Lev Penkovskii

Pen’kovskii, Lev Minaevich 

Born Jan. 31 (Feb. 12), 1894, in Kremenchug; died July 26, 1971, in Moscow. Soviet Russian poet and translator.

Pen’kovskii did much to acquaint Russian readers with the folk epics and classics of Middle Asia. He was the first to translate such folk epics as the Kirghiz Manas, the Uzbek Alpamysh, and the Kazakh Kyz-Zhibek. He translated the works of Soviet poets from Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and other republics. His translations of the poetry of Heine, Goethe, P. J. de Bé-ranger, Hugo, and Leconte de Lisle are well known. Pen’kov-skii’s translations are marked by sensitivity to the nuances of poetry.

WORKS

Izbr. stikhotvornye perevody. [Foreword by P. Antokol’skii.] Moscow, 1959.

REFERENCES

Shaginian, M. “Farkhad i Shirin.” [Review.] Krasnaia nov’, 1940, nos. 9–10.
Fradkin, I. “Iskusstvo perevoda.” Voprosy literatury, 1961, no. 5.
Lipkin, S. “Zhivaia dusha podlinnika.” Druzhba narodov, 1957, no. 6.