Subject
Fw: 'throat pit' in The Gift and Nabokov's English word choices
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EDNOTE: See bottom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Howell" <pakmshlter@yahoo.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (39
lines) ------------------
> On a similar tack to the earlier posts regarding
> 'clathrate skirts' in Lolita, a little while back I
> was searching for a word for a story I was writing
> that meant the part in a woman's throat where a man's
> Adam's Apple is. I put out various queries for a word
> I thought I had come across somewhere that wasn't too
> technical. It was on the tip of my tongue though now I
> wonder if it was a phantom. All of the responses were
> very technical/medical (one I liked was delphian).
> Nabokov might have used that but it was too technical
> for the voice of my character (sorry for the pun).
>
> Then, by chance (I won't say pure chance because I
> don't know if chance can be truly pure if you are
> interested in words as a writer and you are reading
> Nabokov, a bit like picking up a loaded gun and
> thinking it can't go off), towards the end of _The
> Gift_ I came across the disarmingly simple 'throat
> pit', referring to Zina (p.329, Penguin 1981, trans.
> Michael Scammell with DN), as in 'Zina - her cheeks,
> her narrowed eyes, her throat pit, her fragile
> clavicle'. At first I thought this was quite an ugly
> way to describe that part of the throat but it has
> grown on me. Any thoughts?
>
> Brian Howell
>
>
> Japan
>
>
> =====
--------------------------------------------------------------------
EDNOTE. Brian's note prompted me to squander a pleasant hour looking into
Zina's 'throat pit' and the issue of VN's comparatively straightforward
Russian lexicon vs his often arcane English vocabulary. For those who don't
know, English has a MUCH larger word stock than Russian. Below I give the
parallel Russian (original) and the Scammel-Nabokov English phrases. In this
case, it seems that VN uses a simple but rare (in the sense of "throat pit")
Russian word DUSHKA in the phrase "dushka na shee." DUSHKA, usually meaning
"a dear, nice person" is etymologically linked to DUSHA in the sense of
"soul," or a la Gogol "a serf," and, more remotely, to the roots for
"breath" & "breathe." I do not find DUSHKA in the sense of "throat pit" in
any recent Russian dictionary at hand but only in VN's beloved Dal'--a four
volume dictionary from the late XIXth century where it is defined as "the
little pit in the throat" (yamochka v gorle). So far as I know, English
doesn't have a non-technical anatomical term for this area--although perhaps
one of NABOKV-L's MDs or anatomists knows of one. (If so, please advise.) In
this case, VN seems, in the absence of an English equivalent, to have
provided a literal translation of Dal's Russian definition rather than an
English technical term as was his wont.
'Zina - her cheeks, her narrowed eyes, her throat pit, her fragile
clavicle'
Туман какой-то грусти обволок Зину - ее щеки, прищуренные глаза, душку на
шее, косточку, - и этому как-то способствовал бледный дым ее папиросы.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Howell" <pakmshlter@yahoo.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (39
lines) ------------------
> On a similar tack to the earlier posts regarding
> 'clathrate skirts' in Lolita, a little while back I
> was searching for a word for a story I was writing
> that meant the part in a woman's throat where a man's
> Adam's Apple is. I put out various queries for a word
> I thought I had come across somewhere that wasn't too
> technical. It was on the tip of my tongue though now I
> wonder if it was a phantom. All of the responses were
> very technical/medical (one I liked was delphian).
> Nabokov might have used that but it was too technical
> for the voice of my character (sorry for the pun).
>
> Then, by chance (I won't say pure chance because I
> don't know if chance can be truly pure if you are
> interested in words as a writer and you are reading
> Nabokov, a bit like picking up a loaded gun and
> thinking it can't go off), towards the end of _The
> Gift_ I came across the disarmingly simple 'throat
> pit', referring to Zina (p.329, Penguin 1981, trans.
> Michael Scammell with DN), as in 'Zina - her cheeks,
> her narrowed eyes, her throat pit, her fragile
> clavicle'. At first I thought this was quite an ugly
> way to describe that part of the throat but it has
> grown on me. Any thoughts?
>
> Brian Howell
>
>
> Japan
>
>
> =====
--------------------------------------------------------------------
EDNOTE. Brian's note prompted me to squander a pleasant hour looking into
Zina's 'throat pit' and the issue of VN's comparatively straightforward
Russian lexicon vs his often arcane English vocabulary. For those who don't
know, English has a MUCH larger word stock than Russian. Below I give the
parallel Russian (original) and the Scammel-Nabokov English phrases. In this
case, it seems that VN uses a simple but rare (in the sense of "throat pit")
Russian word DUSHKA in the phrase "dushka na shee." DUSHKA, usually meaning
"a dear, nice person" is etymologically linked to DUSHA in the sense of
"soul," or a la Gogol "a serf," and, more remotely, to the roots for
"breath" & "breathe." I do not find DUSHKA in the sense of "throat pit" in
any recent Russian dictionary at hand but only in VN's beloved Dal'--a four
volume dictionary from the late XIXth century where it is defined as "the
little pit in the throat" (yamochka v gorle). So far as I know, English
doesn't have a non-technical anatomical term for this area--although perhaps
one of NABOKV-L's MDs or anatomists knows of one. (If so, please advise.) In
this case, VN seems, in the absence of an English equivalent, to have
provided a literal translation of Dal's Russian definition rather than an
English technical term as was his wont.
'Zina - her cheeks, her narrowed eyes, her throat pit, her fragile
clavicle'
Туман какой-то грусти обволок Зину - ее щеки, прищуренные глаза, душку на
шее, косточку, - и этому как-то способствовал бледный дым ее папиросы.