PS: I checked into another translation of Lolita. This
time I had an exchange with Jorio Dauster, who penned it.
He writes: "Simplifiquei
bastante: "Lolita,
ou A confissão de um viúvo de cor branca: era esse o duplo título das estranhas
páginas recebidas pelo autor da presente nota." Mas
fui pelo duplo título, induzido pelo “or” do original."
Repassing it into English: (I)
simplified it a lot: "Lolita or A confession by a white-skinned widower: this
was the double title of the strange pages received by the author of the present
note." But I folowed the double title, induced by the "or" in the
original..
Jorio Dauster's choice is grammatically
perfect and the "auto-referencial" innuendo
disappears.
There's a third translation, by S.Flaksman,
and it's a very recent one. Let's see what came
out:
"Lolita, ou A confissão de um viúvo branco, esses foram os dois
títulos sob os quais o autor da presente nota recebeu as estranhas páginas que
ela prefacia" (Lolita, or The confession of a white widower, these were
the two titles under which the author of the present note received the strange
pages that it prefaciates." ("prefaciate" doesn't sound incorrect in
Portuguese, but "preambulate" does!)
Maurice Couturier and Jorio Dauster solved
another issue that Bruce Stone pointed out*: in their translation they
favored "double title" instead of "two titles".Jorio Dauster advanced a
perfectly simple explanation for his choice.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
* Bruce Stone " ... the sentence contains numerous stylistic
peculiarities—the strained syntax, the dubious reference to "two titles" (is
there not only one title, with two parts?), the too-precious and antiquated verb
"preambulates"—the comical impropriety hinges on the humble pronoun "it", which
has an ambiguous referent."