A small independent publishing house, Prestige Beech, has released Furious Roland by Ludovico Ariosto. A huge Renaissance poem was translated by a resident of Rostov-on-Don, Alexander Triandafilidi, having spent about twenty years on this work, that is, about half of his life at the moment.
For almost 30 years Russian readers have known the complete translation of Furious Roland, made by the outstanding philologist Mikhail Gasparov as an experimental one – not in iambic, but in vers libre. And now a translation has been released in the size of the original, that is, in rhymed octaves (how much the Russian iambic pentameter is identical to the Italian eleven syllable). Colossal work and amazing design, used prints by Dore. But the circulation is only 200 copies. How a small publishing house remains afloat and launches ambitious projects – its editor-in-chief Artur Artenyan told “RG” about it.
Do small publishers have a special mission?
Artur Artenyan: Any publishing house should have some kind of mission, just like a person. People are born, each has its own mission. The first time we look, we perceive, our memory is clear, nothing has been written there yet. Only then do we begin to accumulate knowledge. So is the publisher. Large publishers publish many different beautiful books. They can be wrong – large systems are more stable. And the little ones? We have very little of everything – people, assortment, and so on. It is dangerous for us to be wrong. To say that small publishers are about money is ridiculous. But we have big ambitions. When the crisis began ten years ago, it became clear that nothing would come of it right away. After a while, you look around – you already have some kind of balance, some kind of baggage, and not bad. Our mission is to do what others cannot.
Do you think this is an expensive pleasure?
Artur Artenyan: Do you know what is the main value? At one time, I was happy to meet with Evgeny Vitkovsky. We became friends, he became our editor. Even more precisely, one of the brain centers. In each of our conversations, ideas surfaced – not everything, of course, was published, but the main thing is that ideas should be born. You have to be a hooligan, a madman for you to succeed. But it is difficult for one to cope with delusional ideas, so we met: two crazy, and we had our vision, our activity.
Are two hundred copies of Furious Roland a philanthropic story or an economic model?
Artur Artenyan: It is clear that you will not be rich with a circulation of 200, 300, 400 copies. But the question is different. The fact that interest in reading is declining now is not true. People read the same way, just read different things. Previously, many books were not available, but now they are available. The forbidden fruit is always sweet. The meaning of reading is to learn something, to learn something. And then there’s reading for fun. Just. Read and think. Ariosto is one of those books. Our translator, a student of my friend Vitkovsky, has been working on the novel for twenty years. I offered to big publishers – they refused. And we decided to publish. Why only 200 copies? Because we shouldn’t be wrong – suddenly it won’t work. But it’s nice to be so wrong. Virtually all the books were sold out in twenty days.
I had a bitter experience: I published the wonderful poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Tsvetaeva corresponded with him, Akhmatova idolized him – from a distance in three thousand copies. But … we are still selling. True, now, after ten years, interest has awakened, everyone began to buy.
The fact that interest in reading is declining now is not true.
The translation of Furious Roland by Triandafilidi – the mountain man – is both simple and beautiful to read. You see, we did not have a question with money. The main thing was not to lose. Do not burn out. If we go to zero – it’s already good. Of course, I would like to think that some big publishing house will appreciate: oh, such a monument of literature, more than six hundred illustrations by Dore, detailed comments. But it’s nice that our publishing house is doing a good deed.
Will there be more similar projects?
Artur Artenyan: A unique book will soon be released: “Villon and the poets of the Villon circle”. In Russia, Villonov is published more than in France. My friend and teacher Vitkovsky and I decided to take the poets of the Villon era, predecessors, followers. Our volunteers have found magnificent illustrations, Villon’s unknown work is being translated …
And besides Villon?
Artur Artenyan: We are preparing 10-12 thick volumes, so far conditionally called “Gallery of the Silver Age”. Several thousand poets.
Who do you think your reader is?
Artur Artenyan: Yes, the one who is curious about literature. When we presented Ariosto, I did not expect that there would be so many young people among the readers. Don’t underestimate the new generation. The more such readers, the more opportunities we have to publish good books. We give them – they give us.
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