I just learned that, with the approval of the Nabokov
estate, Mr. Ilyin's revised "translation" of Ada will soon be
published by Azbuka. Because Azbuka holds the exclusive publishing
rights to Nabokov's English novels in Russia, my
translation (which I regard "the work of my life") is unlikely ever
to appear.
To protest against this publication I decided to leave
the Nabokov studies. This is my last posting to the List. It was fun to write to
the forum but now it's time to say goodbye. I apologize if my
messages (on and off List) were sometimes rude and offensive. I never wished to
hurt anybody.
If I manage to live on (by saying goodbye to Nabokov I sort of
commit suicide), happen to open Mr. Ilyin's version and notice in
it but one oborot (locution) of mine, I will sue
the Nabokov estate (about ten years ago I had the naïveté to
mail DN the typoscript of my - then imperfect - translation).
Alexey Sklyarenko