Subject
query: September Morn
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. Didier Machu <didier.machu@univ-pau.fr> recently asked
about painter responsible for "September Morn" in Franz's rented room in
KQKn and some points in the Russian version of the text.
Sergey Ilyin supplies the following drawn from the CD-ROM "The People's
Chronology."
----------------------
Art, 1912. September Morn (Matin de Septembre) by French
Painter Paul Emile Chabas, 43 (see 1913).)
Art, 1913 Anthony Comstock of the New York Society for the Suppression of
Vice sees a copy of last year's Paul Chabas pianting September Morn May 13
in the window of a New York art dealer in West 46th St (see Comstock Law,
1872). Now 69, Comstock demands that the picture be removed from the
window because it shows "too little morning and too much maid." Chicago
alderman "Bathhouse John" Coughlin vows that the picture will not be
displayed publicly in Chicago, but oilman Calouste Gulbenkian will acquire
the oil and it will wind up at New York's metropolitain Museum of Art.
----------------------------
Sergey Ilyin goes on to note that the original Russian text does
not refer to that painting but mentions one (at the same pace in the
text) as depicting a woman in only stockings. I (DBJ) would add that this
is a case where VN has altered his text in the translation making it more
specific. KQKn was probably the most altered of his tranlsated works.
For more on the subject, see Jane Grayson's book NABOKOV TRANSLATED and
Carl Proffer's early article on the translation of KQKn.
I would also note a case in LOLITA (I, 29) where VN tops his English
original in his Russian translation. The scene where HH has slipped LO a
sleeping pill at the Enchanted Hunters: "The whole pill-spiel...had for an
object...." The Russian replaces the word play "pill-spiel" with "Vsja
zateja s piljul'koj-ljul'koj..." a neat rhyming combination of "little pill"
plus "cradle" neatly referring to "robbing the cradle," etc.
about painter responsible for "September Morn" in Franz's rented room in
KQKn and some points in the Russian version of the text.
Sergey Ilyin supplies the following drawn from the CD-ROM "The People's
Chronology."
----------------------
Art, 1912. September Morn (Matin de Septembre) by French
Painter Paul Emile Chabas, 43 (see 1913).)
Art, 1913 Anthony Comstock of the New York Society for the Suppression of
Vice sees a copy of last year's Paul Chabas pianting September Morn May 13
in the window of a New York art dealer in West 46th St (see Comstock Law,
1872). Now 69, Comstock demands that the picture be removed from the
window because it shows "too little morning and too much maid." Chicago
alderman "Bathhouse John" Coughlin vows that the picture will not be
displayed publicly in Chicago, but oilman Calouste Gulbenkian will acquire
the oil and it will wind up at New York's metropolitain Museum of Art.
----------------------------
Sergey Ilyin goes on to note that the original Russian text does
not refer to that painting but mentions one (at the same pace in the
text) as depicting a woman in only stockings. I (DBJ) would add that this
is a case where VN has altered his text in the translation making it more
specific. KQKn was probably the most altered of his tranlsated works.
For more on the subject, see Jane Grayson's book NABOKOV TRANSLATED and
Carl Proffer's early article on the translation of KQKn.
I would also note a case in LOLITA (I, 29) where VN tops his English
original in his Russian translation. The scene where HH has slipped LO a
sleeping pill at the Enchanted Hunters: "The whole pill-spiel...had for an
object...." The Russian replaces the word play "pill-spiel" with "Vsja
zateja s piljul'koj-ljul'koj..." a neat rhyming combination of "little pill"
plus "cradle" neatly referring to "robbing the cradle," etc.