Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0021582, Mon, 2 May 2011 16:07:58 -0300

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[NABOKOV-L] Annabel's (& Lolita's) haircut? Comparing two
translations of Nabokov's book.
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Comparing two translations of "Lolita," I was puzzled about Annabel's (and Lolita's?) haircut: For Dauster it is brown and very short. whereas for Flaksman it is curly brown. Did Nabokov intend to describe the fashionable "bob hair-cut" (now in fashion again) or had he "bobs" (curlers) in his mind?

Flaksman's other choices are strange. He substituted "bare kneews" (joelhos nus) by "bare eyes" (olhos nus).
However, my prize find, until now, is "iliac crests" and "flared": Flaksman described something like "lilac colored crests that hadn't caught fire yet"
("labareda":tongues of fire, flames)

I've been trying to acquire translations made in Portugal ( the translation of "Pale Fire" has been considered the best of that year) but most of them are hard to come by. It's no wonder that Nabokov isn't as famous in Brazil as he is elsewhere in the world...

Nabokov There are two kinds of visual memory: one when skillfully re-create an image in the laboratory of your mind, with your eyes open (and then I see Annabel in such general terms as: 'honey-colored skin,' 'thin arms,' 'brown bobbed hair,' 'long lashes,' ...
Jorio Dauster Há dois tipos de memória visual: aquela em que, de olhos abertos, recriamos com habilidade uma imagem no laboratório da mente (e então vejo Annabel segundo categorias gerais, tais como: "pele cor de mel", "braços delgados", "cabelos castanhos cortados bem curtos", "cílios longos"...
S. Flaksman Existem dois tipos de memória visual: um em que recriamos com a máxima perícia uma imagem no laboratório da nossa mente, mantendo os olhos bem abertos (e aqui vejo Annabel em termos bem gerais, como "pele cor de mel", "braços finos","cabelo castanho cacheado", "cílios longos"...
Nabokov Through the darkness and the tender trees...whenever in her solitary ecstasy she was led to kiss me, her head would bend with a sleepy, soft, drooping movement that was almost woeful, and her bare knees caught and compressed my wrist, and slackened again...
Jorio Dauster Através da escuridão e das ávores esbeltas... e, toda vez que em seu êxtase solitário se sentia compelida a me beijar, a cabeça baixava suavemente num movimento lânguido e sonolento, quase pesaroso, os joelhos nus capturavam e comprimiam meu pulso para logo depois se afrouxarem...
S. Flaksman Através da escuridão e das ternas árvores ... e sempre que em seu êxtase solitário era levada a me beijar, sua cabeça se inclinava com um movimento descendente sonolento e suave que era quase pesaroso, seus olhos nus capturavam e comprimiam meu pulso, depois tornavam a afrouxar-se...

Nabokov The Lolita whose iliac crests had not yet flared, the that today I could touch and smell and hear and see...
Jorio Dauster A Lolita cuja pélvis ainda não se alargara, a Lolita que hoje eu podia tocar e cheirar e ouvir e ver...
S. Flaksman A Lolita cujas cristas lilases nunca haviam desprendido labaredas, a Lolita que hoje eu podia tocar e cheirar e ver...

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