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
I have posted the draft PDF of the first of the D-items, translations in Albanian. Only five editions of Nabokov have been published in Albanian: one of Машенька / Mary and four of Lolita / Лолита, one of which was published in the U.S.
Tags: Albanian, translations
I am working on the first draft pages of D-items, that is, Nabokov books translated by others. Over the next several months I will first post all D-item drafts by the languages in which the translations were done. Later, I will post the same D-items by the A-items from which they were derived, by the countries of publication, and by the dates of publication. Books that are compilations of translations of different Nabokov A-items will be handled separately later as M-items.
D-item entries parallel A-item entries in designation and format. Here is a sample entry for a translation of Mashen’ka into Albanian and published in Albania in 1999.
The key elements are:
- The general D-item number, D8, paralleling the A-item number, A8, from which it is derived.
- The general title of the A-item number, Машенька / Mary, the Russian and English titles of the A-item book.
- The specific D-item number, D8.sq.1.1, a compression of four key pieces of information:
- the general D-item number, D8;
- the standard international two-letter code, sq, for the language, here, Albanian. sq is derived from the native name for the language, gjuha shqipe;
- the translation number, 1, here, the first translation of Mash’enka in Albanian;
- the edition number of that translation, 1 here, the first edition of the first translation.
- Under the specific D-item number, additional information: the standard international two-letter code for the country, al and the year of publication, 1995.
- In the next column, the translation heading, First Albanian translation, referring here to the translation language, Albanian, and not the country.
- The edition heading, First Albanian edition, referring here to the country in which the translation was published.
- In parentheses, the publisher, Apollonia.
- Some information is presented, when possible, in the language’s native orthography (be it Arabic or Chinese, for example): the book title, Nabokov’s name, the translator’s name, and the works in the book, all transliterated and translated.
- The city of publication is transliterated and/or Americanized. For example, Tirana instead of Tiranë, or Beijing instead of 北京.
- The publisher name is transliterated when necessary.
In designing this format, I have tried to balance readability with scanability and fullness of information with compression of information. I would like to receive your feedback on the layout.
I would also like to hear from anyone who can help me track down translations in any of the 45 languages into which Nabokov has been translated. For instance, I have been able to track down copies of or information on only five editions in Albanian (with four others scheduled for this year). One is of Mashen’ka and four are of Lolita. I am sure that there are more.
Tags: translations
Here’s a link to a film-in-work on Nabokov’s entomological pursuits, Lolita’s Butterfly, by Michael House, an American composer and filmmaker based in Paris. It looks promising. But I have one problem with it: I don’t get the title. I hope that becomes clear when I see the completed picture.
Tags: butterflies, films, lepidoptera
This is the final installment of the final A-item of the drafts of the revised and updated bibliography. The “Complete” in the heading is obviously tentative. Lolitas in their original English and Russian versions gush from the presses of publishers in the English- and Russian-speaking worlds (and in the non-English speaking world as texts for the study of American literature).
The full Lolita / Лолита draft encompasses 83 editions in English and Russian. The most recent installment adds A28.74, a Russian edition from Azbuka that was the first to reinstate a paragraph missing from all previous Russian editions. On that note, I’ve also included some information about the errors and corrections in various English language editions.
Next, D-items — translations by others than Nabokov.
The small auction house New England Book Auctions in western Massachusetts is offering 20 lots of Nabokoviana at its Sept. 24th auction (sale #419, lots #64 and #118–136). Included are first editions of American books, a Lolita Olympia Press first, and other Lolitas in English and Russian, inscribed and lepidopterized copies, some journals in which VN’s works appeared, a photograph of VN by Philippe Halsman, and other material. The majority, if not all, of the lots appears to have been consigned by the Ledkovsky family, cousins of Nabokov.
The catalog descriptions aren’t very detailed. I plan to drive up to the gallery next week to examine the goods.
Tags: auction
I’ve posted the sixth version of the update to the draft pages of Lolita / Лолита. There are 72 English and Russian editions in this update, published from 1955 through 2006. Of interest are four editions published in Russia, two in English (A28.66 and A28.69), a quasi-finely-bound edition in Russian (A28.67), and a very expensive, finely-bound, limited edition in Russian (A28.72).
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