Subject
Konskie deti
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Alexey Sklyarenko: In Pushkin's Ruslan and Lyudmila...the magic cap
makes the heroine invisible*. Nabokov seems to cross pagan (sun god
Hors) and Christian (chudotvornaya, miracle-working, Yukonsk Ikon)
miracles. If turned into a man, Lucette would be Lucien. In Ada (3.8),
Lucien is a concierge at Les Trois Cygnes, a hotel in Mont Roux:
'Lucien,' said Dr Veen, peering over his spectacles, 'I may have - as
your predecessor would know - all kinds of queer visitors, magicians,
masked ladies, madmen - que sais-je? and I expect miracles of secrecy
from all three mute swans. Here's a prefatory bonus.' / 'Merci
infiniment,' said the concierge, and, as usual, Van felt infinitely
touched by the courteous hyperbole provoking no dearth of philosophical
thought.".Btw., Lucette, with her jeweled head and "struthious" dress
(3.5), is linked to the beautiful Tsarevna Lebed' (Swan Princess) from
Pushkin's Skazka o tsare Saltane ("The Fairy Tale about Czar Saltan,"
1831).
JM: How fortunate that translations and versions don't alter the
character's gender. Interesting link bt. Lucette and Lucien, emphasizing
the "Three Swans." Van usually praises Ada's "cyrgneous hand" and her
long swan-like neck ( "the Lucette line of her exposed neck") in an
equivocal way, since Van himself courts her like a Jupiter Olorinus (
ie, Zeus under the disguise of a white swan seducing Leda). The quotes
below are difficult to disentangle!
Ada:"Their open mouths met in tender fury, and then he pounced upon her
new, young, divine, Japanese neck which he had been coveting like a
veritable Jupiter Olorinus throughout the evening."
This led me to a set of scrabble the three children ( three swans?)
received from Marina's former lover, Baron Klim Avidov. Its rectangles
were "of ebony inlaid with platinum letters, only one of which was a
Roman one, namely the letter J on the two joker blocks (as thrilling to
get as a blank check signed by Jupiter or Jurojin). It was,
incidentally, the same kindly but touchy Avidov (mentioned in many racy
memoirs of the time) who once catapulted with an uppercut an unfortunate
English tourist into the porter’s lodge for his jokingly remarking how
clever it was to drop the first letter of one’s name in order to use it
as a particule, at the Gritz, in Venezia Rossa."
and to an event, in the vicinity of the "Three Swans," when Ada and Van
make the entire surroundings cinematically invisible due to a "twist of
time" and where Van (and not the anagramatic Avidov) has a tiff with a
tourist:
" He pushed through the revolving door of the Bellevue, tripped over a
gaudy suitcase, and made his entrée at a ridiculous run. The concierge
snapped at the unfortunate green-aproned cameriere, who had left the bag
there....A German tourist caught up with him, to apologize, effusively,
and not without humor, for the offending object, which, he said, was
his./‘If so,’ remarked Van, ‘you should not allow spas to slap their
stickers on your private appendages.’/ His reply was inept, and the
whole episode had a faint paramnesic tang — and next instant Van was
shot dead from behind (such things happen, some tourists are very
unbalanced) and stepped into his next phase of existence/... Ada... was
hurrying toward him. Her solitary and precipitate advance consumed in
reverse all the years of their separation as she changed from a
dark-glittering stranger with the high hair-do in fashion to the
pale-armed girl in black who had always belonged to him. At that
particular twist of time they happened to be the only people
conspicuously erect and active in the huge room, and heads turned and
eyes peered when the two met in the middle of it as on a stage...he
raised to his unbending lips and kissed her cygneous hand, and then they
stood still...the Lucette line of her exposed neck, slender and
straight, came as a heartrending surprise."
Sergey Sakoun: The novel "Защита Лужина" (“Luzhin defense”) was
translated into English very exact, (I made a list of all diffebetween original and translate) except Russian words and terms not
familiar to English readers, and some idioms: "Being born in this world
is hardly to be borne," instead of “Это ложь, что в театре нет лож”
(This is a lie that in theatre has no boxes), 'rented with a long view
but at short notice' instead of "квартиру на барскую ногу, снятую на скорую
руку" (flat on a landlord’s foot, rented on a fast hand).
