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[NABOKOV-L] Tobaks and Veens, Nabokov and Lowell?
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In a collection of poems, with the title "Homage to Eros" (selected and introduced by Dannie Abse, Robson books, 2005,p.111) I read that Robert Lowell "soon earned the reputation of being the greatest American poet of his time." Another item also caught my interest. Abse mentions that Lowell "was born into an old aristocratic Boston family - the Lowells, it was said, talked only to the Cabots and the Cabots talked only to God. "
I couldn't fail to remember Van Veen's words in "Ada" and little shreds of information from various sources:
"The Veens speak only to Tobaks/ But Tobaks speak only to dogs."
In a Nab-L posting, mentioning these lines, Alexey added that when "translated back to Russian, the language in which Van addresses his former mistress, as the rhyme seems to suggest, these lines go as follows: "Viny govoryat lish' s Tobakami, / A Tobaki govoryat lish' s sobakami." listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi.../wa?...
In the BBC-2 1969 Mossman's interview Nabokov answers his questions about a parody of the poet W. H. Auden in Ada or why did Nabokov think "so little of him."
Nabokov: I do not parody Mr. Auden anywhere in Ada. I'm not sufficiently familiar with his poetry for that. I do know, however, a few of his translations-- and deplore the blunders he so lightheartedly permits himself. Robert Lowell, of course, is the greater offender.
A direct reference to Lowell is made by Darkbloom in his note 16* An indirect one, apparently, is his creation of "Lowden." **
..............................................
* Brian Boyd, in Ada Online offers more information:
11.27: Georgian tribesmen . . . popping raspberries: Darkbloom: "Raspberries, ribbon [11.33]: allusions to ludicrous blunders in Lowell's versions of Mandelshtam's poems (in the N.Y. Review [of Books], 23 December 1965)." For Nabokov and Lowell, see 3.04n2. Lowell translated the last two lines of Mandelshtam's famous November 1933 anti-Stalin epigram ("My zhivem, pod soboiu ne chuia strany," "We live, feeling no land beneath us") for which the poet was arrested: "After each death, he is like a Georgian tribesman, / putting a raspberry into his mouth." The lines read: "Chto ni kazn' u nego, --to malina / I shirokaia grud' osetina." As is usual in Mandelshtam, the sense is highly compacted and elliptical, but the lines mean literally: "Whatever the execution, it's a raspberry / And the broad chest of an Ossete." Stalin, a Georgian, admired Georgian folklore and here seems to be imagining the sweet raspberry taste of each execution and puffing out his chest as if it proves himself once again a Georgian hero. MOTIF: translation.
11.33: kurva or "ribbon boule": see Darkbloom at 11.27n. Lowell translated Mandelshtam's phrase kurvu-Moskvu ("Moscow the Whore") as "Moscow's ribbon of boulevards" in his translation of the poem "Net, ne spriatat'sia mne ot velikoi mury" ("No, I won't hide behind the great nonsense") (written April 1931). Mandelshtam's "a ia ne risknu, / U kogo pod perchatkoi ne khvatit tepla, / Chtob ob'ekhat' vsiu kurvu-Moskvu" ("but I won't chance it, / There's not enough warmth inside my glove / To ride around the whole of Moscow the whore") becomes in Lowell's version: "I am not afraid-- / who has enough heat behind his gloves to hold the reins, / and ride around Moscow's ribbon of boulevards?" (New York Review of Books, 23 December 1965, p. 5). MOTIF: translation.
Cf also BB's The American Years, p.508.
** In a site with an homage to Elizabeth Bishop there are more details about Nabokov/Lowell tiffs:
"In March, 1970, Lowell mentions V.'s novel Ada in his account to E. of accepting the National Book Award in her stead...While Lowell was indignant about Rexroth's omission of Pound, he may not have been too concerned about the failure to include Ada, in which V. had included a parody of Lowell as the character "Lowden" (Lowell's mother's name was Ada); the two men had previously exchanged swipes in letters to the editor of Encounter, who did not publish any of of them. Lowell's included an attack on Pale Fire; V.'s were counter-thrusts claiming that Lowell was an incompetent translator: "The couplets that Mr. Lowell refers to are not at the end but at the beginning of Pale Fire. This is exactly the kind of lousy ignorance that one might expect from the mutilator of his betters -- Mandelstam, Rimbaud, and others."[Nabokov/Bruccoli, 385]" /.../ V. then improved upon this four days later in a substitute reply:
To the Editor:
I do not mind Mr. Lowell's disliking my books, but I wish he would stop mutilating his betters -- Mandelstam, Rimbaud, and others. I regret not having entitled my article "Rhyme and Punishment" [Nabokov/Bruccoli, 386] E. had tried to spare Lowell just such attacks five years earlier, when she suggested revisions to Imitations, his collection of free translations: "I don't think you should lay yourself open to charges of carelessness or ignorance or willful perversity..." [Travisano/Hamilton, 356].
