Gamlet, prints Datskii. Tragediia [Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. A Tragedy.]

Moscow: Goslitizdat 1941. Softcover. 8" x 5". 172 pp. Cover border, frontis, title vignette, and head- and tailpieces engraved on wood by V. Favorskii. Original card wraps printed in two colors. General wear, chipping, and foxing to wraps, abrasions from previously removed tape at head and foot; toning to text, Russian ownership signature in a student's hand to one margin. A Good, complete copy of this rare survival. The first book edition (following the first publication the previous year in the journal Molodaya Gvardiia) of Pasternak's translation of Hamlet. His translations – particularly the Shakespearean tragedies – secured him contemporary renown, steady work, and a creative outlet while avoiding much of the intense ideological scrutiny that his original work attracted from Soviet authorities from the 1930s on. Famously, Pasternak exercised significant creative license with the text, in particular with his colloquial approach to dialogue – an aspect that perhaps contributed to the work's contemporary and enduring popularity. As the writer explained, "From a translation of words and metaphors, I turned to a translation of ideas and scenes" (quoted in Markov, "An Unnoticed Aspect of Pasternak's Translations." Slavic Review 20, no. 3 (1961): 503-08.). [Sendich 1941.5; Tarasenkov p.296]