Interestingly, this essay, written in 1921, is, as far as I can
tell, the first time Nabokov was ever translated. The weekly journal
it appeared in was The Living Age, a compendium of reprints
of essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews from around the world. Many
works in it appeared in translation. Some anonymous translator took
the essay Nabokov wrote in Russian and was published in Grani
in 1922 as "Rupert Bruk", and rendered it as "Rupert Brooke: A
Russian View". How is the translation? I can only compare Brian
Boyd's rendering (in VN: The Russian Years, p. 183) of a passage
near the end to the one in The Living Age. Boyd's is robust
and concrete. The journal's version "reads well" and some Nabokovian
touches from the 22-year old, come through. But it's essentially
bland.
- Michael Juliar
On 5/4/2011 11:05 AM, Matthew Roth wrote:
Many of you have read DBJ's enlightening essay on VN and
Rupert Brooke, but many may not have read VN's original essay on
Brooke. It is now available via Google Books, here: http://bit.ly/lwKRc6