WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2021) An online marathon celebrating the iconic Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's 222nd birthday will attract admirers of his work from around the world, Project Director Julian Henry Lowenfeld told Sputnik.
"The project is called Pushkin for the Whole World. It is like an online flash mob. People around the world are sharing their love for Pushkin with video links, which we are putting together," Lowenfeld, an American-Russian poet, playwright and translator, said.
The Pushkin online marathon will kick off on June 6 at 1:00 p.m. MSK (11:00 GMT).
The project will gather many celebrities - including opera singers, actors and writers - along with everyday people from different countries.
"People from Ireland, Britain, Canada, all over Europe, and of course we are getting emails and videos from all over Russia - from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad," Lowenfeld said.
A famous Russian clown and cat tamer Yuri Kuklachev will present his performance the "Learned Cat," referring to one of the characters of Pushkin's tales.
Speaking of his own country, Lowenfeld noted that people from many US states will pay tribute to the famous Russian poet.
"I will be reading my translations, I will be talking with people from all over the world about Pushkin and his significance, and what he means to them," he said.
Lowenfeld called Pushkin the most positive and democratic of the great Russian writers.
"I would say he is the most Western of all Russian writers, even though he was never out of Russia," Lowenfeld said. "He spoke perfect French, English, German, and he read European literature intensively. He was imbued with the ideas of the French enlightenment, and he believed in liberal values."
Pushkin's legacy is that his literature motivates people to improve their lives, to practice introspection and to steer clear of vices, the marathon organizer noted. He expressed confidence that even reading Pushkin's lyrics daily helps to improve the world.
"It is just like if you play a little bit of Bach per day - it is good for your soul. Same thing with Pushkin: if you read a little bit of Pushkin - it is good for your soul, good for the spirit," he said.
Lowenfeld expressed disagreement with those who think that Pushkin's lyrics are impossible to translate to other languages.
"I know that myth is wrong, because I have devoted my life to translating him and seen the results" he noted, citing famous Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva, who said Pushkin's poems are already a translation from what is beyond words to ordinary speech.
The popularity of Pushkin's lyrics in the US is growing, with more and more Americans coming to revere him, his translator said.
In the meantime, Lowenfeld called for Russia to do more to popularize one of its most famous figures. Germany, China, Italy, Spain and many other countries have international projects dedicated to their renowned figures, such as Goethe, Confucius, Dante and Cervantes, he noted.
"Yes, there is Rossotrudnichestvo, which is kindly assisting me in this project, but there has never been a concerted national effort to do for Pushkin what other countries do for their national writers," he said. "Britain has the Royal Shakespeare Company. There is no such thing as the Russian National Pushkin Company in Russia. There are no Russian equivalents to Germany's Goethe Haus, Spain's Instituto Cervantes, China's Confucius Institute, Italy's Casa Dante, and so on."
Lowenfeld lamented that Russia does not even fund the publishing of bilingual editions of Pushkin and other great Russian poets for its diaspora,
"I have been working a lot with the Russian diaspora, and it breaks my heart to see grandparents and their grandchildren when they are basically unable to communicate with each other because the older generation has not really learned English yet, and the younger generation has not really learned Russian," he said.
Young people can speak a few words on a basic level, but cannot read Pushkin, Lowenfeld noted, adding that similar situations exist in Europe as well.
"That is why I like these bilingual books that we are publishing - Pushkin's tales, Eugene Onegin, his lyric poems, his prose. They bring not just countries together, but they bring families and generations together," he said. "That is what our project is about."
In addition to Pushkin, Lowenfeld has translated into English the verses of Mikhail Lermontov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Alexander Blok, Osip Mandelshtam, and other Russian poets.
