I didn't erase the begining of "the translator"
when quoting Maria Yamalidou. Instead of "The transif" it should appear
simply as "If the Ash-can..."etc.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 3:36 PM
Subject: Fw: PNIN - Maria Yamalidou and translations to beardless
Kinbote
Dear List and
Maria Yamalidou,.
M. Yamalidou wrote: " The transif the "Ash-can, Can-can, Cache-Cache"
triplet is too playful to be
missed, what can one say for the seemingly
innocent assonance "seascapes,escapes, capes" ["Nothing of the slightest
interest to therapist could Victor be made to discover in those beautiful,
beautiful Rorschach ink blots, wherein children see, or should see, all kinds of
things, seascapes,escapes, capes, the worms of imbecility, neurotic tree trunks,
erotic galoshes, umbrellas and dumb-bells". "Pnin", Penguin, 1997, on p. 76].
She then asked: "How cryptic or how obvious is the meaning here? Are these
just words to be translated? And omit the sound effect? No way! Any triplet
exhibiting an equivalent assonance would do? But then we will miss the
meaning...."
In one of the translations of "Pnin" into
Portuguese, we find sound dominating over meaning:
"pajens, pastagens e paisagens"
for "seascapes, escapes,capes"
( literally, our translator's choice, created "landscapes, pastures and
valets" ) [Jorio Dauster]
In another translation for the similar lines we have: "paisagens marinhas,
aranhas, rinhas" [ Pinheiro de Lemos ] ,i.e, literally: "seascapes, spiders,
cockfights".
Now, the Cinderela triplets apparently presented to them a more complicated
task. To
translate: "does not grade into red again but passes into another spiral, which
starts with a kind of lavender grey and goes on to Cinderella shades
transcending human perception. He taught that there is no such thing as the
Ashcan School or the Cache Cache School or the Cancan School..." we
find:
"não
sobe de novo ao vermelho mas passa para outra espiral que começa com uma espécie
de cinza de alfazema e continua em matizes Cinderela que transcendem a percepção
humana. Ensinava que não havia tal coisa como a Escola da Lata de Lixo, a
Escola Cache-Cache ou a Escola Cancan... ( Pinheiro de
Lemos)
"em
vez de retornar ao vermelho, a seqüência de cores entra em outra espiral, que
começa com um tipo de lilás-cinzento e atinge tons de Cinderela que transcendem
a percepção humana. Ele ensinava que não existia nenhum estilo Ashcan nem
Cache-Cache nem Cancã..."
The
translator, Jorio Dauster, appended a foot-note ( here copied in
my rendering) : "Ashcan means "trash-can" ( lata de lixo ), but the
word was used in a pejorative sense to describe the realistic style of a North
American group of painters who, in the first decades of the XXth Century,
revolted agains the academicism then dominant. The two other "styles" were
invented by the author playing with alliterations."
Either way, the connection between grays, Cinderela, cinders and ashes
( with something hidden, "cache") disappeared with translation.
And,
after all, it seems that this link was only important to me - who
have recently arrived from a first experience with colorless ash-gray
and salt-and-pepper snowy landscapes just like a movie
with black&white gradations and no natural color - in my
relief when the sun shone and turned ash-gray into
"lavender-gray".
Maria Yamalidou observed that: ' "Pnin" is a rare gem, a real "pearl". And
maybe pearl gray is the most suitable color for this noble yet playful text.
[Those who are interested in connecting VN to the Cherokee language may wish to
know that the Cherokee word for gray is "very-light-blue"]." Another
expert in the Cherokee language, Stan K-Bootle, corrected my suggestion to have
the letter "P" in the name "Pnin" painted an ash-gray ( check former recent
postings at the List).
The entire "Pnin", as now it looks to me, with its
either sounding or its "ab-surd" "P", would not be Paris-lead nor
gay, but, like Maria's, come in a soft pearl gray...
PS:
Shuttling from Pnin to Pale Fire I came across an apparition ( to which
Carolyn Kunin had already called my attention to).
We find PNIN in Pale Fire!
His name is mentioned in a note where mysteriously Kinbote writes about his
shaven beard.
Cf. Kinbote commentary to line 894:
- "You do know Russian, though?" said Pardon. "I think I saw you, the other
day, talking to - what's his name - oh, my goodness" [laboriously composing his
lips].
Shade: "Sir, we all find it difficult to attack that name'
[laughing].
Professor Hurley: "Think of the French word for 'tire': punoo."
Pnin's academic world here blends with Kinbote's. Here the latter is
being questioned by a visiting German lecturer from Oxford ( married to a
Swedish lady whose sister was acquainted with the mother of one of King
Charles' pages...)
If the man with a black briefcase and umbrella is not a shaven Kinbote, he
must have been Pnin. But the Golconda is his cuff-link and Matisse's Golconda
painting with repeated semblances of bussiness men in black does suggest
the multitude of Zemblans disguised with red-caps and scarlet
wool...
Now let's turn to Kinbote's beard: "All brown-bearded, apple-cheeked,
blue-eyed Zemblans look alike, and I who have not shaved now for a year,
resemble my disguised king". (Everyman, page 76, note to line 12) and
"King Charles wore no beard" (page 265, note to line 894).