Subject
Re: Fwd: Ada: ulybnuvshis' slegka (with a slight smile)
From
Date
Body
"Slegka ulybnuvshis'" or "slegka ulybaias'" is a descriptive cliche in the
19th century Russian prose.
Tolstoy used it many times: see, for example, a conversation of soldiers in
part 4 of "Rubka lesa".
There are quite a few examples in War and Peace (e.g. "No ved' pravda, chto
vy ostalis', chtoby ubit' Napoleona"--sprosila ego Natasha, slegka
ulybaias'"--IV, IV) and in Anna Karenin ("slegka ulybnuvshis', Vronskii
prodolzhal govorit' so Sviazhskim"--VI, XXX). It was also used by Turgenev,
Dostoevsky, Kuprin and many other writers.
What is admissible though trite in a traditional authorial description of
a character seems to be inappropriate when a poet speaks about himself (one
is unable to see and describe one's own smile): hence Nabokov's remark
concerning Knut. The two lines he quotes are bad not only because Knut
misuses the prosaic cliche. "Na blestiashchem salonnom parkete" is also
very awkward.
Alexander Dolinin
>While reading Ada and some of VN's early reviews, I stumbled on the following:
>In Chapter 5 of Ada, Van responds to Marina's remark: "I hope you speak
>Russian?" with the words:
>
>"Neohotno no sovershenno svobodno (reluctantly but quite fluently),"
>replied Van, slegka ulybnuvshis' (with a slight smile).
>
>Darkbloom says this is "a pet formula of Tolstoy's denoting cool
>superiority, if not smugness, in a character's manner of speech.."
>
>Does anyone recall a place in Tolstoy where this formulation occurs? An
>odd thing is that the phrase surfaces in Nabokov's 1928 review of Dovid
>Knut's book of poetry, where it is part of two lines that -- according to
>Nabokov -- ruin an otherwise splendid poem. "zatem, chtob teper' na
>blestiashchem salonnom parkete ia mog poklonit'sia tebe, ulybnuvshis'
>slegka" (slegka!). Nabokov obviously draws particular attention to the
>"slegka" as absurd.
>
>Why exactly does "ulybnushis' slegka" so bad? Is the absurdity semantic --
>the ridiculousness of doing something in order to do something else w. a
>slight smile -- or stylistic, in which case it undercuts Van as well? (or
>did VN forget he criticized this in Knut when he found in in Tolstoy). Or
>is the whole point that you can add an s to both "legkii" and "light" and
>in either case it works for a description of this smile?
>Eric Naiman
>
>----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
19th century Russian prose.
Tolstoy used it many times: see, for example, a conversation of soldiers in
part 4 of "Rubka lesa".
There are quite a few examples in War and Peace (e.g. "No ved' pravda, chto
vy ostalis', chtoby ubit' Napoleona"--sprosila ego Natasha, slegka
ulybaias'"--IV, IV) and in Anna Karenin ("slegka ulybnuvshis', Vronskii
prodolzhal govorit' so Sviazhskim"--VI, XXX). It was also used by Turgenev,
Dostoevsky, Kuprin and many other writers.
What is admissible though trite in a traditional authorial description of
a character seems to be inappropriate when a poet speaks about himself (one
is unable to see and describe one's own smile): hence Nabokov's remark
concerning Knut. The two lines he quotes are bad not only because Knut
misuses the prosaic cliche. "Na blestiashchem salonnom parkete" is also
very awkward.
Alexander Dolinin
>While reading Ada and some of VN's early reviews, I stumbled on the following:
>In Chapter 5 of Ada, Van responds to Marina's remark: "I hope you speak
>Russian?" with the words:
>
>"Neohotno no sovershenno svobodno (reluctantly but quite fluently),"
>replied Van, slegka ulybnuvshis' (with a slight smile).
>
>Darkbloom says this is "a pet formula of Tolstoy's denoting cool
>superiority, if not smugness, in a character's manner of speech.."
>
>Does anyone recall a place in Tolstoy where this formulation occurs? An
>odd thing is that the phrase surfaces in Nabokov's 1928 review of Dovid
>Knut's book of poetry, where it is part of two lines that -- according to
>Nabokov -- ruin an otherwise splendid poem. "zatem, chtob teper' na
>blestiashchem salonnom parkete ia mog poklonit'sia tebe, ulybnuvshis'
>slegka" (slegka!). Nabokov obviously draws particular attention to the
>"slegka" as absurd.
>
>Why exactly does "ulybnushis' slegka" so bad? Is the absurdity semantic --
>the ridiculousness of doing something in order to do something else w. a
>slight smile -- or stylistic, in which case it undercuts Van as well? (or
>did VN forget he criticized this in Knut when he found in in Tolstoy). Or
>is the whole point that you can add an s to both "legkii" and "light" and
>in either case it works for a description of this smile?
>Eric Naiman
>
>----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----