Other commentators on the Nabokov-Wilson's Exchange

In response to:

Letters: The Strange Case of Nabokov and Wilson from the August 26, 1965 issue

To the Editors:

I hope the tug-of-war between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Nabokov over Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin won’t distract our attention from the original. The strength of Mr. Wilson’s review, I thought, was that it directed our attention to Pushkin’s “novel in verse.” I find it symptomatic that Mr. Nabokov, with professorial preciosity, is haggling over Mr. Wilson’s knowledge of Russian (which is impressive) and trying to deflect attention from his own knowledge of English (which, alas, is not good enough). For example, Mr. Nabokov wants to insist that pochuya (v) is a perfective form to be translated as upon sensing. The point is not what form it is but what it means. Despite the grammars, perfective verbs in Russian may denote present tense and, the point here, despite what Mr. Nabokov says, present participles in English may convey perfective meanings. We simply say getting wind of and go on reading the rest of a major literary work.

Mr. Nabokov has been indecently unkind to Mr. Arndt; he has been misanthropically condescending to Russian scholars (whose work he mined for his own); and now he is supercilious toward Mr. Wilson, who said honestly and brightly that Pushkin deserved a better English translation than Mr. Nabokov offered. Mr. Wilson is dead right.

F. D. Reeve

Middletown, Connecticut

Letters

Pushkin in English November 11, 1965

In response to:

Translating Pushkin from the October 28, 1965 issue

To the Editors:

F. D. Reeve’s recent attempt to pin the tail on Nabokov is perhaps the most disappointing of all. Highly respected critics should stop trying to beat Mr. Nabokov at his own game: they are destined to fail, if only because Mr. Nabokov writes his own rules and scrupulously observes them. Furthermore, they are in danger of appearing to grind personal axes.

I agree that “Mr. Nabokov has been indecently unkind to Mr. Arndt.” This, however, hardly justifies supporting Mr. Wilson’s embarrassing and extensive attack upon Mr. Nabokov’s translation of pochuya. F. D. Reeve’s insinuation that Nabokov’s haggling interrupts the reading of a major literary work is in the present instance unfortunate since 1) It was Mr. Wilson who brought the pochuya matter up and who proceeded to insist so elaborately upon the very point Professor Reeve tells us was not the point: “The point is not what form it is but what it means.” (Obviously, the two are not mutually exclusive considerations, and just as obviously, Mr. Nabokov was faithful to the meaning: “Upon sensing.”) 2) Mr. Wilson subsequently confessed to most of his inaccuracies, slowly but subtly. 3) It was Mr. Nabokov who took the trouble to translate the work, whatever we may think of his translation. 4) Professor Reeve informs us that “the strength of Mr. Wilson’s review was that it directed our attention to Pushkin’s ‘novel in verse’.”

I too was disappointed in the Nabokov translation of Eugene Onegin, not because I find Mr. Nabokov’s English “alas, not good enough,” but because I had hoped for something closer to “Pushkin in English” from a man who is unquestionably and enviably a master of both English and Russian.

Woodin Rowe

New York City

response to:

The Strange Case of Pushkin and Nabokov from the July 15, 1965 issue

To the Editors:

In a recent issue a correspondent alludes to the French rhyme:

Cet animal est très méchant:
Quand on l’attaque, il se défend.

For the benefit of my learned friends, I have devised 1. a paraphrase in English, 2. a fairly close English version, and 3. a very close Russian translation:

1.

This animal is very wicked:
Just see what happens if you kick it.

2.

This beast is very mean: in fact
It will fight back, when it’s attacked.

3.

Zhivótnoe sié=prezlòe suschestvo:
Oboronyáetsy, kol’ trógayutevo.

Vladimir Nabokov
Montreux

Dangerous Animal

Edmund Wilson

FEBRUARY 17, 1966 ISSUE

In response to:

Translation from the January 20, 1966 issue

To the Editors:

As a retort to Mr. Nabokov, I may quote another French couplet:

Cet animal a parfois tort.
Il faut le gronder quand il mord.

A version in Belorussian will follow as soon as I have mastered that dialect.

Edmund Wilson

Wellfleet, Massachusetts