From: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tue, March 26, 2013 7:06:17 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Ada's dissolved epigraph
Jansy Mello: Fascinating
exchanges*.
There's one nagging
question,though. If, as AS and SS affirm, there is no
ambiguity (or little ambiguity) in Pushkin's sentence
in Russian - but there are "often fruitful" ambiguities in
VN's translation (following JK and SKB and, indirectly, CK)
- can we say that VN was following the strictures of the
criteria he used in the translation of EO, or did
he deviate from them in this instance?
.....................................................................................
*AS:(quoting
Pushkin) ...":lyubov'yu shutit satana(with
love jokes Satan)."
CK: I have to disagree with
Alexey's usually excellent English
AS: ...here Carolyn, you
disagree with Nabokov's incomparable and precise English - for
it is his translation.
CK: Satan does not joke
lovingly, as is would appear in Alexey's translation, but uses
love to make fun of humans.
AS: This is exactly what
Pushkin is saying.
Stan Kelly Bootle: Do we have
have a common word-order reversal adding to the potential
ambiguity? SVP (subject verb predicate) in many languages can be
varied for emphasis. Here we have PVS to stress the adverbial
predicate ... The object &/or nature of Satan’s
humour/satire. A comma/pause plus italics may clarify:With love,
jokes Satan.The preposition WITH remains ambiguous:Satan jokes
ABOUT love? Or Satan jokes LOVINGLY? Is the Russian dative
case-ending lyubov'yu equally ambiguous? Regardless of Nabokov’s
‘incomparably precise’ command of Russian & English, there
remain inescapable (often fruitful!) NL ambiguities, especially
with poetry & aphorisms.Finally: Is the ‘epigraph/epigram’
referring to a particular incident (resting on subsequent
context), or a general accusation about the Devil’s indifference
to human emotions?
[to SKB: 'Is the Russian dative case-ending
lyubov'yu equally ambiguous?']
Jerry Katsell: Certainly there
are no lack of ambiguities in VV's work, often fruitful, as
Stanley Kelly-Bootle states.One thing is certain though:
lyubov'yu is grammatically feminine with a soft consonant ending
and thus here in the instrumental, not dative case, -- perhaps
adding to the adjectival emphasis of the word in first position
in the phrase.
Sergei Soloviev [ to SKB]: no, in Russian it
is less ambiguous (ambiguous variant would require "s
lyubov'yu...").
AS: lyubov'yu
is instrumental case. No ambiguity in Russian, despite
the reversed word order.
Ljuba Tarvi lyubov'yu shutit
satana. Here is this line in the four latest full-text
translations of EO:
Tom Beck (2004): for Satan loves а fiendish joke! Stanley Mitchell
(2008): That Satan plays оn gentlefolk.
Henry Hoyt (2008): Тhе Evil Оnе plays jokes with love. D.M. Thomas
(2011): For Satan always jokes with love.
All private editorial communications are
read by both co-editors.