« Je t’aime moi non plus »

La correspondance entre Vladimir Nabokov et ses traducteurs français

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/MOaP.28.2022.57.02

Keywords:

collaborative translation, genetic translation studies, Nabokov

Abstract

“JE T’AIME MOI NON PLUS”: THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN VLADIMIR NABOKOV AND HIS FRENCH TRANSLATORS

The structure of the letters which Vladimir Nabokov sent to his French translators shows how ambivalent his relation to them was: generally, Nabokov starts by praising the beauty of the translation, and then he makes a long list of all the blunders and howlers made by the translator. This article studies three cases. First, the translation of Pale Fire is analysed as a confrontation of two very proud men, in which the famous translator Maurice Edgar Coindreau refuses to be bossed around by the novelist. Then the article presents the translation of Ada or Ardor (entrusted to Gilles Chahine) as the collaboration of “men on the verge of a nervous breakdown”. Finally, it shows the very friendly relationship which Nabokov had with Jarl Priel, the translator of Invitation to a Beheading, whom Nabokov always fiercely defended. Thanks to the correspondence between Nabokov, his translators and publishers, it will become clear that these collaborative translations were in fact “mediated self-translations”. For Nabokov, it was not just about translating his novels: he wanted to remain the full master of his creations.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

PlumX Metrics of this article

References

Beaujour, E.K. (1989), Alien Tongues: Bilingual Russian Writers of the ‘First’ Emigration, Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
View in Google Scholar

Boyd, B. (1991), Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, Princeton University Press, Princeton, https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400884032. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400884032
View in Google Scholar

Cordingley, A., Montini, C. (2015), « Genetic translation studies: an emerging discipline », Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies. 14 : 1-18, https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v14i0.399. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v14i0.399
View in Google Scholar

Edel-Roy, A. (2017), « Lolita, le livre “impossible”? », Miranda. 15, https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.11265. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.11265
View in Google Scholar

Gauthier, S. (2017), Cosmopolitisme et guerre froide. Aragon, Landolfi, Nabokov, traducteurs de Pouchkine, Hermann, Paris.
View in Google Scholar

Hersant, P. (2016), « Author-Translator Collaborations: a Typological Survey », (trad. par Nicholas Manning), dans : Anthony Cordingley et Céline Frigau
View in Google Scholar

Manning (dir.), Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age, Bloomsbury, Londres, https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350006034.0010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350006034.0010
View in Google Scholar

Loison-Charles, J., Shvabrin, S. (dir.) (2021), Vladimir Nabokov et la traduction, Artois Presses Université, Arras, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.apu.22863. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.apu.22863
View in Google Scholar

Nabokov, V. ([1941] 2008), « The Art of Translation », dans : Vladimir Nabokov, Verses and Versions: Three Centuries of Russian Poetry, Harcourt, Orlando.
View in Google Scholar

Nabokov, V. ([1963] 1991), « Foreword », dans : Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse (trad. par Vladimir Nabokov), vol. 1, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
View in Google Scholar

Nabokov, V. ([1965] 2020), Feu pâle (trad. par Maurice Edgar Coindreau, Raymond Girard), dans : Vladimir Nabokov, OEuvres romanesques complètes, vol. 3, Gallimard, Paris.
View in Google Scholar

Nabokov, V. ([1989] 1991), Selected Letters, 1940-1977, Dmitri Nabokov, Matthew J. Bruccoli (dir.), Vintage, Londres.
View in Google Scholar

Nabokov, V. (2008), Verses and Versions: Three Centuries of Russian Poetry, Brian Boyd, Stanislav Shvabrin (éds), Harcourt, Orlando.
View in Google Scholar

Orsenna, E. (1997), Deux étés, Fayard, Paris.
View in Google Scholar

Oustinoff, M. (2001), Bilinguisme d’écriture et auto-traduction : Julien Green, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, L’Harmattan, Paris.
View in Google Scholar

Shvabrin, S. (2019), Between Rhyme and Reason: Vladimir Nabokov, Translation, and Dialogue, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487516390. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487516390
View in Google Scholar

Archives non publiées consultées à la Berg Collection (New York Public Library), à la bibliothèque de l’université de Cornell (Ithaca, États-Unis) et à l’Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC) à Caen.
View in Google Scholar

Downloads

Published

2022-09-20

How to Cite

Loison-Charles, J. (2022). « Je t’aime moi non plus »: La correspondance entre Vladimir Nabokov et ses traducteurs français. Między Oryginałem a Przekładem, 28(3(57), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.12797/MOaP.28.2022.57.02