Subject
Ilyin VN projects
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. From time to time I ask subscribers about their current
Nabokov work. Moscow translator Sergey B. Ilyin <isb@glas.apc.org>
provides the information below. I thank him for his contribution and
encourage other NABOKV-L subscribers to do the same.
--------------------------------------------------
My Nabokov projects fall into two categories: publishing hopes and
translating ambitions. As for the "hopes," the first is that the journal
Novaia Iunost' is preparing to publish my translation of TRANSPARENT
THINGS; secondly, an organization called "Book by Mail" (Kniga pochtoi)
plans (as it were) to launch a subscription edition of 5 or 6 volumes of
VN's translated prose next year. It will include, first: VN's own
translations --absolutely LOLITA and, presumably, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, as
well as NIKOLKA PERSIK (VN's translation of Romain Rolland's COLAS
BREUGNON), and probably VN's poetry translations; secondly--NIKOLAI GOGOL
(possibly) and THE LECTURES ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE; and,
thirdly--translations by your humble servant. The contents of the edition
are not, so far as I know, as yet firmly settled, but subscriptions are to
begin in August 1996.
As for my own translation plans--they, alas, can no longer be
"Nabokovian." I have translated all of VN's prose and published almost all
of it, apart from ADA, TRANSPARENT THINGS, and LATH! The latter, apparently
at Dmitri Nabokov's wish, will remain on diskette. All the rest should go
into the 5-6 volume set mentioned above. Nonetheless, I do have other
translation projects. The most immediate is a book long dear to me-- Mervyn
Peake's GORMENGHAST. (I would also like to take a look at Edmund White's
FORGETTING ELENA that VN very much liked but I haven't been able to get
hold of a copy.) Norman Douglas' SOUTH WIND, recommended by VN, I
translated a couple of years ago, but I haven't found a publisher for it
as yet. I do these things on my own, con amore, without any contracts
from publishers. Properly speaking, I have translated two novels on
commission, i.e., about a quarter of what has gotten published--not
counting two detective novels that I did to earn my "daily bread."
I'll write about the film scenario before long.
Nabokov work. Moscow translator Sergey B. Ilyin <isb@glas.apc.org>
provides the information below. I thank him for his contribution and
encourage other NABOKV-L subscribers to do the same.
--------------------------------------------------
My Nabokov projects fall into two categories: publishing hopes and
translating ambitions. As for the "hopes," the first is that the journal
Novaia Iunost' is preparing to publish my translation of TRANSPARENT
THINGS; secondly, an organization called "Book by Mail" (Kniga pochtoi)
plans (as it were) to launch a subscription edition of 5 or 6 volumes of
VN's translated prose next year. It will include, first: VN's own
translations --absolutely LOLITA and, presumably, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, as
well as NIKOLKA PERSIK (VN's translation of Romain Rolland's COLAS
BREUGNON), and probably VN's poetry translations; secondly--NIKOLAI GOGOL
(possibly) and THE LECTURES ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE; and,
thirdly--translations by your humble servant. The contents of the edition
are not, so far as I know, as yet firmly settled, but subscriptions are to
begin in August 1996.
As for my own translation plans--they, alas, can no longer be
"Nabokovian." I have translated all of VN's prose and published almost all
of it, apart from ADA, TRANSPARENT THINGS, and LATH! The latter, apparently
at Dmitri Nabokov's wish, will remain on diskette. All the rest should go
into the 5-6 volume set mentioned above. Nonetheless, I do have other
translation projects. The most immediate is a book long dear to me-- Mervyn
Peake's GORMENGHAST. (I would also like to take a look at Edmund White's
FORGETTING ELENA that VN very much liked but I haven't been able to get
hold of a copy.) Norman Douglas' SOUTH WIND, recommended by VN, I
translated a couple of years ago, but I haven't found a publisher for it
as yet. I do these things on my own, con amore, without any contracts
from publishers. Properly speaking, I have translated two novels on
commission, i.e., about a quarter of what has gotten published--not
counting two detective novels that I did to earn my "daily bread."
I'll write about the film scenario before long.