Subject
An ambiguous referent in translations of "Terra Incognita"
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My very alert students spotted an interesting and fairly important
variant in the published translations, by the author and Dmitri
Nabokov, of the 1931 short story "Terra Incognita." An earlier
version, published for example, in the "Portable Nabokov" concludes
with these two sentences (CAPS MINE):
"My last motion was to open the book, which was damp with my sweat, for
I absolutely had to make a note of something; but, alas, it slipped out
of my hand. I groped all along the blanket, but THE BOOK was no longer
there."
The later variant, in the collected "Stories," for example, has this as
a final sentence (CAPS STILL MINE):
"I groped all along the blanket, but IT was no longer there."
Is it the book, or the blanket, which is missing. This seems to me not
an insignificant difference, and it might cause one to rethink how the
story is read. Can anyone (including, perhaps, the translator himself)
shed any light on this? What is the Russian original, I wonder?
Thanks.
--------------------------------------
Sam
Dr. Samuel Schuman
Garrey Carruthers Distinguished Chair
in Honors
The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM (505) 277-4396
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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variant in the published translations, by the author and Dmitri
Nabokov, of the 1931 short story "Terra Incognita." An earlier
version, published for example, in the "Portable Nabokov" concludes
with these two sentences (CAPS MINE):
"My last motion was to open the book, which was damp with my sweat, for
I absolutely had to make a note of something; but, alas, it slipped out
of my hand. I groped all along the blanket, but THE BOOK was no longer
there."
The later variant, in the collected "Stories," for example, has this as
a final sentence (CAPS STILL MINE):
"I groped all along the blanket, but IT was no longer there."
Is it the book, or the blanket, which is missing. This seems to me not
an insignificant difference, and it might cause one to rethink how the
story is read. Can anyone (including, perhaps, the translator himself)
shed any light on this? What is the Russian original, I wonder?
Thanks.
--------------------------------------
Sam
Dr. Samuel Schuman
Garrey Carruthers Distinguished Chair
in Honors
The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM (505) 277-4396
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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