Lolita

296 Pages·2011·4.19 MB·English

Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
* Los textos, inglés y francés, han sido revisados, Lolita * Lolita Lolita Lolita
psiaórna lhaas ecodliaciboonreasd od ee 1l 9p9ro1p yio 2 0a0u1to. rE. nL ae svtae rrseivóin- [1950] de [1955]
española de Enrique Tejedor [supuesto Enrique by Vladimir Nabokov de par
Pezzoni], sin embargo ha sido publicada en
multiples ediciones hasta el 2003 en las que per-
sisten todos los cuantiosos errores de la primera5 Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Nabokov
edición argentina, Ed. Sur en 1959, supuesta-
mente traducida del inglés pero que sigue muy
de cerca la versión francesa de Gallimard de
1955. Esa versión argentina tenía una treintena tr. de Francesc Roca trad. de Enrique Tejedor [1959, Arg.] tr. par Maurice Courtier
de notas que no han aparecido en las distintas Penguin Books, 1991
versiones españolas de Grijalbo y Anagrama (en
las que figura como traducida del francés en vez10annotated edition by Anagrama, Barcelona, 1986 Grijalbo, Barcelona, 1975 Gallimard, Paris, 2001 (revised*)
del inglés como se dice en la argentina). Anagra- Alfred Appel, Jr. of 1970, 1991 Escaneo y OCR: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
ma saca en 1986 una nueva edición, con algu- Revisión: Thor Noviembre de 2003
nas notas, a cargo de Francesc Roca como tra-
ductor que sigue al pie de la letra la de Tejedor [This scanned edition has errors some
con escasas correcciones pero sí abundantes y of which are corrected ]
entrometidas perífrasis y paráfrasis de su propia
cosecha interpretativa. ¡Dios salve Lolita! 15
The word or passage in the text to which each
annotation refers is indicated by two numbers, the A Véra A Vera A VeraX _______
first giving the page and the second the number
in the margin of the text. The numbering begins
anew on each page and disregards chapter20
divisions. All page references to other Nabokov
books are to the Vintage paperback editions.
FOREWORD 25 FOREWORD PRÓLOGO PROLOGO AVANT-PROPOS
“Lolita, or the Confession of a Lolita, o Las confesiones de un viu- Lolita o las Confesiones de un viu- Lolita, ou La confession d’un veuf
White Widowed Male,” such were the do de raza blanca: tales eran los dos do de raza blanca: tales eran los dos de race blanche, tel était le double titre
* ver notas en páginas opuestas two titles* under which the writer of títulos con los cuales quien escribe es- títulos con los cuales el autor de esta sous lequel l’auteur de la présente note
30the present note received the strange tas líneas recibió las extrañas páginas nota recibió las extrañas páginas que reçut les pages étranges auxquelles
3/2 preambulates: to make a preamble, introduce. pages it preambulates. “Humbert que prologa. «Humbert Humbert», su prologa. «Humbert Humbert», su au- celle-ci sert de préambule. Leur auteur,
Humbert,” their author, had died in autor, había muerto de trombosis tor, había muerto de trombosis «Humbert Humbert», était mort en
legal captivity, of coronary coronaria, en la prisión, el 16 de noviem- coronaria, en la prisión, el 16 de no- détention d’un infarctus du myocarde,
thrombosis, on November 16, 1952, bre de 1952, pocos días antes de la fe- viembre de 1952, pocos días antes de le 16 novembre 1952, quelques jours
35a few days before his trial was cha fijada para el comienzo de su pro- que se fijara el comienzo de su pro- avant que ne devait débuter son
scheduled to start. His lawyer, my ceso. Su abogado, mi buen amigo y pa- ceso. Su abogado, mi buen amigo y procès. En me demandant de toiletter
good friend and relation, Clarence riente Clarence Choate Clark, un caba- pariente Clarence Choate Clark, le manuscrit, son avocat, Me
