Re: EJ and Russia

[Ulrich Oswald <dear@ulri.ch>]

Gary Kern wrote:
> 

> 
> My feeling is that, with very rare exceptions, only natives should
> translate into a language, but non-natives can translate from a
> language.  In which case, of course, they are natives translating into
> their own language.  Everyone has a native language, ...

Gary

I'd like to point your attention to the second foreword of "Lolita's"
(Russian edition) where Nabokov says (I quote from memory): "Having
written Lolita in English as an American author and having so far only
accepted the French translation of the novel as being adequate I
strongly felt that before anybody else does a translation into my
beloved mother tongue I'd better do it myself. And having done so, I
must say now that the translation is a hundred times better than the
original."

There is your point, (and there is Nabokov's genius).

As for Jünger, he is sometimes very polyglott. I don't know if
"Federbälle" is available in English. In this booklet Jünger shows his
cunning linguistic abilities not only in German but also in French,
Italian and even in English. 

Privet, Ulrich