Subject
THOUGHTS: The singing gives birth to light -- or whatever the
Spanish means
Spanish means
From
Date
Body
Jerry Friedman writes:
Since no one who actually speaks Spanish has translated
the little poem Alexey quoted, I'll give it a shot, and
continue on momentum to Jansy's quotation from a review
of VNAY.
Alexey wrote:
> De palabra
> Nace raz贸n
> De luz el son.
> ("The word gives birth to reason, the singing gives birth to light," I
> translate from a Russian translation provided by a foot-note, not sure
> if this translation is correct; anyway, Ursus' Spanish is not perfect
> either.)
Looks to me more like, "From word, reason is born. From
light, sound." I think "son" is unusual for "sound" and
the Merriam-Webster dictionary says it can also mean "[in]
the manner", as in "en son de broma", as a joke. In any
case, something is born from light, not the other way
around. (Possibly relevant is "dar a luz", "give to light",
an ordinary Spanish expression for "give birth".)
See below.
--- On Sun, 11/30/08, jansymello <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
...
> * Jos茅 Maria Guelbenzu on-line in "Babelia"
> (23-12-2006) wrote about Brian Boyd's AY, now
> translated into Spanish as "Los a帽os americanos",
> where he praised Boyd's rendering of Nabokov's
> qualms with calefaction in the house he rented again in 1948
> (& in which VN finished "Lolita"), and how
> Boyd showed their transformation, by metaphors, in VN's
> afterword to "Lolita."
> "Vamos a un ejemplo: en 1948 un amigo les consigue a
> los Nabokov una casa; Nabokov advierte al amigo de que es un
> perfecto in煤til en lo que respecta al manejo de los
> sistemas de calefacci贸n individual. En esa casa termina su
> autor la celeb茅rrima Lolita; Boyd repara en un texto del
> ep铆logo a la novela: 'Todo escritor serio, me atrevo a
> decir, tiene conciencia de que este o aquel libro que ha
> publicado constituye para 茅l una presencia constante y
> alentadora. Su luz piloto arde sin cesar en alg煤n punto del
> s贸tano, y un simple toque en el termostato privado se
> traduce inmediatamente en una tranquila explosi贸n de
> ternura familiar'. Repare el lector tanto en las tres
> l铆neas (autor铆a, calefactor, c铆rculo de gratitud
> familiar) que confluyen y se fecundan en la imagen como en
> el modo en que Boyd usa el texto para hacer notar el modo en
> que la imaginaci贸n fecunda el contacto con un objeto para
> crear una imagen." (cf. also L-Archives, 2007)
'Let's go to an example: in 1948 a friend gets the Nabokovs
a house; Nabokov warns the friend that he is perfectly
useless in regard to managing individual (?) heating
systems. In this house its author finishes the extremely
celebrated Lolita; Boyd considers the text of the
novel's epilogue: "Every serious writer, I dare to say,
is aware that this or that book that he has published
constitutes for him a constant and encouraging presence.
Its pilot light burns without ceasing in some part of the
basement, and a simple touch on the private thermostat
is immediately translated into a calm explosion of
familiar tenderness." The reader should notice the
three lines (authorship, heating, circle of familiar
gratitude) that flow together and fertilize each other
in the image, as well as the way that Boyd uses the
text to point out the way imagination fertilizes contact
with an object to create an image.'
My choices with the wrong nuance (should "encouraging"
be "inspiring"?), or simply the wrong meaning, are due
to ignorance.
Jerry Friedman
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Since no one who actually speaks Spanish has translated
the little poem Alexey quoted, I'll give it a shot, and
continue on momentum to Jansy's quotation from a review
of VNAY.
Alexey wrote:
> De palabra
> Nace raz贸n
> De luz el son.
> ("The word gives birth to reason, the singing gives birth to light," I
> translate from a Russian translation provided by a foot-note, not sure
> if this translation is correct; anyway, Ursus' Spanish is not perfect
> either.)
Looks to me more like, "From word, reason is born. From
light, sound." I think "son" is unusual for "sound" and
the Merriam-Webster dictionary says it can also mean "[in]
the manner", as in "en son de broma", as a joke. In any
case, something is born from light, not the other way
around. (Possibly relevant is "dar a luz", "give to light",
an ordinary Spanish expression for "give birth".)
See below.
--- On Sun, 11/30/08, jansymello <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
...
> * Jos茅 Maria Guelbenzu on-line in "Babelia"
> (23-12-2006) wrote about Brian Boyd's AY, now
> translated into Spanish as "Los a帽os americanos",
> where he praised Boyd's rendering of Nabokov's
> qualms with calefaction in the house he rented again in 1948
> (& in which VN finished "Lolita"), and how
> Boyd showed their transformation, by metaphors, in VN's
> afterword to "Lolita."
> "Vamos a un ejemplo: en 1948 un amigo les consigue a
> los Nabokov una casa; Nabokov advierte al amigo de que es un
> perfecto in煤til en lo que respecta al manejo de los
> sistemas de calefacci贸n individual. En esa casa termina su
> autor la celeb茅rrima Lolita; Boyd repara en un texto del
> ep铆logo a la novela: 'Todo escritor serio, me atrevo a
> decir, tiene conciencia de que este o aquel libro que ha
> publicado constituye para 茅l una presencia constante y
> alentadora. Su luz piloto arde sin cesar en alg煤n punto del
> s贸tano, y un simple toque en el termostato privado se
> traduce inmediatamente en una tranquila explosi贸n de
> ternura familiar'. Repare el lector tanto en las tres
> l铆neas (autor铆a, calefactor, c铆rculo de gratitud
> familiar) que confluyen y se fecundan en la imagen como en
> el modo en que Boyd usa el texto para hacer notar el modo en
> que la imaginaci贸n fecunda el contacto con un objeto para
> crear una imagen." (cf. also L-Archives, 2007)
'Let's go to an example: in 1948 a friend gets the Nabokovs
a house; Nabokov warns the friend that he is perfectly
useless in regard to managing individual (?) heating
systems. In this house its author finishes the extremely
celebrated Lolita; Boyd considers the text of the
novel's epilogue: "Every serious writer, I dare to say,
is aware that this or that book that he has published
constitutes for him a constant and encouraging presence.
Its pilot light burns without ceasing in some part of the
basement, and a simple touch on the private thermostat
is immediately translated into a calm explosion of
familiar tenderness." The reader should notice the
three lines (authorship, heating, circle of familiar
gratitude) that flow together and fertilize each other
in the image, as well as the way that Boyd uses the
text to point out the way imagination fertilizes contact
with an object to create an image.'
My choices with the wrong nuance (should "encouraging"
be "inspiring"?), or simply the wrong meaning, are due
to ignorance.
Jerry Friedman
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/