Choate Clark, Esq., now of he llero, ex juez de paz, que en la actuali- Esquire, que pertenece ahora al foro Clarence Choate Clark, cousin et ami
District of Columbia bar, in dad ejerce la abogacía en el Distrito de del distrito de Columbia, me pidió de longue date, aujourd’hui membre
40asking me to edit the manuscript, Columbia, me pidió que revisara el ori- que publicara el manuscrito apoyan- du barreau du District de Columbia,
based his request on a clause in ginal; justificaba esta petición en una do su demanda en una cláusula del s’appuyait sur une clause du
his client’s will which empowered cláusula del testamento de su cliente que testamento de su cliente que daba a testament de son client autorisant
my eminent cousin to use the daba a mi eminente primo facultades mi eminente primo facultades para mon éminent cousin à faire comme
discretion in all matters para obrar según su propio criterio en obrar según su propio criterio en bon lui semblerait pour tout ce qui
45pertaining to the preparation of cuanto se relacionara con la publicación cuanto se relacionara con la publica- touchait à la préparation de cette
“Lolita” for print. Mr. Clark’s decision de Lolita. Es posible que la decisión del ción de Lolita. Es posible que la de- édition de Lolita. Il n’est pas impossible
may have been influenced by the fact that señor Clark se debiera al hecho de que cisión de Clark se debiera al hecho que la décision de Me Clark ait été dictée
the editor of his choice had just been el revisor que había escogido acababa de que el editor elegido acabara de par le fait que le correcteur de son choix
awarded the Poling Prize for a modest de obtener el Premio Poling por una obtener el Premio Polingo por una venait de recevoir le prix Poling pour un
50work (“Do the Senses make Sense?”) modesta obra (¿Tienen sentido los sen- modesta obra (¿Tienen sentido los modeste essai (Do the Senses Make
wherein certain morbid states and tidos?) en la que se discuten ciertas per- sentidos?) donde se discuten ciertas Sense?) où étaient passés en revue quelques
perversions had been discussed. versiones y estados morbosos. perversiones y estados morbosos. perversions et états morbides
My task proved simpler than Mi tarea resultó más simple de lo Mi tarea resultó más simple de Ma tâche se révéla plus aisée que
3/4 solecism: an irregularity or impropriety in speech55either of us had anticipated. Save que ambos habíamos previsto. Sal- lo que ambos habíamos supuesto. nous ne l’escomptions l’un et
and diction, grammar or syntax. Also in conduct, for the correction of obvious vo la corrección de algunos Salvo la corrección de algunos l’autre. Hormis la correction de
and therefore not an unwarranted definition in solecisms and a careful solecismos y la cuidadosa supresión solecismos y la cuidadosa supre- solécismes évidents et l’émondage
Humbert’s instance.
suppression of a few tenacious de unos pocos, pero tenaces, detalles sión de unos pocos y tenaces de- méticuleux de certains [23] détails
details that despite “H.H.”’s own que, a pesar de los esfuerzos de «H. talles que, a pesar de los esfuer- tenaces qui, en dépit des efforts de «H.
3/5 presenzed intact: it is important to recognize how60efforts still subsisted in his text H.», aún subsistían en su texto como zos de «H. H.», aún subsistían en H. *, subsistaient encore dans son texte
Nabokov belies the illusion of “realism” which both as signposts and tombstones postes indicadores y lápidas su texto como señales y lápidas comme autant de panneaux indicateurs
Ray and Humbert seem to create. See 9/t and (indicative of places or persons sepulcrales (que señalaban lugares o (indicadoras de lugares o perso- et de pierres tombales (évoquant des
32/7.
