The history of Russian translation of Burns’s work began less than 5 years after his death in 1796. The national pride he demonstrated in using the Scots language and folklore and references to Scottish history served as encouragement to the feelings of nationalism coming to life in Russia. It is this pride in his national heritage that seems to have caught the attention of one of his first translators, Ivan Kozlov.
The best known and highly acclaimed of translators of Burns’s work, however, is Samuel Marshak. He was a writer of children’s literature and poetry and translated Shakespeare, Kipling and Blake into Russian. But it was Robert Burns who fascinated him to the extent that he spent half of his life translating his work. Marshak’s translations are highly readable, rhythmical and expressive but he apparently omits entire verses of the original poems or simplifies the meaning.
This copy of Marshak’s translations is one of several in the Burns Collection.