Re: EJ and Russia

[Gary Kern <gkern@ucr.campus.mci.net>]

Ulrich Oswald wrote:
> 
> 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
*******************************
Nabokov is a special case because his nanny taught him English, or so
I've heard.  The case has been made for him knowing English before
Russian.  There is at least one study of his Russification of LOLITA. 
Somehow I never formed a liking for Nabokov--there's something too smug
and contrived for me.  In any event, I'm not going to try to translate
anything into Russian.  Vsego xoroshego.

GK

PS/ I get the feeling that we're sitting at our computers at the same
time.  Have the blasted things made slaves of us?