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EDNOTE. Dmitri Nabokov, his father's best translator, not only translated much of his father's Russian work into English but also did the Italian translation of _Transparent Things_. The enclosed attachments provide selected pages illustrating how particular issues were resolved. NABOKV-L thanks DN for this material. I hope that one of our Italian speakers can provide a translation of the brief "Translator's Introduction."

Hence I have had time to do no more than follow the truly excellent discussion of TT, a thin volume that, on first sight, appears to some as Nabokov in decline, but that, upon a closer reading, reveals an extraordinary originality. My compliments to all. In case anybody is interested, I am attaching my mini-preface and the first two mini-chapters of the Italian translation, for which I take total responsibility (there was no Italianized Mr. N. looking over my shoulder). A couple of questions get answered along the way: for example, the translation of see-saw (altalena), the very deliberate momentary shift to the present tense ("Persona paga alacre autista"), and the best I could do to rescue the pun on another kind of shift. An even more entertaining pun awaits those who continue.