Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004213, Tue, 22 Jun 1999 13:34:05 -0700

Subject
Re: Query: Yeats translation by VN? (fwd)
Date
Body

All I know on the subject is that he reviewed translations of Kipling
_and_ Yeats in Rul', Dec. 17, 1922. The translations were by Sergey
Krechatov. VN argues with him there by suggesting his own Russian
translation of four lines from "When You Are Old":

Yeats: And bending down beside the glowing bars/Murmur, a little sadly,
how Love fled/And paced upon the mountains overhead/And hid his face amid
a crowd of stars.

Krechatov: I sklonivshis' nizko v sladostnoi pechali/I gliadia, kak gasnut
zolotye iskry,/O liubvi vzdokhnite, chto proshla tak bystro,/Chto
umchalas' k zvezdam, v golubye dali

VN: I u ognia sklonias', shepni unylo/O tom, kak uneslas' liubov' i
tam/vverkhu, proshla, stupaia po goram/i v sonme zvezd litso svoe sokryla.

Galya Diment