Subject
{SIGHTING] Poet and translator Ana C. - very unexpectedly.
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In a posthumour edition of Ana Cristina César's "Letters" ("A.C - Correspondência Incompleta", Aeroplano editora, 1999) I came across a reference to Nabokov
Portsmouth, March 7, 1980.
"I'm attempting yoga, psychology manuals e varied rituals such as taking down dreams, perfecting diaries and heart-of-palm soufflés, learning English with Nabokov (for the first time do I see the English language in Lolita, it was Armando who told me to read it for some psychoanalytic reason - ...) What I admire in Lolita, is it's long sinuous syntax, the kind the Campos Brothers dislike, but it's [Nabokov's] syntax that makes me tick, and so what (sic)?" (p.41-42)
the translation is mine.
On p.57 she quotes in English Emily Dickinson (she is the process of translating her into Portuguese, while working on Katherine Mansfield and feminine/masculine women writers): "Going-to-her! / Happy-letter! Tell her -/Tell her - the page I never wrote!/ Tell her, I only said the syntax - /And left the Verb and the Pronoun - out! - "
Funny AC "sees" the English language when she reads Nabokov. Myself, I feel his words roll like marbles in my mouth, a sensuous and concrete and external experience with a foreign language that he forbids me to inhabit.
I wonder how different non-native English readers react to VN's slithering sentences.
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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Portsmouth, March 7, 1980.
"I'm attempting yoga, psychology manuals e varied rituals such as taking down dreams, perfecting diaries and heart-of-palm soufflés, learning English with Nabokov (for the first time do I see the English language in Lolita, it was Armando who told me to read it for some psychoanalytic reason - ...) What I admire in Lolita, is it's long sinuous syntax, the kind the Campos Brothers dislike, but it's [Nabokov's] syntax that makes me tick, and so what (sic)?" (p.41-42)
the translation is mine.
On p.57 she quotes in English Emily Dickinson (she is the process of translating her into Portuguese, while working on Katherine Mansfield and feminine/masculine women writers): "Going-to-her! / Happy-letter! Tell her -/Tell her - the page I never wrote!/ Tell her, I only said the syntax - /And left the Verb and the Pronoun - out! - "
Funny AC "sees" the English language when she reads Nabokov. Myself, I feel his words roll like marbles in my mouth, a sensuous and concrete and external experience with a foreign language that he forbids me to inhabit.
I wonder how different non-native English readers react to VN's slithering sentences.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/