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Re: CHALLENGE: Nabokov and Olesha
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Yesterday I'd been trying to figure out something related to "taxonomic Latin" and Nabokov's "golubyanki" in ADA, and elsewhere.*
I found it impossible to locate any hint related to the literal translation of the "Lycaeides idas sublivens," particularly of the word "sublivens," with the resources I had at hand.
The word "life" in Latin (Vita) isn't close to "live" in "sublivens" - and one Latin dictionary led me from the "sublime" towards "livid" in "pale blue because of Envy".
There is most certainly no etymological relation bt. Nabokov's proud discovery of the "bolubyanka" female, and the word "envy" that I encountered by mere chance.
However, were Nabokov even minimally aware of any emotional tonality of green-blue-livid envy in in the given "sublivens" (like Othello's green-eyed monster...) it's possible to admit that his malicious genius could have planted his small butterfly when he wanted to indicate one of these "ancient human passions on their final parade."
PS: A recent posting ("delossampson") mentions that "It should probably be pointed out that the translation of VN's 'Postscript to the Russian Edition of Lolita' was published in 'Nabokov's Fifth Arc', eds. J.E. Rivers and Charles Nicol, University of Texas Press, 1982."
I was so happy to find VN's Russian postscript to Lolita online (thus making it available to students abroad among those who cannot get enough bibliographical information about Nabokov at their universities or bookstores), that I wanted to share it with the List.
I'm sorry that, inadvertently, I may have been carried away and divulged something that, although it is already online as a fait accompli, must be a pirated text.
Jansy Mello
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178.11-12: Which reminds me painfully of the golubyanki (petits bleus) Aqua used to send me: Darkbloom : “golubyanka: Russ, small blue butterfly” (B.Boyd http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/.)
178.12: golubyanka: VN identifies this modestly in his notes as “Russ., small blue butterfly.” This is the so-called Nabokov’s Blue, or Lycaeides idas sublivens. (Kyoto Reading Circle http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/Ada29.pdf )
(the stress on "modestly" is mine)
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-----Mensagem Original-----
De: Nabokv-L
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Enviada em: sábado, 4 de janeiro de 2014 13:32
Assunto: [NABOKV-L] CHALLENGE: Nabokov and Olesha
St. Petersburg Nabokov scholar Evgenii Belodubrovskii offers the following quotation from Yuri Olesha's Envy and calls for general discussion and more complete elaboration of the links between the Soviet writer Olesha and his admirer, Nabokov.
The quotation is from Kovalerov:
...многие характеры разыгрывали комедию старого мира. Занавес закрывается. Персонажи должны сбежаться к авансцене и пропеть последние куплеты. Я хочу быть посредником между ними и зрительным залом. Я буду дирижировать хором и последним уйду со сцены.
...мне выпала честь провести последним парадом старинные человеческие страсти...
ЮРИЙ ОЛЕША. РОМАН "Зависть" ( СЛОВА героя романа НИКОЛАЯ КАВАЛЕРОВА)
SB's rather hasty translation:
...many characters played out the comedy of the Old World. The curtain closes. The dramatis personae should all run up to the proscenium and sing the final couplets. I want to be the intermediary between them and the auditorium hall. I will be conductor of the chorus and will be the last to leave the stage. ...to me falls the honor of guiding ancient human passions on their final parade...
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