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[NABOKOV-L] TRLSK "Celadon",
Rohmer's movie and acontinuation on velvety pink V
Rohmer's movie and acontinuation on velvety pink V
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Re: [NABOKV-L] [NABOKOV-L] TRLSK "Celadon", Rohmer's movie and a continuation on velvety pink VS.K-B observed on the translation of TRLSK that "since "encantadora" lacks the vowels and consonants found in "dove," "lilies," and "velvet" it seems to me that Silveira's "literal" translation kills Nabokov's intentions stone-cold!.
JM: I understand that Stan is arguing in favor of keeping the English "lovely" to maintain the "v" imagery, but even so the Pushkin/Dryden internal assonance is lost. Quite informally, V.N's translator Jorio Dauster chose to retain its counterpoint over loyalty to adjectives and substantives. Surprisingly, a suppressed word substituted velvet without spoiling the overall el-lip-sis.
Here is his suggestion, in harmony with SK's context: "Nossa vida em comum teve a leveza da lavanda - e quando penso em lavanda me vêm à mente lábios e varandas, e vulva, com o doce "v" cor de rosa no meio e o jeito com que tua língua se encurvava no longo e líquido "l".
He relied in the context to substitute "lovely" for "lavender", and "dove and lilies" for echoing "lábios" (lips) and "varanda". For "lingering" he chose "liquid". Judging from his strong opinions on translation, Nabokov would have remained faithful to the letter. Or..would he?
The mention to an "alliteration" comes right after the "V" line. Here it comes, to provide a context for the excerpt: Life with you was lovely - and when I say lovely, I mean doves and lilies, and velvet, and that soft pink "v" in the middle and the way your tongue curved up to the long, lingering "l". Our life together was alliterative, and when I think of all the little things which will die, now that we cannot share them, I feel as if we were dead too.*
There are at least three martyrs in TLSK's book, one of them mentioned because of a curious "egg-like alliteration":
1. "Some day you may come upon certain papers; you will burn them at once; true, they have heard voices in [one or two indecipherable words: Dot chetu?], but now they must suffer the stake."
2. "A book with a blind spot. An unfinished picture - uncoloured limbs of the martyr with the arrows in his side."
The first, St. Joan. The second, the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro, St. Sebastian. But there are two martyred Sebastians. The latter inspired the strange lines of sebastianist Fernando Pessoa:"Without madness what is man/But a mere hearty beast,/A postponed, procreating corpse?" (translated by Mike Harland,1997)
I understand that the irreverent reference to "Olga Olegovna Orlova - an egg-like alliteration which it would have been a pity to withhold." also indicates the name of a Russian aristocrat saint.
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* It was "V" who observed: "They must have had a glorious time together, those two. And it is hard to believe that the warmth, the tenderness, the beauty of it has not been gathered, and is not treasured somewhere, somehow, by some immortal witness of mortal life." Here I don't think "V" relied on the power of art and to grant "immortality" to SK and Clare. Perhaps "V" has voiced some of VN's own hopes concerning a "hereafter"?
A.Bouazza, watching an interview with Vladimir Nabokov from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's programme Close-Up, noted that: "this is a new form of homage which the modern allows us - to waste our time with archive footage." Perhaps this "archive footage" can bear witness and extend mortal life similarly to written words. But our individual human consciousness is necessarily lost when one dies. I cannot avoid feeling curious about how Nabokov would see the world as it is today & how his awareness and attention to detail would be witnessing the developments of today's new technological skills.
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JM: I understand that Stan is arguing in favor of keeping the English "lovely" to maintain the "v" imagery, but even so the Pushkin/Dryden internal assonance is lost. Quite informally, V.N's translator Jorio Dauster chose to retain its counterpoint over loyalty to adjectives and substantives. Surprisingly, a suppressed word substituted velvet without spoiling the overall el-lip-sis.
Here is his suggestion, in harmony with SK's context: "Nossa vida em comum teve a leveza da lavanda - e quando penso em lavanda me vêm à mente lábios e varandas, e vulva, com o doce "v" cor de rosa no meio e o jeito com que tua língua se encurvava no longo e líquido "l".
He relied in the context to substitute "lovely" for "lavender", and "dove and lilies" for echoing "lábios" (lips) and "varanda". For "lingering" he chose "liquid". Judging from his strong opinions on translation, Nabokov would have remained faithful to the letter. Or..would he?
The mention to an "alliteration" comes right after the "V" line. Here it comes, to provide a context for the excerpt: Life with you was lovely - and when I say lovely, I mean doves and lilies, and velvet, and that soft pink "v" in the middle and the way your tongue curved up to the long, lingering "l". Our life together was alliterative, and when I think of all the little things which will die, now that we cannot share them, I feel as if we were dead too.*
There are at least three martyrs in TLSK's book, one of them mentioned because of a curious "egg-like alliteration":
1. "Some day you may come upon certain papers; you will burn them at once; true, they have heard voices in [one or two indecipherable words: Dot chetu?], but now they must suffer the stake."
2. "A book with a blind spot. An unfinished picture - uncoloured limbs of the martyr with the arrows in his side."
The first, St. Joan. The second, the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro, St. Sebastian. But there are two martyred Sebastians. The latter inspired the strange lines of sebastianist Fernando Pessoa:"Without madness what is man/But a mere hearty beast,/A postponed, procreating corpse?" (translated by Mike Harland,1997)
I understand that the irreverent reference to "Olga Olegovna Orlova - an egg-like alliteration which it would have been a pity to withhold." also indicates the name of a Russian aristocrat saint.
.................................................................
* It was "V" who observed: "They must have had a glorious time together, those two. And it is hard to believe that the warmth, the tenderness, the beauty of it has not been gathered, and is not treasured somewhere, somehow, by some immortal witness of mortal life." Here I don't think "V" relied on the power of art and to grant "immortality" to SK and Clare. Perhaps "V" has voiced some of VN's own hopes concerning a "hereafter"?
A.Bouazza, watching an interview with Vladimir Nabokov from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's programme Close-Up, noted that: "this is a new form of homage which the modern allows us - to waste our time with archive footage." Perhaps this "archive footage" can bear witness and extend mortal life similarly to written words. But our individual human consciousness is necessarily lost when one dies. I cannot avoid feeling curious about how Nabokov would see the world as it is today & how his awareness and attention to detail would be witnessing the developments of today's new technological skills.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/