In 1808, German artist Philipp Otto Runge recorded a folk tale in Pomerania about a magical flounder. In a few years, the Brothers Grimm included it in their collection and thus made it popular – both in Germany and abroad.
For the German romantics, the main characters of the story were a fisherman and his greedy wife, who could not cope with her own desires, which were constantly growing It started with the renovation of a poor house and ended with the old woman wanting to become the Pope of Rome and even a god. For her unbridled greed, the fisherman’s wife was eventually punished by losing everything and ended up with her old house.
For twenty years, the Russian Alexander Pushkin undertook the translation of the German fairy tale. At that time, he was a favourite of Nicholas I. However, if desired, even in the selection of work for translation, one can see a not too respectful attitude towards the “patron”. What to say about the text. Because, let’s say, the mention of the Pope of Rome disappeared from it (in the drafts it was there), instead, the status of “mistress of the sea” became the highest level reached by the greedy old woman.
Again, in 1833, when Pushkin completed the translation, the Russian squadron was stationed in the Bosphorus. The king dictated the terms of the binding Unkyar-Iskelesian Treaty to the Ottoman Sultan. Who – allegedly of his own free will – agreed to be with the Russian ruler “on parcels”… This was an unheard-of expansion of Petersburg’s influence – in addition to the domination over Europe after the defeat of Napoleon.
However, in four years Pushkin was gone. Nicholas I also confirmed the status of the “gendarmerie of Europe” by suppressing the revolutionary “spring of nations”. It seemed to him that he had grabbed by the beard, if not a god, then his archangel. At the beginning of 1853 – as the victor – the Russian emperor demanded from the sultan… the keys to the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem. He got licked.
Details: https://espreso.tv/poglyad-printsip-velosipedista
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