tramps was vividly depicted, who were thrown out by the economic conditions of the village, enlarging the army of unemployed vagabonds and thieves» (Fritche, 1908).

According to Hettner (1897), whose «The History of the Universal Literature of the 18th Century» was published in Russia in the translation of A.N. Pypin, «English poetry became younger and gained new strength from the heart of the people thanks to Burns». The appearance of Burns, still a boy composing songs in the folk dialect, which happened exactly in Scotland, seemed to be natural to Hettner (1897), as the world of Old-Scots folk poetry continued to influence the public consciousness: «Scotland has kept freshness and creativity in their folk songs at a time when almost everywhere folk poetry has already broken down and died out». However, the researcher did not attach special importance to external circumstances, but to the very figure of Burns, the strength of his personality, bold originality, and inner beauty. Hettner (1897) did not consider to justify the attempts to characterize Burns exclusively as a nature singer, noting the lack of mannerisms and clumsiness of «natural poets» in him, he spoke instead of his simple-mindedness, the courage to remain himself, relying not on fashion trends but on his own experience and feelings, a picture of the world of a simple villager, shepherd, farmer, not striving for something high, who knows how to find the attractive in everyday life. His poems «were born from a deep sorrow and a wild joy of his own soul, of an irresistible compulsion of creative power». Noting a certain monotony of the subjects in the poetry of Burns (love, Highland nature, freedom, comprehended in the patriarchal sense), Hettner (1897) also saw a «bright and attentive look of a fresh son of the village» in Burns, peering into the very depths of things and after drawing images strikingly clear, not to say picturesque, truly Homeric. Coming out of the folklore elements, Burns’ songs returned back, becoming folk songs, a backbone for the subsequent creation of the English Romantics.

The brief characteristic of Burns in the «History of English Literature» by Thomas (1910), published in Russian in 1910, was reduced to his estimate of Burns as «the indisputable head of Scottish poetry», being simultaneously «one of the greatest poets of the world», who showed the strength of love, passion and deep understanding of the beauty of nature in his lyrical creativity.

The responses of the Russian journalism on the work of Burns at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries, for all their scarcity, are an important supplement to the Russian literary critical reception of the work of the great Scottish poet. The essay My Trip to Scotland. Memoirs and Notes by Rapoport (1902) tells of one of the best songs of «the main national bard of Scotland»: «His song Auld Lang Syne, in which the lover recalls with a touching simplicity the former happy days, became an ordinary drinking and farewell song, sung at various solemn gatherings not only in Scotland, but also in England <…>. When singing Auld Lang Syne at the end of the farewell dinner, the people usually stand up and hold each other by the crossed hands (the right hand by the neighbor’s right hand to the left, and the left hand to the neighbor’s left hand to the right), intertwining into one chain». When arguing about Tan-Bogoraz's (1904) story Overseas, dedicated to Russian immigrants, fled to America, their way of life and moods, the anonymous reviewer of «Russian Thought» draws attention to the episode, where the hero remembers the Bernese lines about the heart, given to native Scotland: «Only very few of them were spiritually acclimatized in America; most responds to emigrant Kosevich with sympathetic awe, when he recites Burns’s verses in a trembling voice: “My heart is in my native mountains, my heart is not here, my heart is hunting a deer in my native mountains ... It hunts a deer, chases a doe; wherever I go, my heart is in my native mountains!” Karintsev (1915) in their native mountains, or rather in their native steppes left the hearts of those, who were «in a damp, persecuted, half-starved life, full of undeserved grievances», roaming around these steppes and, finally, «was thrown abroad as an unnecessary rag». The book «Images of the Past. Essays and Stories about the Great People of the Past Centuries for the Youth» by Karintsev (1915) highlighted the consonance of creativity of Burns, full of «fire, brilliance, inspiration, joy, melancholy, touching pathos and light humor», with the thoughts of millions of people, with «every human feeling». Calling Burns «the true singer of nature», the publicist noted in his «immortal and unsurpassed» works «the smell of fragrant heather, <...> the sound of wind in the tops of the pines, its barely audible whisper in the young grove, the bright purple of the setting sun, the night mist, every sound, every vision», awakening love and inspiration of the readers. Chanting the life of the peasant, Burns, according to Karintsev (1915), «penetrated into his soul»: «… he shared with him his grief and joy, his needs and fun, his work and rest. The peasant himself, – he managed to find the words that echoed in the peasant soul».

As we can see, interest in the creative work of Burns in Russia, originally conditioned by the 100th anniversary of his death, was not limited to the jubilee year 1896. The appearance of the first editions of the great Scottish poet in Russian, connected with the selfless activity of Belousov (1897), caused numerous responses in the press, which, against the background of certain shortcomings, noted the importance of familiarizing Russian readers with the heritage of one of the most important Western European writers of the late 18th century. At the turn of the XIX – XX c., Burns’ legacy was also comprehended in new literary works published in Russia – both original ones that marked Burns’ pantheistic enthusiasm, his love for mankind Storozhenko (1908), and translations, in particular, in the study of Hettner (1897), who saw Burns not as a nature singer, but as a «son of the village», relied on his own feelings and experiences, which helped transform the nondescript daily life. A few journalist responses to the work of the Scottish poet, published in the Russian press, testified to the formation of a stereotyped view of Burns as a poet, who sang of his native Scotland and traditional values of peasant life.

The article is made within the project # 17-18-01006 «The Evolution of the Russian Poetic Translation (the XIXth – the beginning of the XXth centuries)» of the Russian Scientific Fund.