Maurice Couturier: "While writing my new book ("Nabokov,
ou la tentation française"; it hopefully will come out this year) in which I
study Nabokov's brand of French, his many stays in France, the circumstances in
which "Lolita" was published and censored in France, Nabokov's strong opinions
about French authors from Ronsard to Robbe-Grillet, and the reception of his
works in France, I came across a very interesting interview he gave to
"L'Express" in 1959 which I would like to
share, in my translation, with the
Nabokovians..."
JM: A few months ago I came across an information related
to Ronsard (it was posted in the Nab-L, Oct. 2010, #110) in which Maurice
Couturier affirms that Nabokov may not have been familiar with Ronsard's
"chanson," where the term "nymphette" appears*.
In the interesting interview he generously translated and shared with
the List we find that Nabokov was familiar with "a sonnet" by Ronsard, but
that he considered that it was not a genuine "nymphetic" coinage, as it was
in the case of his word in connection to the particular kind
of "nymphet" he describes in "Lolita". I wonder if Couturier could
expand on his point about Ronsard's priority in the use of "nymphette," if
Nabokov's claim ( "an infrigement of my rights") is justified or
not.
extracted item from the interview given to L’Express in Paris - 1959 and
translated by Maurice Couturier:
- Did you invent the word “nymphet”?
V. Nabokov: Yes, I did. There was
already the word “nymph”. And Ronsard, who likes Latin diminutives, used the
word “nymphette” in a sonnet. But not in the sense I used it. For him it was a
nymph who was gentle....
...........................................................................................
* cf. Maurice Couturier -« The
Distinguished Writer vs the Child », Cycnos, Volume 10 n°1, mis en ligne
le 13 juin 2008, URL : http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/index.html?id=1287. " A
pity, by the way, that Mademoiselle did not read all of Ronsard's poetry to him.
He would never have claimed, as he did in a letter, that he had invented the
French word "nymphette" : "I am informed that a French motion picture company is
about to make a picture entitled 'The Nymphets' ('Les Nymphettes'). The use of
this title is an infringement of my rights since this term was invented by me
for the main character in my novel Lolita and has now become completely
synonymous with Lolita in the minds of readers throughout the world."17 The
French word appeared in the late fifteenth century and was later used by Ronsard
in one of his "Chansons"[...] The opening lines could be translated as follows:
"Little gamesome nymph,/ Nymphet I idolize." It is always tricky to claim one's
rights upon a word, especially a foreign word which is easily derived from a
very common one. Nabokov knew his Ronsard, of course, and he quoted him in
Lolita, but apparently he did not know this "chanson" which was set to music by
Clément Jannequin. It is thanks to him, though, that the word got a new lease on
life in French in the very special meaning we know.
"