Kulman, Elisabeth (1808–1825)

views updated

Kulman, Elisabeth (1808–1825)

Russian poet and translator. Name variations: Elisaveta Borisovna Kúl'man or Kúlman; Elizabeth Kulman; Elisabeth Kulmann. Born Elisaveta Borisovna Kúlman in July 5, 1808, in St. Petersburg, Russia; died of consumption, Nov 19, 1825, at 17, in St. Petersburg; dau. of a Russian officer and a German mother; tutored by Karl Friedrich von Grossheinrich.

Received tutoring despite family poverty and learned German, French, Italian, Latin, Church Slavonic, classical and modern Greek, English, Spanish, and Portuguese; translated Russian poems into these languages and 18th-Century Russian tragedies into German; rewrote Kievan folk epics in modern Russian and composed series of poems in spirit of lost Greek poet Corinna; praised by Goethe.