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THOUGHTS: On translating VN
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Nabokov's translator, Jorio Dauster, called my attention to
"The world's most difficult word to translate": "ilunga" from the "Tshiluba language spoken in south-eastern DR Congo. It came top of a list drawn up in consultation with 1,000 linguists."
Ilunga means "a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time". Cf. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3830521.stm
("how fortunate it was that "ilunga" was not employed by VN", he quipped)
I wonder if Nabokov's "iridules" or "lolitas" ( never actually spoken by a group of people, except perhaps those that belong to a Nabokovian tribe) was ever considered in similar researches, or another original creation of his ( a kind of blossom? I forgot its name)
Jansy Mello
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"The world's most difficult word to translate": "ilunga" from the "Tshiluba language spoken in south-eastern DR Congo. It came top of a list drawn up in consultation with 1,000 linguists."
Ilunga means "a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time". Cf. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3830521.stm
("how fortunate it was that "ilunga" was not employed by VN", he quipped)
I wonder if Nabokov's "iridules" or "lolitas" ( never actually spoken by a group of people, except perhaps those that belong to a Nabokovian tribe) was ever considered in similar researches, or another original creation of his ( a kind of blossom? I forgot its name)
Jansy Mello
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/