Dear List,
After having been
informed by Dmitri Nabokov that what I set down as a jingle was "in
fact, a serious poem, which appeared, in slightly different form, with a second
verse and under the title 'On Translating Eugene Onegin,' in Poems and
Problems," I hasten to share the correction with the List.*
Actually, the word "jingle" came
from Georg Steiner. Cf. "No Passion Spent -Essays 1978-1996",
Faber&Faber, 1996, page 201** If one considers that in its rough draft
(written for Dmitri, on Dec. 1953, Ithaca, N.Y) VN notes that
"this is the rhyme-scheme of 'Onegin'," the
application of the word "jingle" to the poem is extremely inadequate.
The copy of both ( P&P and the holograph
of its original) shall be soon posted to the List., in
separate. A rare opportunity to see and read one of VN's original
manuscripted page.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
*- (cf.message of Nov.3,2009 to the List)
** - G.Steiner wrote: "One thinks
of the long, lamentable history of successive 'translations' into English and
American English of Dante and Goethe. Nabokov's jingle is a mordant
summation: 'What is translation? On a
platter...'"