Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011251, Sun, 20 Mar 2005 11:24:09 -0800

Subject
Re: Fwd: John Donne and Ada
Date
Body
Dear Boyd,

Donne´s poem was translated by Augusto de Campos and set into music and
sung by Caetano in 1980, apparently during a BBC feature on John Donne. I
came across this information in an article written by Ana Cristina César (
Pensamentos Sublimes sobre o Ato de Traduzir) but I haven´t heard Caetano
himself sing it.
I´ll ask around.
Jansy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2005 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: John Donne and Ada


Dear Jansy,

I love Caetano Veloso. Where does this Donne poem appear?

Brian Boyd

________________________________

From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum on behalf of Donald B. Johnson
Sent: Sat 3/19/2005 12:31 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fwd: John Donne and Ada





----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:12:33 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: John Donne and Ada
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum

Dear Don and List,

Several authors saw an analogy bt. Lolita ( a new land, America ) and
Humbert
Humbert ( the old continent) and John Updike wrote " His most gracious
compliment to the United States was to merge it, in Ada, with the Russia of
his
memory to make one paradisal Antiterra"
( I´m certain that B.Boyd would consider this "paradisal Antiterra" with a
grain
of salt and fluff?)

I just came across a quotation of a long poem of John Donne ( set into music
and
translated by one of our leading musicians, Caetano Veloso, with a happy
result
) that made me think about America and Ada in a different way from Updike´s.

Here it is:
License my roaving hands, and let them go,
Before, behind, between, above, below.
O my america! my new-found-lande,
My kingdome, safliest when with one man man´d.
My Myne of precious stones, My Emperie,
How blest and I in this discovering thee!
To enter in these bonds, is to be free;
.....................
To taste whole joves ...like books gay covering made
For lay-men, are all women thus array´d;
Themselves are mystick books, which only wee
( Whom their imputed grace will dignifie)
Must see reveal´d. Then since that I may know...

( John Donne - " Going to Bed" )

Ada, "a mystick book" ... "America, new-found-lande... "

Just a curiosity, perhaps it might interest someone else...

----- End forwarded message -----

----- End forwarded message -----

----- End forwarded message -----