Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0005041, Sun, 30 Apr 2000 08:50:02 -0700

Subject
VN in China
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Vladimir Mylnikov (NABOKV-L "Man-in-China" for the last
several years) reports on mainland Chinese VN translations below.
Having spent several years teaching Russian in China (where he orchestrated
a Nabokov centennial event), he is returning to Russia for several months
before beginning a teaching job at Wesleyan.
>
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>
> Speaking about Nabokov in China, as far as I know, RLSKn is not the first
> translation which appeared on Mainland. The first was Pnin, I believe,
> (1986) and then they translated Lectures on Literature.
>
> I know that Chinese tranlated almost everything and recently published
> the following:
>
>
>
> 1.Lolita (transl. by Yu Xiaodan)
>
> 2.Transparent Things/Pnin (transl. by Pan Yuan and Mei Shaowu
>
>3.RLSKn / Mary (transl. by Xi
> Yabing/ Wang Jianxiang)
>
> 4.Laughter in the Dark ( I could not figure out who was the
> translator)
>
> 5.King, Queen, Knave (transl. by Pan Xiaosong)
>
> 6.Pale Fire (transl. by Mei Shaowu
>
> 7.Despair (transl. by Chang Li and Niu Zhenhua
>
> 8.The Defence (transl. by Chen Lansheng and Qiu cong )
>
> 9.Invitation to a Beheading (transl. Cui Hongguo and Jiang Lizhu
>
> 10.Strong Opinions (tranls. by Pan Xiaosong)
>
>
>
> All the books are published in The TIme Literature and Art Publishing
> House. Shidai Wenyi Chubabshe, Changchun, Jilin.
>
>
> Most of the books have these quite strange dust covers ( I also could not
> figure out whose painting it was) with, of course, no slightest
> connection with the content and I feel the basic reason is to give an
> idea that the book and the writer come from the West. Also the
> Publishing House is located in the city named Jilin (in the North of
> the country) but the translators are from Shanghai and Beijing.
>
> I saw a bunch of the books in the local shop and purchased a few but
> couple of days later some of the books were not available anymore ( I
> wanted to buy Pale FIre but the book was gone).
>
> I am working on the article on Mary and hope to finish it in a few
> days.
>
>
> All the best,
>
> Vladimir