Subject
Re: Lolita ... sin, soul & 'gird up the loins of your mind'?
Date
Body
Hy all, and thanks for addressing me, Jansy,
I am really busy right now writing the postface to my translation, but in
answer to your query, I must say I could not resist Jorio Dauster's
translation, "minha alma, minha lama" and I "stole" from him (I explain
that on the postface, on account of the brilliancy of recovering also what
Nabokov would call the "[Portuguese] language heritage", since that pun is
a productive one in our lyrical 19th century. As for "loins" I did remember
the Biblical allusion and I chose "flancos" (another - discarded - option
would have been "lado"), which makes a nice alliteration. So, the whole 1st
paragraph goes like this:
Lolita, brilho da minha vida, fogo dos meus flancos. Minha alma, minha
lama. Lo-lii-ta: a ponta da língua enrola no palato e desliza, três
socalcos, até que estaca, ao terceiro, nos dentes. Lo. Li. Ta."
I might add more later, as this has been a really interesting challenge,
and I opted for the foreignizing trick of extending the heterolingualism to
the English language - that is, I chose "not to translate" some conspicuous
phrases that would remind the reader that besides lavishing on French turns
of phrase, Humbert was making a strident effort to answer to Nabokov's
affair with the suburban American "second-rate English".
Cheers to all,
Margarida
On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 5:56 PM, Jansy <jansy@aetern.us> wrote:
> **
> *Carolyn Kunin*: Interesting how beautiful it is in other, especially
> Latin, languages. Actually richer sounding than in French, surprisingly.
> Thanks for sharing this with us. I had grown weary of hearing it in
> English. Any other translations? Czech perhaps? or Polish? Russian, anyone?
> Italiano - it must be translated into all of these, oder?
>
> *Jansy Mello:* Here it is in Italian, translated by Giulia Arborio Mella: “Lolita,
> luce della mia vita, fuoco dei miei lombi. Mio peccato, anima mia.” Iloved all your finds qua "loins" but the "New Biblical" one, the
> "*obviously figurative example, 'Wherefore gird up the loins of your
> mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
> unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (1 Peter i.13), *is tops,
> when linked to the additional wiki's explanation about Roman's costumes:
> "prepare for war" (against sexual fantasies?)
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
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>
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I am really busy right now writing the postface to my translation, but in
answer to your query, I must say I could not resist Jorio Dauster's
translation, "minha alma, minha lama" and I "stole" from him (I explain
that on the postface, on account of the brilliancy of recovering also what
Nabokov would call the "[Portuguese] language heritage", since that pun is
a productive one in our lyrical 19th century. As for "loins" I did remember
the Biblical allusion and I chose "flancos" (another - discarded - option
would have been "lado"), which makes a nice alliteration. So, the whole 1st
paragraph goes like this:
Lolita, brilho da minha vida, fogo dos meus flancos. Minha alma, minha
lama. Lo-lii-ta: a ponta da língua enrola no palato e desliza, três
socalcos, até que estaca, ao terceiro, nos dentes. Lo. Li. Ta."
I might add more later, as this has been a really interesting challenge,
and I opted for the foreignizing trick of extending the heterolingualism to
the English language - that is, I chose "not to translate" some conspicuous
phrases that would remind the reader that besides lavishing on French turns
of phrase, Humbert was making a strident effort to answer to Nabokov's
affair with the suburban American "second-rate English".
Cheers to all,
Margarida
On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 5:56 PM, Jansy <jansy@aetern.us> wrote:
> **
> *Carolyn Kunin*: Interesting how beautiful it is in other, especially
> Latin, languages. Actually richer sounding than in French, surprisingly.
> Thanks for sharing this with us. I had grown weary of hearing it in
> English. Any other translations? Czech perhaps? or Polish? Russian, anyone?
> Italiano - it must be translated into all of these, oder?
>
> *Jansy Mello:* Here it is in Italian, translated by Giulia Arborio Mella: “Lolita,
> luce della mia vita, fuoco dei miei lombi. Mio peccato, anima mia.” Iloved all your finds qua "loins" but the "New Biblical" one, the
> "*obviously figurative example, 'Wherefore gird up the loins of your
> mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
> unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (1 Peter i.13), *is tops,
> when linked to the additional wiki's explanation about Roman's costumes:
> "prepare for war" (against sexual fantasies?)
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/