EDNote: my apologies: I placed my revision below the re-inserted post,
where it was easy to miss. Here it is again, at the top.
European=европеец/evropeets (yiv-rah-PAY-its). I believe Alexey is
commenting on the parallel between Nabokov's pun on "Gillette"/zhiletka
in Zemblan or Russian (note to line 70), where the Russian word
"zhilet" (waistcoat) and its diminutive are humorously juxtaposed with
the non-existent but attractive "zhiletka"--"little Gillette", and
Mandelstam's similar play with words mis-used due to phonetic
similarity. But since we don't know (as far as I can tell) whether
Kinbote claims "zhiletka" is Zemblan or Russian (Zemblan does adopt
some Russian vocabulary, and I don't remember if it, like Russian, uses
a -ka suffix for diminutives), we can't be sure whether this is simply
Kinbote/Botkin's deliberately playful Russian, a sign of his linguistic
ignorance, or simply his creation for Zemblan via extrapolation.
Mandelstam and Nabokov clearly shared an attraction to these kinds of
punning malapropisms. It would be fun to get running list of them in
VN's works, Russian and English. Jurgen Bodenstein's classic but rare
dissertation, "The Excitement of Verbal Adventure," catalogs many
examples of Nabokov's word play.
By the way, there is a fascinating and detailed study of the waistcoat
motif elsewhere in VN: Victoria Ivleva's "A Vest Reinvested in The
Gift, The Russian Review 68 (2), 2009: 283-301.
~SB
OK and thank you - so how do you say "a European"? And where is
Stephen's translation? And tell me again, what this has to do with
anything? Razor blades?
Carolyn
On Jul 27, 2012, at 7:31 AM, Nabokv-L wrote:
EDNote: I add my own revision of Aleksey's translation at the bottom of
the message--slightly more literal, with the punned/dual meanings
indicated. Although these verses are not about Nabokov, it would be
interesting if anyone on the list could elucidate the occasion for
their composition. ~SB
One Jew who must be a Komsomol member
Decided to portray everyday life of the gentry in
the old days:
The landowner is in a hurry to the order for
post-horses
Riding a mortgage to the sound of bells.
Confused by the phrases zakladyvat' loshadey
(harness the horses) and dorozhnyi traktir (roadside
inn), the author is supposed to misuse the terms zakladnaya
(mortgage) and podorozhnaya (order for post-horses).
Last time I translate anything into English.
Alexey
[SB's revision]:
A Jew, probably a Komsomol member,
Decided to portray everyday life of the gentry in the old days:
Riding his mortgage[carriage], to the sound of bells,
The landowner hurries to the order for post-horses[inn].