that taste would conceal and personas que el buen gusto hubiera nas que el gusto habría debido lieux ou des personnes que le bon goût
3/6 cognomen: its current definition, “a distinguishing compassion spare), this debido evitar y la compasión supri- evitar y la compasión suprimir), demandait de voiler et la compassion
nickname,” is fundamental, and the humorous
incongruity of using so high-toned a Latinate word65remarkable memoir is presented mir), estas notables memorias se estas notables Memorias se pre- d’épargner), ce remarquable mémoire
is heightened by its original meaning: “The third intact. Its author’s bizarre presentan intactas. El curioso sentan intactas. El curioso apelli- est présenté intact. L’étrange
or family name of a Roman citizen.” cognomen is his own invention; apellido de su autor es invención do de su autor es invención suya pseudonyme de l’auteur est de son
3/7 this mask: “Is ‘mask’ the keyword?” Humbert later and, of course, this mask— suya; y, desde [9] de luego, esa más- y, desde luego, esa máscara –a invention ; et ce masque - à
asks (p. 53). In his Foreword to Pale Fire, Kinbote through which two hypnotic eyes cara -a través de la cual parecen bri- través de la cual parecen bri- travers lequel semblent luire deux
says of Shade: “His whole being constituted a
mask.” 70seem to glow—had to remain llar dos ojos hipnóticos- no se ha llar dos ojos hipnóticos– yeux hypnotiques - ne pouvait
unlifted in accordance with its levantado, de acuerdo con los de- no se ha levantado, de acuerdo con los bien sûr être levé conformément
3/8 remain unlifted: not quite; although the “real” name wearer’s wish. While “Haze” seos de su portador. Mientras que deseos de su portador. Mientras que au voeu de son possesseur. Si le nom
is never revealed, the mask does slip. See
Chapter Twenty-six, the shortest in the book (p. only rhymes with the heroine’s «Haze» sólo rima con el verdadero ape- «Haze» sólo rima con el verdadero réel de l’héroïne ne ressemble à «Haze»
109). real surname, her first name is llido de la heroína, su nombre está de- apellido de la heroína, su nombre está que par la rime, son prénom est trop
4/1 her first name: Lolita’s given name is “Dolores.”75too closely interwound with the masiado implicado en la trama íntima del demasiado implicado en la trama ínti- intimement enchevêtré dans la fibre
See 9/5. inmost fiber of the book to allow libro para que nos hayamos permitido al- ma del libro para que nos hayamos per- profonde du livre pour tolérer qu’on le
one to alter it; nor (as the reader terarlo; por lo demás (como advertirá por mitido alterarlo; por lo demás, como change; d’ailleurs (comme le lecteur le
4/2 “H.H.”‘s crime: the murder of Clare Quilty (pp.
z93-305), Humbert’s grotesque alter ego and will perceive for himself) is there sí mismo el lector) no había necesidad advertirá el propio lector, no había ne- verra par lui-même), il n’y a aucune
parodic Double. Humbert will henceforth be any practical necessity to do so. de hacerlo. El curioso puede encontrar cesidad de hacerlo. El curioso puede nécessité pratique de le faire. Les
identified by his initials.
2
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
5
10
15
20
25
3/1 two titles: the term “white widowed male” occurs in the case histories of psychiatric works, while the entire
subtitle parodies the titillating confessional novel, such as John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
(1749), and the expectations of the reader who hopes Lolita will provide the pleasures of pornography (see
276/2). Although Nabokov could hardly have realized it at the time of writing, there is no small irony in the
fact that the timidity of American publishers resulted in the novel’s being first brought out by the Olympia
Press, publishers of The Sexual Life of Robinson Crusoe and other “eighteenth-century sexcapades” (to
use Clare Quilty’s description of Sade’s Justine, 3o0u, Les Infortunes de la vertu [. . . The Misfortunes of
Virtue see p. 298).
3/3 “Humbert Humbert”.. in his Playboy interview (1964), Nabokov said, “The double rumble is, I think, very
nasty, very suggestive. It is a hateful name for a hateful person. It is also a kingly name, but I did need a
royal vibration for Humbert the Fierce and Humbert the Humble. Lends itself also to a number of puns.”
