Subject
Fw: Query: Translation of Invitation to Beheading's "Mali e
trano t'amesti!"
trano t'amesti!"
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "alex" <sklyarenko@users.mns.ru>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 3:53 AM
Subject: Re: Query: Translation of Invitation to Beheading's "Mali e trano
t'amesti!"
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (46
lines) ------------------
> Dear Mr. Charles Byrd,
>
> V. L. Shokhina, author of the Commentary in one of the first Soviet
editions
> of VN's Russian novels (Romany, M. "Sovremennik", 1990), makes the
following
> note to this phrase:
>
> "With broken French words, Nabokov imitates the would-be Italian opera
> language - the beginning of the Onegin aria: "On uvazhat' sebya zastavil"
> (He has made one respect him). The macabre irony of the situation is in
the
> fact that the aria that Martha's brother begins to sing in the cell of the
> sentenced Cincinnatus continues: "Kakoe nizkoe kovarstvo poluzhivogo
> zabavliat'" (What base perfidiousness the half-alive one to amuse)."
>
> I have practically no French, to say nothing of Italian, but I doubt that
> this phrase can be "translated" into English or any other language.
> Apparently it means something only as an anagram.
>
> Alexey (Alexey Sklyarenko)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 11:33 PM
> Subject: Query: Translation of Invitation to Beheading's "Mali e trano
> t'amesti!"
>
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Charles Byrd" <byrdc@uga.edu>
> >
> > > I remember that Gennady Barabtarlo decoded the line, sung by
> > > one of Marthe's brothers in "Invitation to a Beheading," "Mali
> > > e trano t'amesti!" (103) as an anagram of the Russian "Smert'
> > > mila; eto taina!" but I can't seem to come up with a literal
> > > English translation of the line as it originally appears. This
> > > is Italian, isn't it?
> > >
> > > It would be great if you or anyone on the Nabokov list could
> > > translate the song lyric into English for me.
> > >
> > > Many thanks,
> > >
> > > Charles Byrd
> > > University of Georgia
> > >
>
From: "alex" <sklyarenko@users.mns.ru>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 3:53 AM
Subject: Re: Query: Translation of Invitation to Beheading's "Mali e trano
t'amesti!"
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (46
lines) ------------------
> Dear Mr. Charles Byrd,
>
> V. L. Shokhina, author of the Commentary in one of the first Soviet
editions
> of VN's Russian novels (Romany, M. "Sovremennik", 1990), makes the
following
> note to this phrase:
>
> "With broken French words, Nabokov imitates the would-be Italian opera
> language - the beginning of the Onegin aria: "On uvazhat' sebya zastavil"
> (He has made one respect him). The macabre irony of the situation is in
the
> fact that the aria that Martha's brother begins to sing in the cell of the
> sentenced Cincinnatus continues: "Kakoe nizkoe kovarstvo poluzhivogo
> zabavliat'" (What base perfidiousness the half-alive one to amuse)."
>
> I have practically no French, to say nothing of Italian, but I doubt that
> this phrase can be "translated" into English or any other language.
> Apparently it means something only as an anagram.
>
> Alexey (Alexey Sklyarenko)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 11:33 PM
> Subject: Query: Translation of Invitation to Beheading's "Mali e trano
> t'amesti!"
>
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Charles Byrd" <byrdc@uga.edu>
> >
> > > I remember that Gennady Barabtarlo decoded the line, sung by
> > > one of Marthe's brothers in "Invitation to a Beheading," "Mali
> > > e trano t'amesti!" (103) as an anagram of the Russian "Smert'
> > > mila; eto taina!" but I can't seem to come up with a literal
> > > English translation of the line as it originally appears. This
> > > is Italian, isn't it?
> > >
> > > It would be great if you or anyone on the Nabokov list could
> > > translate the song lyric into English for me.
> > >
> > > Many thanks,
> > >
> > > Charles Byrd
> > > University of Georgia
> > >
>