“The Song of the Holy Dream” and Its Bilingual Manuscript from the Book Collection of Archimandrite Peter (Kamensky)

The article examines a previously unknown manuscript “The Song of the Holy Dream” from the collection of the Academic Library of St. Petersburg State University. It belonged to the head of the Tenth Orthodox Mission in Beijing (1821–1830), Archimandrite Peter (P. I. Kamensky, 1765–1845). The manuscript contains parallel Chinese and Russian texts of the Catholic work “The Vision of St. Bernard” by Bernard of Clairvaux (10 0–1153). It was revealed that the author of the Chinese translation of the ‘Song’ was a Catholic missionary in China, Giulio Aleni (1582–1649). The author of the Russian translation was the Chinese man Peter Zhou Bourgeois, who was a student of Orthodox missionaries in Beijing. The meaning of the ‘Song’ in European Catholic literature and the place of this composition in the missionary activity of the Jesuits in China are explained. It is suggested that the ‘Song’ could serve as a model of didactic Jesuit literature, the purpose of which was to convey to the Chinese inhabitants the moral pillars of Christianity. Previously unknown information about Peter Bourgeois and his Russian translation is introduced. The text of the translation is analyzed and its features are identified. In a comparative analysis of the Chinese original text, the translation by Peter Bourgeois and the translation made by the author of the article, it was concluded that Peter Bourgeois made a word-by-word translation. This translation is mostly accurate, but there are often stylistic and spelling errors, unusual word combinations and specific phrases, which together reveal the translator to be a foreigner who does not speak Russian with sufficient confidence. It turns out that the purpose of the translation was merely exercises for the purpose of Russian language study by Peter Zhou Bourgeois.