Subject
Mlle O
From
Date
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I hope the message below, sent for the third time, reaches you in time to be
added to the theme of "Mlle O" with some continuity.
The matter with the false translation is not linked to Maurice Coutourier´s
French text nor with his work at all. I found it at the end of a mailing
with a newspaper link with a general comment on "Mlle O" . The slight
variation, when instead of "neighbor" we get a "she" ( who, actually, was
the neighbor ) implies a warmth that I never felt in VN´s original...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "L-Soft list server at UC Santa Barbara (1.8d)"
> <LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> To: <jansy@AETERN.US>
> Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:05 PM
> Subject: Message ("Your message dated Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:00:43...")
>
>
> > Your message dated Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:00:43 -0300 with subject
> "Mlle
> > O/French text at the end of ..." has been submitted to the moderators of
> the
> > NABOKV-L list.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:00 PM
> Subject: Mlle O/French text at the end of ...
>
> After I got a VN posting with SERGEI KARPUKHIN´s "mea culpa" in answer to
> Dmitri´s message, I went on to read a little about the French article on
"VN
> and Mlle O" that came at the end of his mailing.
>
> What is written there as VN´s is not exactly what VN wrote in SM (Vintage,
> page 110).
>
> In a rough translation from the French - corrections are welcome: " The
> writer, in search for truth, tries to recover the world as he perceived it
> when still a child. With a tenderness that resembles Proust´s own for his
> characters, Nabokov built the unforgettable portrait of the one that was
for
> him much more than a simple governess: " I imagine paradise as an endless
> book which she continuously read by the light of an eternal candle"
> The original:
> L'écrivain, en quête de vérité, tente de ressaisir le monde qu'enfant, il
> percevait. Avec une tendresse proche de celle de Proust pour ses
> personnages, Nabokov dresse le portrait inoubliable de celle qui fut bien
> plus qu'une simple institutrice : «Je m'imagine le paradis comme un livre
> interminable qu'elle lirait sans se lasser à la lumière d'une bougie
> éternelle.»
> http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=281604
> Roman. Vladimir Nabokov /Mademoiselle O Par Hélène PERRAUDEAU vendredi 11
> mars 2005
>
>
> VN wrote: " I am in acute distress, desperately trying to coax sleep,
> opening my eyes every few seconds to check the faded gleam, and imagining
> paradise as a place where a sleepless neighbor reads an endless book by
the
> light of an eternal candle" .
>
> Here we find the slivers of light and tinkling bottles that constantly
> emerge in Ada and elsewhere: " those inexorable steps, plodding along the
> passage and causing some fragile glass object, which had been secretly
> sharing my vigil, to vibrate in dismay on its shelf"... And here we find
a
> small boy in pajamas, plagued by regular night terrors while he hopes that
> Mademoiselle could linger a littile longer before putting out the lights.
> There is not special tenderness for her, Mlle O, in this particular
example.
> In French, her warm companionship is suggested and paradise and eternity a
> place linked to her! .
>
>
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
----- End forwarded message -----
added to the theme of "Mlle O" with some continuity.
The matter with the false translation is not linked to Maurice Coutourier´s
French text nor with his work at all. I found it at the end of a mailing
with a newspaper link with a general comment on "Mlle O" . The slight
variation, when instead of "neighbor" we get a "she" ( who, actually, was
the neighbor ) implies a warmth that I never felt in VN´s original...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "L-Soft list server at UC Santa Barbara (1.8d)"
> <LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> To: <jansy@AETERN.US>
> Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:05 PM
> Subject: Message ("Your message dated Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:00:43...")
>
>
> > Your message dated Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:00:43 -0300 with subject
> "Mlle
> > O/French text at the end of ..." has been submitted to the moderators of
> the
> > NABOKV-L list.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:00 PM
> Subject: Mlle O/French text at the end of ...
>
> After I got a VN posting with SERGEI KARPUKHIN´s "mea culpa" in answer to
> Dmitri´s message, I went on to read a little about the French article on
"VN
> and Mlle O" that came at the end of his mailing.
>
> What is written there as VN´s is not exactly what VN wrote in SM (Vintage,
> page 110).
>
> In a rough translation from the French - corrections are welcome: " The
> writer, in search for truth, tries to recover the world as he perceived it
> when still a child. With a tenderness that resembles Proust´s own for his
> characters, Nabokov built the unforgettable portrait of the one that was
for
> him much more than a simple governess: " I imagine paradise as an endless
> book which she continuously read by the light of an eternal candle"
> The original:
> L'écrivain, en quête de vérité, tente de ressaisir le monde qu'enfant, il
> percevait. Avec une tendresse proche de celle de Proust pour ses
> personnages, Nabokov dresse le portrait inoubliable de celle qui fut bien
> plus qu'une simple institutrice : «Je m'imagine le paradis comme un livre
> interminable qu'elle lirait sans se lasser à la lumière d'une bougie
> éternelle.»
> http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=281604
> Roman. Vladimir Nabokov /Mademoiselle O Par Hélène PERRAUDEAU vendredi 11
> mars 2005
>
>
> VN wrote: " I am in acute distress, desperately trying to coax sleep,
> opening my eyes every few seconds to check the faded gleam, and imagining
> paradise as a place where a sleepless neighbor reads an endless book by
the
> light of an eternal candle" .
>
> Here we find the slivers of light and tinkling bottles that constantly
> emerge in Ada and elsewhere: " those inexorable steps, plodding along the
> passage and causing some fragile glass object, which had been secretly
> sharing my vigil, to vibrate in dismay on its shelf"... And here we find
a
> small boy in pajamas, plagued by regular night terrors while he hopes that
> Mademoiselle could linger a littile longer before putting out the lights.
> There is not special tenderness for her, Mlle O, in this particular
example.
> In French, her warm companionship is suggested and paradise and eternity a
> place linked to her! .
>
>
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
----- End forwarded message -----