On contrary for example such novels as “King Queen Knave” or “Laughter
in the Dark”, that was translated into English very markedly differ from
original and welcome of the reverse translation on Russian. (But no
sense to translate “The Defense” back into Russian) This is another
argument that allegory-chess pattern of the novel, based on
interrelationship of details, and was carefully (word for word) kept in
English text.
JM: Thanks to Sergey Sarkoun for the careful match between the English
and the Russian sentences in "The Defense" and his translations.
In relation to the former posting about "shaggy" and "horse", I'd like
to remind him that Nabokov often resorted to the word "shaggy" when he
referred to dogs and to something devilish (particularly black dogs, as
in his early "Nursery Tale" or those of the skye terrier kind).
.......................................................................................
* Wikipedia: "Cloaks of invisibility are relatively rare in folklore;
although they do occur in some fairy tales, such as The Twelve Dancing
Princesses, a more common trope is the cap of invisibility. The cap of
invisibility has appeared in Greek myth: Hades was ascribed possession
of a cap or helmet that made the wearer invisible. In some versions of
the Perseus myth, Perseus borrows this cap from the goddess Athena and
uses it to sneak up on the sleeping Medusa when he kills her. A similar
helmet, the Tarnhelm, is found in Norse mythology. In the Second Branch
of the Mabinogi, one of the important texts of Welsh mythology,
Caswallawn (the historical Cassivellaunus) murders Caradog ap Bran and
other chieftains left in charge of Britain while wearing a cloak of
invisibility.[...] In classical mythology, the Cap of Invisibility (Ἄϊδος
κυνέην (H)aidos kuneēn in Greek, lit. dog-skin of Hades) is a helmet or
cap that can turn the wearer invisible...Wearers of the cap in Greek
myths include the goddess of wisdom Athena, the messenger god Hermes,
and the hero Perseus...The Bibliotheca (2nd/1st century BC) implies that
the Helm of Invisibility was created by the Uranian Cyclopes, who gave
Zeus the thunderbolt,Poseidon the trident, and a helmet to Hades for
their war against the Titans (Titanomachy)... In the classical mythology
of the Renaissance, however, the helmet is regularly said to belong to
the god of the underworld, and becomes proverbial for those who conceal
their true nature by a cunning device."
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makes the heroine invisible*. Nabokov seems to cross pagan (sun god
Hors) and Christian (chudotvornaya, miracle-working, Yukonsk Ikon)
miracles. If turned into a man, Lucette would be Lucien. In Ada (3.8),
Lucien is a concierge at Les Trois Cygnes, a hotel in Mont Roux:
'Lucien,' said Dr Veen, peering over his spectacles, 'I may have - as
your predecessor would know - all kinds of queer visitors, magicians,
masked ladies, madmen - que sais-je? and I expect miracles of secrecy
from all three mute swans. Here's a prefatory bonus.' / 'Merci
infiniment,' said the concierge, and, as usual, Van felt infinitely
touched by the courteous hyperbole provoking no dearth of philosophical
thought.".Btw., Lucette, with her jeweled head and "struthious" dress
(3.5), is linked to the beautiful Tsarevna Lebed' (Swan Princess) from
Pushkin's Skazka o tsare Saltane ("The Fairy Tale about Czar Saltan,"
1831).
JM: How fortunate that translations and versions don't alter the
character's gender. Interesting link bt. Lucette and Lucien, emphasizing
the "Three Swans." Van usually praises Ada's "cyrgneous hand" and her
long swan-like neck ( "the Lucette line of her exposed neck") in an
equivocal way, since Van himself courts her like a Jupiter Olorinus (
ie, Zeus under the disguise of a white swan seducing Leda). The quotes
below are difficult to disentangle!
Ada:"Their open mouths met in tender fury, and then he pounced upon her
new, young, divine, Japanese neck which he had been coveting like a
veritable Jupiter Olorinus throughout the evening."
