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Fw: Fw: Fw: in a glass, darkly
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 2:11 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: in a glass, darkly
Dear List,
I would like to thank J. L. Olson for the correct reference ( first letter to the Corinthians, 13:12) concerning the choices of: " in a glass, darkly" ( VN) ; "through a glass, darkly " ( King James translation, I think) or " see indistinctly, as in a mirror" ( The New American Bible, as informed here).
I was interested in the matter because of Kinbote´s foreword to Pale Fire: " None can say how long John Shade planned his poem to be, but it is not improbable that what he left represents only a small fraction of the composition he saw in a glass, darkly" .
I had come across a translation of Pale Fire to Portuguese where the translator chose the word "mirror" instead of "glass" and I had feared that this choice would become an obstacle for the reader who would not associate it with the corresponding biblical reference I thought fitted in the text ( who knows?).
Jansy Mello
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 4:15 PM
Subject: Fw: Fw: in a glass, darkly
----- Original Message -----
From: Jamie L. Olson
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: in a glass, darkly
This is actually in the first letter to the Corinthians (precisely, at 13:12). The New American Bible also has "mirror" for "glass": "At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully as I am fully known."
Jamie
At 07:32 PM 08/25/2003 -0700, you wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
I´ve found the reference concerning " in a glass, darkly" and it is in the Bible, in the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians 13:1 and there are several references to the ability to use language and to prophesy.
It begins with " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" [...] For me know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known [...]
I´ve checked one of the translations in Portuguese for the New Testament and there the word for glass has been " mirror" !
Through or "in a glass, darkly "? I wonder how it would appear in Nabokov´s Russian Bible, or if it was meant as a quotation anyway.
Best wishes, Jansy