Copyright © Bruno Osimo 2020
Bruno Osimo is an author/translator who publishes himself
The paper edition is made as print on sale by Kindle Direct Publishing
ISBN 9788898467051 for the ebook edition
ISBN 9791281358072 for the hardcover edition
Precision, science, translation: Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov was a major translator and translation theorist[1]. His idea of translation, which resembles his general view of reality, is extremely helpful when it comes to carrying out a critical analysis of Chekhov’s short stories and an evaluation of the possible translation strategies. In order to explain the subjectivity of reality, in an interview Nabokov used the example of the lily. The way it is described varies considerably according to the personal perception of who sees it: an ordinary person, a scientist, a botanist[2]. In an excerpt from a 1959 essay, significantly entitled “Problems of Flora”, Nabokov stressed the importance of precision when a literary translator has to render botanical names and comes to the following conclusion: “The translator is entitled to use any available term so long as it is exact”[3]. Then he goes on with a disquisition on cheryomukha, a tree that appeared in Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin for which Nabokov coined the translatant “racemosa”, based on the scientific name “Padus racemosa,” because in English there wasn’t a word meaning precisely that tree. The details, even the anatomical, biological and botanical ones, are often overlooked or misinterpreted by critics and translators and, consequently, by readers.
To enjoy a work of art in the best possible way, it is essential that the reader translates realia into images. “When studying Kafka’s famous story [The Metamorphosis], my students had to know exactly what kind of insect Gregor turned into (it was a domed beetle, not the flat cockroach of sloppy translators)”[4]. In fiction, biological details are not mere background elements, they have a definite structural importance. The writer’s (and the reader’s) attitude is very similar to the scientist’s: “In a work of art there is a kind of merging between […] the precision of poetry and the excitement of pure science”[5]. The writer should be “Mustering the best words, with every available lexical, associative, and rhythmic assistance, to express as closely as possible what one wants to express”[6].
Chekhov was one of Nabokov’s favourite authors and the topic of some of the lectures on Russian literature he gave at various US Universities[7].
