 |
Motiejus MishkinisLithuanian teacher, literary critic, translator; elder brother of the poet, prose writer, translator Antanas Miskinis.
Date of Birth: 08.01.1898
Country:  Lithuania |
Content:
Biography of Motiejus Miškinis
Motiejus Miškinis was a Lithuanian educator, literary critic, and translator. He was the older brother of poet, prose writer, and translator Antanas Miškinis. Miškinis completed his secondary education at a gymnasium in Daugavpils in 1915. He then enrolled in Moscow University but did not complete his studies.
During the fight for Lithuania's independence, Miškinis volunteered and participated in the battles. He later worked in administrative and diplomatic roles, serving as a consul secretary and vice-consul in Hamburg. In 1927, he graduated from the University of Lithuania in Kaunas. Miškinis worked as a teacher and served in the Ministry of Education from 1930 to 1940.
During World War II, he taught Russian literature at Vilnius University from 1941 to 1943. After the war, Miškinis settled in his homeland. In his later years, he taught French language at a school in the village of Juknėnai and translated Russian classics. He was buried in the village of Vaišiškis in the Zarasai district.
Literary Contributions
During the interwar years, Miškinis edited the magazine "Šviesos keliai" and wrote as a literary critic and scholar. He published articles with philological erudition in the newspaper "Literatūros naujienos" (Literary News), as well as in other publications such as "Darbai ir dienos," "Šviesos keliai," and "Pjūvis." He wrote about the works of Balys Sruoga, Faustas Kirša, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, and Antanas Venuolis.
Miškinis released the book "Didžiųjų rašytojų siluetai" (Silhouettes of Great Writers) in 1936, which focused on F.R. Chateaubriand, Lord Byron, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Leo Tolstoy. He later published a textbook on Lithuanian literature called "Lietuvių literatūra" (Lithuanian Literature) in 1939.
As a translator, Miškinis translated Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" in 1938, marking a new level of development in Lithuanian artistic translation. His translation went on to have at least six editions. He also translated Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov" (1960, second edition of the Lithuanian translation - 1976), as well as works by other Russian classics such as Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Bunin, Leonid Andreyev, Maxim Gorky, and Leonid Leonov.
