Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002115, Mon, 12 May 1997 19:53:53 -0700

Subject
Re: Query: Martin (or Martyn) in Podvig/Glory (fwd)
Date
Body
>From: Anat Ben-Amos <abenam@essex.ac.uk>
>
>
>Dear everyone,
>
>I would very much appreciate help on certain questions relating to the
>name of the protagonist of Podvig:
>
>1) The Russian original calls him "Martyn" (Library of Congress
>trasliteration), while the English translation has "Martin" - does this
>seem the same to the native Russian speakers among you? And would
>"Martyn" seem to a Russian reader a Russian or, as I always thought
>because of "Martin" (and as is justified in the novel, with all the
>Western and especially English motifs related to him), an English - and
>thus, for a Russian, foreign - name?
>
>2) In her article "Nabokov's _Glory_ and the Fairy Tale" (SEEJ, 21, 2,
>1977), Edythe C. Haber mentions a Russian fairy tale character,
>whom she calls either "Martin" or "Martynka", in the story "Volshebnoe
>kol'tso" (she refers to Afanasiev's version in _Narodnye russkie
>skazki_) . Does it mean it is the same name? Could anyone tell me more
>about the exact name of this fairy tale character? (he seems to be a
>version of the "Ivan-durak" character, whom she compares in some
>respects to Nabokov's Martin/Martyn)
>
>3) In the new collection of all VN stories, edited by DM, there is an
>early, and if I understand right unpublished in Russian, story called
>"Russian Spoken Here", in which the protagonist is called "Martin
>Martinich". Is his name in the Russian original manuscript "Martin" or
>"Martyn"? And does DM's translation solution mean that, again, it is the
>same name, or was it for the convenience of English-speaking readers?
>
>I would be grateful to have any of your information, thoughts and ideas
>on these matters, either to the List or to me directly.
>
>All the best,
>
>Anat Ben-Amos
>
>
>-----------------------------------
>Anat Ben-Amos
>Department of Literature
>University of Essex
>Colchester CO4 3SQ
>United Kingdom
>
>E-mail: abenam@essex.ac.uk
________

VN wrote Martyn Martynych in Russian in the story "Russian Spoken Here",
with "y" and not "i". Martyn (instead od Martin) and Martynych (instead of
Martinovich) are more familiar.

Bernard Kreise