Subject
Re: QUERY: Letter to VN's mother quoted in Boyd's VNRY (answer to
Brian Boyd)
Brian Boyd)
From
Date
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Dear Mr. Boyd,
Thank you for your kind answer. I first read this letter from Nabokov to
his mother in your book in English, and was very impressed by it. For
me,
the expression "charmed commentator" explained a lot in Nabokov's prose
and literary studies. I even tried to use it in one of my pieces,
translated back from English to Russian. But then I read the Russian
version of your book and was astonished - the commentator was just
charming, not charmed. In Russian "obayatelniy" means 'cutie
pie', 'lovely', 'nice' - "charming, but charmed means more - touched by
God, or the opposite - spelled, anyway, influenced by some external
power.
Probably, Nabokov didn't want to sound serious when he was speaking
about
God, creator, etc. – something he didn't want to discuss with anyone,
maybe because all issues of faith were very personal to him. But in your
translation the same phrase sounds much more serious - like it should
be.
In that case, I consider you the "charmed commentator," touched and by
Nabokov's power, and even think that maybe you did this on purpose,
since
your translation correlated more with the context of the letter than the
original adjective used by the author himself.
I will appreciate you response. You can use my personal e-mail:
rusina_v@hotmail.com
Rusina Volkova
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Thank you for your kind answer. I first read this letter from Nabokov to
his mother in your book in English, and was very impressed by it. For
me,
the expression "charmed commentator" explained a lot in Nabokov's prose
and literary studies. I even tried to use it in one of my pieces,
translated back from English to Russian. But then I read the Russian
version of your book and was astonished - the commentator was just
charming, not charmed. In Russian "obayatelniy" means 'cutie
pie', 'lovely', 'nice' - "charming, but charmed means more - touched by
God, or the opposite - spelled, anyway, influenced by some external
power.
Probably, Nabokov didn't want to sound serious when he was speaking
about
God, creator, etc. – something he didn't want to discuss with anyone,
maybe because all issues of faith were very personal to him. But in your
translation the same phrase sounds much more serious - like it should
be.
In that case, I consider you the "charmed commentator," touched and by
Nabokov's power, and even think that maybe you did this on purpose,
since
your translation correlated more with the context of the letter than the
original adjective used by the author himself.
I will appreciate you response. You can use my personal e-mail:
rusina_v@hotmail.com
Rusina Volkova
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.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