Subject
Literally scouring (a teapot?)
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First, from Sam Schuman:
This seems to me literally a tempest in a teapot...as Prospero so
often
said.
Second, from Stan Kelly-Bootle:
I agree that, regardless of the Russian ur-text, DN's translation
("eyes ...
literally scoured ...") reads well in English. Critics may have
forgotten
that "scouring" does have an early "literal" meaning (via ME
_scuren_),
namely "searching carefully." The act of "scouring," as in scrubbing
pans
with Vim [!], reaches us via a slightly different route (via ME
_scouren_
via OF escurer via Latin excurare "to clean out.")
It's endlessly moot which of these two meanings, in English, has the
prior
claim to "literality," and which, to the reader, has developed a more
metaphorical ambience. Either way, as Stephen Blackwell points out,
VN/DN combine to tell us that Roman's eyes were indeed engaged in a
serious inspection of the cell--one that might well erode its very
walls?
Let's have none of this "Homer nodding" nonsense, DN!
Although, this reminds me of:
"On the other hand, my amiable little imitations of Madame Bovary,
which
good readers will not fail to distinguish, represent a deliberate
tribute to
Flaubert. I remember remembering, in the course of one scene, Emma
creeping at dawn to her lover's chateau along impossibly unobservant
back lanes, for even Homais nods."
(Foreword, page x, King, Queen, Knave. McGraw-Hill. 1967)
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This seems to me literally a tempest in a teapot...as Prospero so
often
said.
Second, from Stan Kelly-Bootle:
I agree that, regardless of the Russian ur-text, DN's translation
("eyes ...
literally scoured ...") reads well in English. Critics may have
forgotten
that "scouring" does have an early "literal" meaning (via ME
_scuren_),
namely "searching carefully." The act of "scouring," as in scrubbing
pans
with Vim [!], reaches us via a slightly different route (via ME
_scouren_
via OF escurer via Latin excurare "to clean out.")
It's endlessly moot which of these two meanings, in English, has the
prior
claim to "literality," and which, to the reader, has developed a more
metaphorical ambience. Either way, as Stephen Blackwell points out,
VN/DN combine to tell us that Roman's eyes were indeed engaged in a
serious inspection of the cell--one that might well erode its very
walls?
Let's have none of this "Homer nodding" nonsense, DN!
Although, this reminds me of:
"On the other hand, my amiable little imitations of Madame Bovary,
which
good readers will not fail to distinguish, represent a deliberate
tribute to
Flaubert. I remember remembering, in the course of one scene, Emma
creeping at dawn to her lover's chateau along impossibly unobservant
back lanes, for even Homais nods."
(Foreword, page x, King, Queen, Knave. McGraw-Hill. 1967)
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu