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Re: VN and Translating Bely
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From: Eric Naiman <naiman@socrates.berkeley.edu>
Many thanks to Alexander Dolinin for pointing out the appearance of
kubovyi in chapter 5 of Petersburg. For the sake of the reputation of
poor Cournos, I note that he translated kubovyi correctly: "The indigo
air." (Not that this accurate rendering redeems his entire translation...)
This does seem to be a case of Nabokov's memory failing him, but the odd
thing is that it failed him twice. Cournos doesn't use the phrase "cubic"
carriage, yet Nabokov claims that word is in the text (as a
mistranslation). He could not have read the Cournos translation before
1959, and his remark about it is made just a few years later. I'm still
struck by the affinity here between a bad translation and a good pun.
E. Naiman
Many thanks to Alexander Dolinin for pointing out the appearance of
kubovyi in chapter 5 of Petersburg. For the sake of the reputation of
poor Cournos, I note that he translated kubovyi correctly: "The indigo
air." (Not that this accurate rendering redeems his entire translation...)
This does seem to be a case of Nabokov's memory failing him, but the odd
thing is that it failed him twice. Cournos doesn't use the phrase "cubic"
carriage, yet Nabokov claims that word is in the text (as a
mistranslation). He could not have read the Cournos translation before
1959, and his remark about it is made just a few years later. I'm still
struck by the affinity here between a bad translation and a good pun.
E. Naiman