Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014416, Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:01:05 -0200

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Re: From ck to A. Bouazza on translation
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From ck to A. Bouazza on translationA. Bouazza: the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (better known as mathematician and astronomer in his lifetime) were published anonymously in 1859 and FitzGerald was revealed as their translator only in 1875...It would be fair to say that FitzGerald's version, which he revised five times, was inspired by or based on rather than rendered from. Perhaps a Victorian reincarnation of sorts?

Jansy Mello to AB and Carolyn: My first contact with Fitzgerald's Khayyam came through Schultze's cartoon strips,voiced by little erudite Linus. I've never read a Spanish translation of Khayyam ( there must be many good ones, obviously), but even before Fitzgerald I was acquainted with OK through various translations of the Rubayat into Portuguese - also read while I was still young...( and callow? )
Many of Khayyam's poetic images landscape well in Portuguese ( shorter words, for example "palpebra" instead of "eye-lid", help to emphasize "night as the eyelid of the day" in a fluent natural way).

I had not idea that it was Russia, not France, that I inhaled when reading Ségur's "Les Malheurs de Sophie" (and her other books), but the changed setting didn't take away my pleasure. What a pity that VN let Fitzgerald's inspiredly independent creation be spoilt by A.Burgess, as A.Bouazza reminded us."Anthony Burgess in Encounter has suddenly and conclusively abolished my sentimental fondness for FitzGerald by showing how he falsified the 'witty metaphysical tent-maker's' *actual metaphors..." "Reply to My Critics," Strong Opinions p. 246.

I had not idea that Sir Richard Burton had plundered John Payne's translation of 1000 Nights and One...AB's informations are always very extensive and fascinating.
Since Ezra Pound merits an "ugh" from CHW (and many others) and his poetic "versions" were profanatory (CHW), this suggests that Pound's "ABC of Reading" was trashed before the link he made bt. "dichtung=condensation" could be examined. A. Bouazza informed that "dichtung has two meanings: 1. condensation 2. poeticize. But the root of the first meaning "dicht" is not related to the second one "dicht". The equation is based on a misunderstanding.." but I still suggest that this other "condensation" (the link bt these two different roots of "dichtung" creating only one figure) may still become acceptable, here, when we want to describe one kind of reduction of words into images, as they occur in a dream and often, in poetry and in VN.
Jansy


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