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.”