Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004820, Sun, 27 Feb 2000 16:12:29 -0800

Subject
Ada: new Italian translation
Date
Body
From: Loris Binotto <loris_64@libero.it>

Ada or ardor has been published in Italy by Adelphi on February, 12
without any of the clamour usual for a very important book. I had the good
fortune to read the first Italian translation of Ada (1971) made by Bruno
Oddera, and, in my opinion, that translation was better than the new one
by Margherita Crepax. It is, primarily, a stylistic difference. This last
version has lost the translator's footnotes. In Bruno Oddera's translation
- the redundant sentence "pezzo intraducibile" (untranslatable) was
inserted as the only honest way of respecting the unabridged version. I
feel, now, in each page, the efforts of the translator, and that's not
good - for me and for reading. Saturday morning, in the weekly supplement
(Tuttolibri, La Stampa) I read the first review of Ada, by Masolino
d'Amico. He said that Ada is The Finnegans Wake of Nabokov. I know Nabokov
opinion about this work of Joyce, but probably Mr. d'Amico doesn't know -
otherwise he had chosen something else. My impression is the same that
Nabokov wrote in Strong Opinions: the critic didn't read more than 12
pages. Mr. d'Amico mentions the incredible, aristocratic games-of-word and
of-intelligence, and says - says with a yawn!: Ada and Van are vague,
insubstantial, and only readers with a big stomach can find a marvellous
'gioco di lettere' - for the rest it's better go on page 500, where the
plot is clearing. Damn the plot! Probably he did this jump. But Ada and
Lucilla and Van are here, at the disposal of everyone who wants to
approach the wonderful world of Antiterra. If someone needs the original
Italian version review, don't hesitate to ask me.

Saluti,
- Loris Binotto