Subject
Query: "Rabbit foot of a poplar" and German figure of speech
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Date
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[EDNOTE. Thanks to both Nanina Egli and Don Johnson for making this insight available to the List! -- SES]
Encouraged by Mr. Johnson’s answer to my email, I post my ideas about the
rabbit foot on the list.
But please accept my apologies for my lacking English-skills – I feel
marsyaslike-raw, posting something to people who are trained by one of the
greatest writers in the quest of languages.
Nanina Egli
--------------
Dear Mr. Johnson
My English is quite bad, so I wouldn't dare to guess about the "rabbit's
foot" via list. (I'm a swiss student and love Nabokov's books - so it's very
interesting for me to read your discussions).
In German a rabbit's foot is a metaphor for a coward (Hasenfuss), when you
think of a trembling poplar (trembling of fear), then you have a very poetic
picture and it's not only a pun, the image is true, too.
Then a rabbit foot is a talisman for gamblers, poplars are trees for
witchcraft and a symbol of death, so the two images are linking on this
layer as well.
(The german translator chose the word Samtpfote (velvet paw), which means
cat, an animal of witches as the rabbit, but the representativeness is not
the same. A cat foot is striking and playing and not shaking and nervous.)
And then: Alice was following a white rabbit's foot into wonderland.
Please accept my apologies for my impertinence, but I felt so overwhelmed my
the beauty of Nabokov's prose, I couldn't tame myself to be quiet and resist
in mailing my silly thoughts.
Thank you for all the exciting discussions!
Sincerly Nanina Egli
------------
Dear Nanina Egli,
Vielen Dank! I think you are exactly right! I had no idea about "Hasenfuss"
as a quaking coward--a perfect match with Populus tremuloides (Quaking
Aspen). As I re-read the sentence below I see that VN refers to the wind
blowing the popular leaves so that the view of the red roof appears and
disappears!
I congratulate you.
Since this is basically your discovery why don't you send it to NABOKV-L? I
wish my German were one-tenth as good as your English.
Best, Don Johnson
P.S. I see that Russian has something similar Ñ‚Ñ€ÑƒÑ Ð̧шка;
зайчÐ̧шка-Ñ‚Ñ€ÑƒÑ Ð̧шка (о ребёнке) --a bunny-coward.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"He decided to leave the car and climb the stone steps of what looked like
an easy short cut. While he was trudging up the walled walk with his eye on
the rabbit foot of a poplar which now hid the red roof at the top of the
climb, now disclosed it."
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
Encouraged by Mr. Johnson’s answer to my email, I post my ideas about the
rabbit foot on the list.
But please accept my apologies for my lacking English-skills – I feel
marsyaslike-raw, posting something to people who are trained by one of the
greatest writers in the quest of languages.
Nanina Egli
--------------
Dear Mr. Johnson
My English is quite bad, so I wouldn't dare to guess about the "rabbit's
foot" via list. (I'm a swiss student and love Nabokov's books - so it's very
interesting for me to read your discussions).
In German a rabbit's foot is a metaphor for a coward (Hasenfuss), when you
think of a trembling poplar (trembling of fear), then you have a very poetic
picture and it's not only a pun, the image is true, too.
Then a rabbit foot is a talisman for gamblers, poplars are trees for
witchcraft and a symbol of death, so the two images are linking on this
layer as well.
(The german translator chose the word Samtpfote (velvet paw), which means
cat, an animal of witches as the rabbit, but the representativeness is not
the same. A cat foot is striking and playing and not shaking and nervous.)
And then: Alice was following a white rabbit's foot into wonderland.
Please accept my apologies for my impertinence, but I felt so overwhelmed my
the beauty of Nabokov's prose, I couldn't tame myself to be quiet and resist
in mailing my silly thoughts.
Thank you for all the exciting discussions!
Sincerly Nanina Egli
------------
Dear Nanina Egli,
Vielen Dank! I think you are exactly right! I had no idea about "Hasenfuss"
as a quaking coward--a perfect match with Populus tremuloides (Quaking
Aspen). As I re-read the sentence below I see that VN refers to the wind
blowing the popular leaves so that the view of the red roof appears and
disappears!
I congratulate you.
Since this is basically your discovery why don't you send it to NABOKV-L? I
wish my German were one-tenth as good as your English.
Best, Don Johnson
P.S. I see that Russian has something similar Ñ‚Ñ€ÑƒÑ Ð̧шка;
зайчÐ̧шка-Ñ‚Ñ€ÑƒÑ Ð̧шка (о ребёнке) --a bunny-coward.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"He decided to leave the car and climb the stone steps of what looked like
an easy short cut. While he was trudging up the walled walk with his eye on
the rabbit foot of a poplar which now hid the red roof at the top of the
climb, now disclosed it."
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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