----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 2:11 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: in a glass, darkly
Dear List,
I would like to thank J. L. Olson for the correct
reference ( first letter to the Corinthians, 13:12) concerning the choices
of: " in a glass, darkly" ( VN) ; "through a glass, darkly " ( King
James translation, I think) or " see indistinctly, as in a mirror" (
The New American Bible, as informed here).
I was interested in the matter because of
Kinbote´s foreword to Pale Fire: " None can say how long John Shade planned his
poem to be, but it is not improbable that what he left represents only a small
fraction of the composition he saw in a glass, darkly" .
I had come across a translation of Pale
Fire to Portuguese where the translator chose the word "mirror" instead of
"glass" and I had feared that this choice would become an obstacle for the
reader who would not associate it with the corresponding biblical reference
I thought fitted in the text ( who knows?).
Jansy Mello
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 4:15
PM
Subject: Fw: Fw: in a glass, darkly
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: in a glass, darkly
This is actually in the
first letter to the Corinthians (precisely, at 13:12). The New
American Bible also has "mirror" for "glass": "At present we see indistinctly,
as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then
I shall know fully as I am fully known."
Jamie
At 07:32 PM
08/25/2003 -0700, you wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From:
Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
I´ve found the reference concerning "
in a glass, darkly" and it is in the Bible, in the Second Epistle of St.
Paul to the Corinthians 13:1 and there are several references to the ability
to use language and to prophesy.
It begins with " Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass,
or a tinkling cymbal" [...] For me know in part and we prophesy in part. But
when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child,
I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish
things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
face: now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known
[...]
I´ve checked
one of the translations in Portuguese for the New Testament and there the
word for glass has been " mirror" !
Through or "in a glass, darkly
"? I wonder how it would appear in Nabokov´s Russian Bible, or if it
was meant as a quotation anyway.
Best wishes, Jansy