Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004895, Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:01:38 -0800

Subject
Query: "Spring in Fialta"
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. I do not have the 1936 issue of Sovremmenye zapiski that
"Vesna v Fialte" first appeared in, but the Chekhov Press edition of 1956
has only the French with no translation. Perhaps someone out there has a
xerox of the original Paris publication, but I would be most surprised if
_Sovremennye zapiski_ would translate the lines from French to Russian.
Personally, I wonder if someone can identify the song lyric
itself. Is it a French song?
--------------------------

From: Elena Rudolfovna Rakhimova <eara@mail.rochester.edu>


Elena Sommers
Ph. D. candidate
University of Rochester
Dep. of Modern Languages and Culture

My question has to do with the " sobbing ballad" that keeps "ringing
and ringing" in Vasen'ka's (Victor's) head as he sees Nina off at the train
station in the story "Spring in Fialta." The ballad is the following:

On dit que tu te maries,
tu sais que j'en vais mourir

(They say, you are getting married
you know, it is going to kill me)

Could someone tell me if Nabokov had these 2 lines translated into
Russian in a footnote when the story was published? I do not have the right
edition handy. The one I do have, came out in Russia in 1997 and does have
the ballad translated. I am finishing up a chapter on "Spring in Fialta" and
this one detail is important.

Thank you in advance.
eara@uhura.cc.rochester.edu