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RES: [NABOKV-L] QUERY -- VN and checking translations
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Jansy Mello: I’m not the best VN reader to give you this information, but 1. There are various anecdotes about VN criticizing translations made by other writers. In “Ada, or Ardor” you find many paragraphs discussing Cowper and a few other translators, there’s Ada, a character in a novel, offering her various translations to Van or her father or translating another character’s (VN’s poet John Shade, in “Pale Fire”). Amusing commentaries and mistakes in translation there’s Kinbote (fiction) on his uncle’s English into Zemblan and much more. Two other places to check are VN’s “Strong Opinions” and his “Lectures on Literature” (European and Russian) 2. Also to be found in the above; 3. VN translated his own works, with various observations in his Forewords (such as to “The eye”, to “King,Queen, Knave”), or some of his short-stories (with Dmitri and others) and the notes at the end of his collected stories (“Nabokov’s Short-Stories”). A fundamental text is VN’s translation and notes on Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”.
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Hen Hanna:: I'd appreciate help on any of these questions about VN and translation:
1. Is there an anecdote about VN checking a sample translation
done by a translator, finding it poor and firing the translator?
I have not found such an episode in
[Vladimir Nabokov : The American Years] by Brian Boyd.
2. Are there similar anecdotes involving other authors?
I just read one about Alexander Pope, but it is not
quite what I've been looking for
(because the translator Pope hired was cheating).
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation
>>> Comparison of a back-translation with the original text is
sometimes used as a check on the accuracy
of the original translation <<<
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
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L
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Hen Hanna:: I'd appreciate help on any of these questions about VN and translation:
1. Is there an anecdote about VN checking a sample translation
done by a translator, finding it poor and firing the translator?
I have not found such an episode in
[Vladimir Nabokov : The American Years] by Brian Boyd.
2. Are there similar anecdotes involving other authors?
I just read one about Alexander Pope, but it is not
quite what I've been looking for
(because the translator Pope hired was cheating).
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation
>>> Comparison of a back-translation with the original text is
sometimes used as a check on the accuracy
of the original translation <<<
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
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L