Karolina Karlovna Pavlova
Karolina Karlovna Pavlova, born on July 10, 1807, in Jarosław, Poland, was a notable poet and translator of the 19th century with a diverse cultural background, including German, French, and English heritage. Despite her family's initial wealth, they faced financial ruin during the War of 1812. Educated by her father, Pavlova showcased remarkable linguistic abilities from an early age, speaking four languages by the age of five. Her literary journey began with translating Russian poetry into German, and she later expanded her translations to French and English, earning admiration from contemporary poets for her faithful and poetic renditions.
Pavlova married the novelist Nikolai Filipovich Pavlov in 1837, and her literary salon became a vibrant center for intellectual exchange. While she produced her own poetry, which often explored the themes of an individual’s relationship with society, her most recognized works included the narrative poem "Razgovor v Trianone" and the novel "Dvoinaia zhizn'." Her life was marked by personal turmoil, including a troubled marriage and the loss of her father. In her later years, her poetry took on a more somber tone, reflecting her personal struggles and societal observations. Ultimately, Pavlova's legacy faded, and she passed away on December 2, 1893, in relative obscurity, leaving behind a complex literary and emotional history.
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Subject Terms
Karolina Karlovna Pavlova
Poet
- Born: July 10, 1807
- Birthplace: Jarosław, Poland
- Died: December 2, 1893
Biography
Karolina Karlovna Janish was born July 10, 1807, in Jarosław, Poland. Her father was German, mother French and English. Her family was wealthy and well educated, but the War of 1812 ruined them financially. She was educated by her father, demonstrating early on that she had multiple talents, and she spoke four languages by the age of five. Her first love was the famous Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, who was one of her tutors. He proposed to marry her but later reneged.
Her first literary endeavor was a translation of Russian poetry into German. Later, she also translated Russian poetry into French and English, and vice versa. Her translations were praised by the Russian poets, who admired her faithfulness to the original and the purely poetic rendition of the text she was translating into. She kept translating all her life. In 1837, she married a well- known novelist, Nikolai Filipovich Pavlov. Her literary salon was most popular.
Pavlova also wrote her own poetry that was praised by most critics. From the 1830’s to the late 1840’s and early 1850’s, her lyric poetry was extremely delicate, dealing often with the position of a poet in society and with the relationship between an individual (poet) and society (reader). She wrote poems with a story. The best example of this brand of poetry is the book Razgovor v Trianone (conversation at Trianon, 1848), which is a long “story in verse.” At this time, she also wrote the novel Dvoinaia zhizn’ (a double life, 1847) in both prose and verse, the prose passages representing everyday life and passages in verse the inner world of the heroine. She is forced into a loveless marriage to a frivolous man, while she is yearning for a more meaningful relationship. The novel, like all her works, excelled formalistically.
Pavlova’s own marriage broke down. Her husband had two children with Pavlova’s friend. Being a compulsive gambler, he was accused of secretly mortgaging her estate. The officials ordered him into exile. When Pavlova’s father died of cholera, she refused to go to the funeral for fear of infection; instead, she left for Estonia.
Her poetry from the 1850’s to the 1860’s was much more somber and pessimistic. She seems to have lost the creative impulse, the state best expressed in the poem Kadril (quadrille), where she questions again a woman’s unhappy fate in society. In Estonia, she had an affair with a law student twenty-five years her junior. But when he moved to St. Petersburg and she followed him only to be ignored, she left Russia and ceased to be a factor in Russian literature. She died on December 2, 1893, alone and forgotten.