Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0009452, Wed, 17 Mar 2004 12:33:25 -0800

Subject
Query: Translation of Invitation to Beheading's "Mali e trano
t'amesti!"
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Byrd" <byrdc@uga.edu>

> I remember that Gennady Barabtarlo decoded the line, sung by
> one of Marthe's brothers in "Invitation to a Beheading," "Mali
> e trano t'amesti!" (103) as an anagram of the Russian "Smert'
> mila; eto taina!" but I can't seem to come up with a literal
> English translation of the line as it originally appears. This
> is Italian, isn't it?
>
> It would be great if you or anyone on the Nabokov list could
> translate the song lyric into English for me.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Charles Byrd
> University of Georgia
>