This led me to a set of scrabble the three children ( three swans?)
received from Marina's former lover, Baron Klim Avidov. Its rectangles
were "of ebony inlaid with platinum letters, only one of which was a
Roman one, namely the letter J on the two joker blocks (as thrilling to
get as a blank check signed by Jupiter or Jurojin). It was,
incidentally, the same kindly but touchy Avidov (mentioned in many racy
memoirs of the time) who once catapulted with an uppercut an unfortunate
English tourist into the porter’s lodge for his jokingly remarking how
clever it was to drop the first letter of one’s name in order to use it
as a particule, at the Gritz, in Venezia Rossa."
and to an event, in the vicinity of the "Three Swans," when Ada and Van
make the entire surroundings cinematically invisible due to a "twist of
time" and where Van (and not the anagramatic Avidov) has a tiff with a
tourist:
" He pushed through the revolving door of the Bellevue, tripped over a
gaudy suitcase, and made his entrée at a ridiculous run. The concierge
snapped at the unfortunate green-aproned cameriere, who had left the bag
there....A German tourist caught up with him, to apologize, effusively,
and not without humor, for the offending object, which, he said, was
his./‘If so,’ remarked Van, ‘you should not allow spas to slap their
stickers on your private appendages.’/ His reply was inept, and the
whole episode had a faint paramnesic tang — and next instant Van was
shot dead from behind (such things happen, some tourists are very
unbalanced) and stepped into his next phase of existence/... Ada... was
hurrying toward him. Her solitary and precipitate advance consumed in
reverse all the years of their separation as she changed from a
dark-glittering stranger with the high hair-do in fashion to the
pale-armed girl in black who had always belonged to him. At that
particular twist of time they happened to be the only people
conspicuously erect and active in the huge room, and heads turned and
eyes peered when the two met in the middle of it as on a stage...he
raised to his unbending lips and kissed her cygneous hand, and then they
stood still...the Lucette line of her exposed neck, slender and
straight, came as a heartrending surprise."
Sergey Sakoun: The novel "Защита Лужина" (“Luzhin defense”) was
translated into English very exact, (I made a list of all diffebetween original and translate) except Russian words and terms not
familiar to English readers, and some idioms: "Being born in this world
is hardly to be borne," instead of “Это ложь, что в театре нет лож”
(This is a lie that in theatre has no boxes), 'rented with a long view
but at short notice' instead of "квартиру на барскую ногу, снятую на скорую
руку" (flat on a landlord’s foot, rented on a fast hand).
On contrary for example such novels as “King Queen Knave” or “Laughter
in the Dark”, that was translated into English very markedly differ from
original and welcome of the reverse translation on Russian. (But no
sense to translate “The Defense” back into Russian) This is another
argument that allegory-chess pattern of the novel, based on
interrelationship of details, and was carefully (word for word) kept in
English text.
JM: Thanks to Sergey Sarkoun for the careful match between the English
and the Russian sentences in "The Defense" and his translations.
In relation to the former posting about "shaggy" and "horse", I'd like
to remind him that Nabokov often resorted to the word "shaggy" when he
referred to dogs and to something devilish (particularly black dogs, as
in his early "Nursery Tale" or those of the skye terrier kind).
.......................................................................................
* Wikipedia: "Cloaks of invisibility are relatively rare in folklore;
although they do occur in some fairy tales, such as The Twelve Dancing
Princesses, a more common trope is the cap of invisibility. The cap of
invisibility has appeared in Greek myth: Hades was ascribed possession
of a cap or helmet that made the wearer invisible. In some versions of
the Perseus myth, Perseus borrows this cap from the goddess Athena and
uses it to sneak up on the sleeping Medusa when he kills her. A similar
helmet, the Tarnhelm, is found in Norse mythology. In the Second Branch
of the Mabinogi, one of the important texts of Welsh mythology,
Caswallawn (the historical Cassivellaunus) murders Caradog ap Bran and
other chieftains left in charge of Britain while wearing a cloak of
invisibility.[...] In classical mythology, the Cap of Invisibility (Ἄϊδος
κυνέην (H)aidos kuneēn in Greek, lit. dog-skin of Hades) is a helmet or
cap that can turn the wearer invisible...Wearers of the cap in Greek
myths include the goddess of wisdom Athena, the messenger god Hermes,
and the hero Perseus...The Bibliotheca (2nd/1st century BC) implies that
the Helm of Invisibility was created by the Uranian Cyclopes, who gave
Zeus the thunderbolt,Poseidon the trident, and a helmet to Hades for
their war against the Titans (Titanomachy)... In the classical mythology
of the Renaissance, however, the helmet is regularly said to belong to
the god of the underworld, and becomes proverbial for those who conceal
their true nature by a cunning device."
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/