French Translations and Lifetime Publications of Nikolai Goumilev: А Dialogue with the French reader. Part One

This article examines in detail the circumstances of the creation of all Gumilev’s French texts known today. The research focuses on Russian-French literary relations at the beginning of the 20th century, the chronological order of Gumilev’s Russian poems and their French versions, the textual features and particularities of the translations attributed to Gumilev and the history of their publication. Particular attention is paid to Gumilev’s desire to enter the circle of French writers, thanks to his acquaintance with René Ghil, and then to determine the perception of his work in France through his acquaintance, correspondence and subsequent cooperation with Jean Chuzeville. The article presents an analysis of the selection principle of poems, both those translated for the “Anthology” and those featured in Gumilev’s notebooks, as well as the approach to the translation of poems in verse or prose. In conclusion, possible explanations of why Nikolai Gumilev combined his (alleged) self-translations in a notebook just before his return from France to Russia are given.