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Re: Semblable: neighbour, fellow, but not double
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Anthony Stadlen: T. S. Eliot is, surely, curiously inaccurate in translating "semblable" as "double"... the context of the first appearance of "love your neighbour" (Leviticus 19.18) also links "neighbour" with "brother" (in the wider sense) just as Baudelaire does...The twofold structure of the Hebrew verse means that "neighbour" and "brother" here are interchangeable. In Jewish translations and discussions in English of the Holiness Code, i.e. Leviticus 19, the word "fellow" is often used interchangeably with "neighbour". "My fellow, my brother" -- isn't that what Baudelaire means?
JM: I tried to explore this item by googling it in English and French. The word "semblable" appears in Shakespeare (Hamlet, act V, scene 2, lines 115-120) with a particular employ of turning the "semblables" into "mirrors" ( ie: perfect doubles like it occurs with delusional Hermann, in "Despair", with its clear distortion of the meaning of "fellow man")*.
...but in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul
of great article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness
as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his
mirror, and who else would trace him his umbrage, nothing more.
Knowing that Nabokov was familiar with both Baudelaire and T.S.Eliot, and has inserted references to them in his works, such as"Pale Fire", I very much doubt it that Eliot's translation, when he turned "semblable" into "double", would have escaped Nabokov's keen translator's eye.
I think it's fitting to inquire, at this point, if Nabokov hasn't expressed, even if only indirectly, his criticism of Eliot's distortion or used it parodically by returning to one of his favourite themes: the delusional doubles. In "Pale Fire" this might be another enticement to transform Shade into Kinbote's "loved neighbor," usede to indicate a non-mirrorlike "double." If this proves to make sense, we find that Nabokov is exploring the same theme ("the other", "the brother", "the spit-image", "the split-image", "my neighbour", "my double") by presenting the different consequences of each interpretation in his novels.**
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*- The wiktionnaire (French), considers "voisin" and "semblable" as options for (English) "neighbour"
** - Vladimir Nabokov's brother, Sergei, has been once described as somehow looking like his twin (must check this in S,M), although almost everywhere else Sergei disappears or is presented as someone whose life and inclinations are totally disparate from his own.
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JM: I tried to explore this item by googling it in English and French. The word "semblable" appears in Shakespeare (Hamlet, act V, scene 2, lines 115-120) with a particular employ of turning the "semblables" into "mirrors" ( ie: perfect doubles like it occurs with delusional Hermann, in "Despair", with its clear distortion of the meaning of "fellow man")*.
...but in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul
of great article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness
as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his
mirror, and who else would trace him his umbrage, nothing more.
Knowing that Nabokov was familiar with both Baudelaire and T.S.Eliot, and has inserted references to them in his works, such as"Pale Fire", I very much doubt it that Eliot's translation, when he turned "semblable" into "double", would have escaped Nabokov's keen translator's eye.
I think it's fitting to inquire, at this point, if Nabokov hasn't expressed, even if only indirectly, his criticism of Eliot's distortion or used it parodically by returning to one of his favourite themes: the delusional doubles. In "Pale Fire" this might be another enticement to transform Shade into Kinbote's "loved neighbor," usede to indicate a non-mirrorlike "double." If this proves to make sense, we find that Nabokov is exploring the same theme ("the other", "the brother", "the spit-image", "the split-image", "my neighbour", "my double") by presenting the different consequences of each interpretation in his novels.**
...................................................................................................................
*- The wiktionnaire (French), considers "voisin" and "semblable" as options for (English) "neighbour"
** - Vladimir Nabokov's brother, Sergei, has been once described as somehow looking like his twin (must check this in S,M), although almost everywhere else Sergei disappears or is presented as someone whose life and inclinations are totally disparate from his own.
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/