I wonder if she would have caught the parody of Lowell in Ada -- we know from a letter to Randall Jarrell that she had read both it and Portnoy's Complaint. [Giroux/Schwartz, 867]." The author thanks her colleague, Yuri Leving, for help locating the letters associated with the Nabokov/Lowell Encounter tiff, and for the reference to Boyd's account of the 1951 awards (Cf. elizabethbishopcentenary.blogspot.com/.../wednesday-wonder-question-ii-bishop-and.html )
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I couldn't fail to remember Van Veen's words in "Ada" and little shreds of information from various sources:
"The Veens speak only to Tobaks/ But Tobaks speak only to dogs."
In a Nab-L posting, mentioning these lines, Alexey added that when "translated back to Russian, the language in which Van addresses his former mistress, as the rhyme seems to suggest, these lines go as follows: "Viny govoryat lish' s Tobakami, / A Tobaki govoryat lish' s sobakami." listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi.../wa?...
In the BBC-2 1969 Mossman's interview Nabokov answers his questions about a parody of the poet W. H. Auden in Ada or why did Nabokov think "so little of him."
Nabokov: I do not parody Mr. Auden anywhere in Ada. I'm not sufficiently familiar with his poetry for that. I do know, however, a few of his translations-- and deplore the blunders he so lightheartedly permits himself. Robert Lowell, of course, is the greater offender.
A direct reference to Lowell is made by Darkbloom in his note 16* An indirect one, apparently, is his creation of "Lowden." **
..............................................
* Brian Boyd, in Ada Online offers more information:
11.27: Georgian tribesmen . . . popping raspberries: Darkbloom: "Raspberries, ribbon [11.33]: allusions to ludicrous blunders in Lowell's versions of Mandelshtam's poems (in the N.Y. Review [of Books], 23 December 1965)." For Nabokov and Lowell, see 3.04n2. Lowell translated the last two lines of Mandelshtam's famous November 1933 anti-Stalin epigram ("My zhivem, pod soboiu ne chuia strany," "We live, feeling no land beneath us") for which the poet was arrested: "After each death, he is like a Georgian tribesman, / putting a raspberry into his mouth." The lines read: "Chto ni kazn' u nego, --to malina / I shirokaia grud' osetina." As is usual in Mandelshtam, the sense is highly compacted and elliptical, but the lines mean literally: "Whatever the execution, it's a raspberry / And the broad chest of an Ossete." Stalin, a Georgian, admired Georgian folklore and here seems to be imagining the sweet raspberry taste of each execution and puffing out his chest as if it proves himself once again a Georgian hero. MOTIF: translation.
11.33: kurva or "ribbon boule": see Darkbloom at 11.27n. Lowell translated Mandelshtam's phrase kurvu-Moskvu ("Moscow the Whore") as "Moscow's ribbon of boulevards" in his translation of the poem "Net, ne spriatat'sia mne ot velikoi mury" ("No, I won't hide behind the great nonsense") (written April 1931). Mandelshtam's "a ia ne risknu, / U kogo pod perchatkoi ne khvatit tepla, / Chtob ob'ekhat' vsiu kurvu-Moskvu" ("but I won't chance it, / There's not enough warmth inside my glove / To ride around the whole of Moscow the whore") becomes in Lowell's version: "I am not afraid-- / who has enough heat behind his gloves to hold the reins, / and ride around Moscow's ribbon of boulevards?" (New York Review of Books, 23 December 1965, p. 5). MOTIF: translation.
Cf also BB's The American Years, p.508.
** In a site with an homage to Elizabeth Bishop there are more details about Nabokov/Lowell tiffs:
"In March, 1970, Lowell mentions V.'s novel Ada in his account to E. of accepting the National Book Award in her stead...While Lowell was indignant about Rexroth's omission of Pound, he may not have been too concerned about the failure to include Ada, in which V. had included a parody of Lowell as the character "Lowden" (Lowell's mother's name was Ada); the two men had previously exchanged swipes in letters to the editor of Encounter, who did not publish any of of them. Lowell's included an attack on Pale Fire; V.'s were counter-thrusts claiming that Lowell was an incompetent translator: "The couplets that Mr. Lowell refers to are not at the end but at the beginning of Pale Fire. This is exactly the kind of lousy ignorance that one might expect from the mutilator of his betters -- Mandelstam, Rimbaud, and others."[Nabokov/Bruccoli, 385]" /.../ V. then improved upon this four days later in a substitute reply:
To the Editor:
I do not mind Mr. Lowell's disliking my books, but I wish he would stop mutilating his betters -- Mandelstam, Rimbaud, and others. I regret not having entitled my article "Rhyme and Punishment" [Nabokov/Bruccoli, 386] E. had tried to spare Lowell just such attacks five years earlier, when she suggested revisions to Imitations, his collection of free translations: "I don't think you should lay yourself open to charges of carelessness or ignorance or willful perversity..." [Travisano/Hamilton, 356].
I wonder if she would have caught the parody of Lowell in Ada -- we know from a letter to Randall Jarrell that she had read both it and Portnoy's Complaint. [Giroux/Schwartz, 867]." The author thanks her colleague, Yuri Leving, for help locating the letters associated with the Nabokov/Lowell Encounter tiff, and for the reference to Boyd's account of the 1951 awards (Cf. elizabethbishopcentenary.blogspot.com/.../wednesday-wonder-question-ii-bishop-and.html )
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/