Next is a set of D-item draft pages for translations in Latvian. The draft pages include four editions of two translations of two A-items.
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Tags: Latvian, translations
Here is a set of D-item draft pages for translations in Macedonian, a Slavic language spoken in the Republic of Macedonia, a landlocked country in the central Balkan peninsula. The draft pages include 11 editions of seven translations of six A-items.
Tags: Macedonian, translations
Here is a set of D-item draft pages for translations in Lithuanian. Nine editions of six translated A-items have been published in the Baltic state of Lithuania.
You may have noticed that on the covers of the earlier Lithuanian editions, VN’s name is given as “Vladimiras Nabokovas”. This adheres to the Lithuanian rule of using the Indo-European masculine ending, “as”, for a male’s name. But some of the later editions use the standard name and some even use both.
Tags: Lithuanian, translations
Not many translations in Indonesian. Just two: Mary and Lolita. But the original translation of Lolita in 2008 went through at least eight printings before it was revised for another edition in 2011.
Tags: Indonesian, translations
The next set of D-item draft pages is translations in Hebrew. Sixteen editions of 12 translated A-items have been published in Israel since 1959 when Lolita was released. Of course that was not the only appearance of the novel in Israel that year. Steimatsky distributed a one-volume reprint of the original English language Olympia Press edition (see A28.1 First Israeli printing, variants a and b, on p. 11 of the pdf).
Two of the editions, D10.he.1.1, The Defense, and D16.he.1.1, Invitation to a Beheading, were translated from the original Russian.
Tags: Hebrew, translations
The next set of D-item draft pages is translations in Estonian. Nine editions of six translated A-items have been published in the tiny Baltic state of Estonia. Two of the editions were published in 1990 (D10.et.1.1 and D42.et.1.1) before Estonia became independent of the Soviet Union in 1991 and one was published immediately after in 1992 (D28.et.1.1).
Tags: Estonian, translations
The fourth set of D-item draft pages is translations in Arabic. There are 17 editions of seven translated A-items from Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, and Iraq.
Tags: Arabic, translations
The third set of D-item draft pages is translations in Bulgarian. There are 12 editions of 10 translated A-items.
I haven’t been able to confidently translate one of the Bulgarian titles. The title of D24.bg.1.1, the first Bulgarian edition of the first Bulgarian translation of Bend Sinister, is Знак за незаконороденост [Znak za nezakonorodenost]. Does it translate as “Bend sinister”? Or is there a more accurate rendering of the Bulgarian? Can anyone help?
Tags: Bulgarian, translations
For those interested in the solutions translators come up with in transferring Nabokov to another language:
Deep inside my recently posted draft pages for Dutch translations of Nabokov is D32.nl.1.1, the first Dutch edition of the first Dutch translation of Nabokov’s Dozen, published by De Bezige Bij in 1966. The book’s Dutch title is Lente in Fialta [Spring in Fialta]. The sixth story is a translation of “Пильграм [Pil’gram]”, in Nabokov’s Russian original, and “The Aurelian”, in Nabokov’s English translation. Pil’gram is the name of the butterfly dealer and collector in the story and “aurelian” is an old word for a lepidopterist.
The Dutch translator, Maurice Coutinho, was faced with either using Pil’gram’s name for the title, a name that would probably appear very foreign to Dutch readers, or coming up with a term that would be recognized as referring to a lepidopterist. It was the same problem Nabokov had when he translated his story into English. Coutinho’s solution was “Prikkebeen”.
Martin Kaaij first pointed out to me that “Prikkebeen is a character in a book by Julius Kell. The man has long thin legs and collects butterflies and pins them on his hat. The original [German] title of the book is: Fahrten und Abenteuer des Herrn Steckelbein.”
Abdellah Bouazza expanded on that: “Literally ‘having spindly legs’. Prikkebeen is a nickname for a stork; but in this case it is an allusion to an old [Dutch] children’s book Reizen en Avonturen van Mijnheer Prikkebeen (Travels and Adventures of Mister Prikkebeen) 1858, a reworking of Julius Kell’s Fahrten und Abenteuer des Hernn Steckelbein.”
The second set of D-item draft pages is translations in Dutch. There are 69 editions of 27 translated A-items. This listing is as complete and accurate as it is because of the whole-hearted help of Martin Kaaij.
Tags: Dutch, translations
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