Subject
To avoid misunderstanding
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Dear Friends,
Two posts have appeared on Nab-L that quote me in a manner that might
lead to misunderstanding by those unfamiliar with the context. They
refer to comparisons requested, some years ago, of a sampling of Ada in
Russian as done by four different translators. The first post is from
my friend Lluba Tarvi, whose criterion is her own method, whereby a
"Translation Quotient" is established arithmetically according to the
"...amount [sic] of excessive 'tokens' " that a translator uses in
trying to remain faithful to the original. Miss Tarvi affirms that "The
results scored by A. Skliarenko surpass those of the other translators
by 1 percent[age] point only, but he used the least amount of excessive
tokens, [8]. Probably for this reason D. Nabokov's impression was that
'the structure of his sentences and paragraphs is sometimes awkward.' "
I shall not go into my opinions about translation done by mathematical
formula, as opposed to reserving tokens for their rightful use in public
transportation, but I shall say that I prefer to assess translation by
means of an ear and a translational technique developed over years of
collaboration with Vladimir. Nabokov. If the results of the methods
coincide, all the better. I too found Alex Skliarenko's version the best
of the lot, despite the infelicity of certain locutions. I doubt,
however, that those flaws were deliberate. Having appealed to me for
help in polishing his translation (alas, my work load is too great, and
I am running out of tokens), Alex is now extending the appeal to others.
He writes, with the plangent modesty typical of greatness, "If you only
knew what torture it is to translate oneself into a foreign language
that one knows only slightly!"
The second post, from Michael Glynn, after reiterating in a somewhat
patronizing way the probability of the reason for my "impression"
regarding Skliarenko's English, applies his suppositions to my father.
Does Mr. Glynn know of the agonies Nabokov endured during his passage
from "the softest of tongues" to a "second-rate brand of English?" Does
he miss the whole point of sacrificing all accouterments and
embellishments for the sake of the utter literality of a didactic
"pony," to connect the way stations of language and give a semblance of
sense to a great work being taught to under-prepared students? Read the
letters that record my father's tussles with the uncomprehending Edmund
Wilson. Read, also, some of his deliberately less rigorous translations
of poems by Tiutchev, Lermontov, and Pushkin. Read the translations in
which he experimented with departures from literality for the sake of
rhyme and even rhythm. Let us not be disingenuous, good buddy. Don't
you think that, if a second-rate brand of English had been his choice,
Nabokov would have employed it, for instance, in writing the original of
Ada? Or perhaps you think he did?
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