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Re: TT-2 Lying lawns
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------------------ "Lying Lawn" would be "Liegewiese" in German. The
wordplay doesn't work in German, but Dieter E. Zimmer's translation
explains the joke quite elegantly:
"Die Aufschrift war dreisprachig, und nur der deutsche Teil war sprachlich
korrekt. Der englische lautete: Lying Lawn, liegender oder lügender Rasen -
und wie mit Absicht hatte eine betrügerische Perspektive die Wiese zu
ungeheuerlichen Proportionen geweitet."
By the way, Zimmer translates the "seesaw" from the first chapter of TT
literally, i.e. as "Wippe".
Best regards,
Ludger
"D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> Comments re TT-1 are still in order but we move on to TT-2. Although any
> relevant observations are more than welcome, I mention
> a few things worthy of comment. There are many more. These are NOT "test"
> questions. I ask because I am far from certain of the full answers.
>
> ---------------------------------------------
> 1. NB the flurry of parenthetical remarks. Take a close look at them. As
> for the weird initial parenthesis (whatever else is going on), "Parson"
> (clergyman) does come from Person, but it seems unlikely that Peterson
> enters into the matter.
> 2. What do you make, if anything, of the "mnemoptical trick" re the color
> of the Ascot Hotel?
> 3. NB the shoebox from the yawning boot.--a wordplay possible only by
> continuing the Britishism of the opening "Hullo." Also note that ironic
> "Fit" on the shoebox.
> 4.Can someone tell us what the mistranslated "Lying Lawn"(with its
> "fraudulent perspective") is in the orignal German (where the wordplay
> probably doesn't work)?
> 5. H apparently mis-remembers his old room number when he guesses
> the "middle three-hundreds." It was 313. Significance??
>
> 6. Note the sneaky introduction of Armande via her substitute the
> receptionist. Also the sneaky mechanism via which we get the description
> of H's facial features. Barbara Wyllie in her NABOKOV IN FILM comments at
> length on the role of glass and reflecting surfaces in the novel (Ch. 7)
> as part of her analysis of VN's use of cinema-like techniques in TT. 7.
> Do you see anything (beyond rich humor) in the law about the destruction
> of the old hotel registers after the suicide of a former director? 8.
> The chapter ends with its hilarious survey of the hotel room and the real
> introduction of the "water theme" forecast by the novice
> "descendingnupright among the staring fish,"
> i.e. sinking into the past.
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
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D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L