• «Portuguese Homer» Luís de Camões
• Poem «The Lusiads»
• Mikhail Travchetov – the Translator of «The Lusiads»
• Manuscript of Travchetov's Translation
• Reference Literarure

Manuscript of Travchetov's Translation in the Manuscripts Department of the NLR

The main obstacle to the publication of «The Lusiadas» were considerations of ideology. In Soviet Russia, Camões was called "an apologist of capitalist expansion", "a companion of trade capitalist bourgeoisie...". In such a situation, it was not easy to decide on publication of "a lullaby to arising imperialism" - the poem of Camões, which "emphasizes the imperial pretensions of Portugal".

Attempts to publish «The Lusiadas» were made by the translator's sister Sofia Dubrovskaya (1897 - 1991) for 20 years. She appealed to various publishers, including the USSR Academy of Sciences and Foreign Literature. Travchetov's sister wrote to the famous writer Ilya Ehrenburg and the noted poet Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky, to the editorial board of the popular Literary Monuments Publishers. She managed to enlist the support of respected academicians M.P. Alekseev and N.I. Konrad, but all was in vain. In 1962, Sofia Dubrovskaya donated Travchetov's manuscript of to the State Public Library (a former name of our library).

In 1968, Sofia Dubrovskaya addressed to the editorial office of the World Literature Library. The answer informed that Camões' works would be represented in the anthology «European Renaissance Poets» included in the long-term plan of the publisher. All correspondence about the publication of «The Lusiads» and agreements with the publishers are currently stored in the archive of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House).

Over subsequent years, the sister of M. Travchetov gave a number of materials on the history of their family to in the NLR's Manuscripts Department. Currently, the Travchetov collection (F. 1293) contains 30 items.

The translation of «The Lusiads» was restored by Sofia Dubrovskaya together with M. Gordon. Excerpts from «The Lusiads» were published in A Reading Book on Foreign Literature: Renaissance / Compiled by B.I. Purishev. Moscow, 1959. Vol. I. Pp. 326-336.

Today, the translation is kept in the Travchetov collection of the Manuscripts Department in four items.

Item number 2 consists of two squared exercise books which total to 111 sheets. They are inscribed in Travchetov's neat small handwriting and contain many traces of corrections.

Item number 3 contains Travchetov's comments to «The Lusiads». Three folded sheets are autographs of M. Travchetov, a notebook of 38 pages is inscribed with comments by S. Dubrovskaya.

Item number 4 is a volume consisting of 285 typed pages in a green cloth cover. This is a typewritten fair copy of the poem «The Lusiads», prepared by S. Dubrovskaya in 1961. It contains almost no corrections and furnishes with a preface by S. Dubrovskaya, with a brief history of Travchetov's translation.

Item number 29 is a volume of 349 typewritten pages in a green cloth cover. This copy is made by S. Dubrovskaya in 1961 using M. Travchetov's rough copy edited by Professor A. Smirnov. Numerous notes are written in ballpoint pen by S. Dubrovskaya.