Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004901, Fri, 17 Mar 2000 11:09:58 -0800

Subject
Re: Query: "Spring in Fialta" (fwd)
Date
Body
These 2 lines are not translated in the russian edition. I do not think it
is a real french song.

Bernard Kreise


>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