Like James Joyce, Nabokov fashions his puns from literary sources, from any of the several languages
available to him, from obsolete words, or the roots3 5of arcane words. If the associations are rich enough, a
pun succeeds in projecting a theme central to the fiction, in summarizing or commenting on the action. In
both The Gift (1937) and the 1959 Foreword to the English translation of Invitation to a Beheading
(1935-1936), Nabokov mentions Discours sur les ombres, by Pierre Delalande, “the only author whom I
must gratefully recognize as an influence upon me at the time of writing this book . . . [and] whom I
invented.” Delalande’s Discours provided the epigraph for Invitation-“Comme un fou se croît Dieu, nous
nous croyons mortels” [“As a madman deems himself God, we deem ourselves mortal”]-and Nabokov’s
entire corpus might be described as a “Discourse4 o0n Shadows, or Shades.” John Shade is the author of
the poem Pale Fire. In a rejected draft of his poem, he writes, “I like my name: Shade, Ombre, almost ‘man’
/ In Spanish . . .”-an accurate etymological pairing (hombre > ombre) and a resonant pun that figuratively
places hombre in ombre-a card game popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-and sets man
to playing in Nabokov’s “game of worlds” (see 20/4). Humbert was brought up on the French Riviera;
pronounced with a French accent, his name partakes of these shadows and shades. By “solipsizing” Lolita
(p. 6o), Humbert condemns her to the solitary confinement of his obsessional shadowland. “She had
entered my world, umber and black Humberland,”4 s5ays Humbert (p. 166), who, by choosing to chase the
figurative shadows that play on the walls of his “cave,” upends Plato’s famous allegory. Although Humbert
has had the benefit of a journey in the sunny “upper world”-a Riviera boyhood, in fact, and a full-sized wife
or two-he nevertheless pursues the illusion that he can recapture what is inexorably lost. As Humbert
demonstrates, illusions are realities in their ability to destroy us. “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain /
By the false azure in the windowpane,” writes John Shade in the opening lines of Pale Fire, while in
Nabokov’s poem “An Evening of Russian Poetry” (1945), the speaker says:
50
My back is Argus-eyed. I live in danger.
False shadows turn to track me as I pass
and, wearing beards, disguised as secret agents,
creep in to blot the freshly written page
and read the blotter in the looking-glass.
And in the dark, under my bedroom window,
until, with a chill whirr and shiver, 5d5ay
presses its starter, warily they linger
or silently approach the door and ring the
bell of memory and run away.
Seventeen years later in Pale Fire the Shadows are the Zemblan “regicidal organization” who dispatch Gradus,
one of whose aliases is d’Argus, to assassinate the exiled King Charles (Kinbote). But the Shadows’ secret
agent accidentally kills Shade instead. Lolita offers6 0the converse, for “Shade” (Humbert) purposely kills his
“shadow” (Clare Quilty). Thus the delusive nature of identity and perception, the constricting burdens of
memory, and a haunting sense of mutability are all capsuled in a reverberating pun.
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70
75
3
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
References to “H.H.”’s crime referencias al crimen de «H. H.» en los encontrar referencias al crimen de «H. fouineurs pourront trouver des
may be looked up by the periódicos de septiembre y octubre de H.» en los periódicos de septiembre de références au crime de «H. H.» dans
inquisitive in the daily papers for 1952; la causa y el propósito de ese cri- 1952; la causa y el propósito del cri- les quotidiens de septembre et octobre
September-October 1952; its men habrían seguido siendo un misterio men se habrían mantenido en un mis- 1952 ; le mystère serait encore entier
5 cause and purpose would haveXde no haberse permitido que estas me- terio absoluto de no haber permitido quant à sa cause et à son objet si le
continued to come under myXmorias fueran a parar bajo la luz de mi el autor que estas Memorias fueran a sort n’avait placé ce mémoire sous ma
reading lamp. lámpara de trabajo. dar bajo la luz de mi lámpara. lampe de travail.
For the benefit of old-fashioned En provecho de esos lectores anticua- En provecho de lectores anticua- À l’intention des lecteurs de la vieille
10readers who wish to follow the dos que desean rastrear los destinos de dos que desean rastrear los destinos école qui aiment à suivre la destinée des
destinies of the “real” people beyond las personas «reales» más allá de la his- de las personas más allá de la histo- personnages «réels» au-delà de l’histoire
the “true” story, a few details may toria «verdadera», cabe suministrar unos ria real; pueden suministrarse unos «vraie», je me permets d’ajouter ici
be given as received from Mr. pocos detalles recibidos del señor pocos detalles recibidos del señor quelques détails tels qu’ils me furent
“Windmuller,” or “Ramsdale,” who «Windmuller», de «Ramsdale», que de- Windmuller, de Ramsdale, que desea communiqués par Mr «Windmuller», de
15desires his identity suppressed so that sea ocultar su identidad a fin de que «las ocultar su identidad para que «las lar- «Ramsdale», qui désire conserver
“the long shadow of this sorry and largas sombras de esta historia doloro- gas sombras de esta historia doloro- l’anonymat afin que «l’ombre démesurée
sordid business” should not reach the sa y sórdida» no lleguen hasta la comu- sa y sórdida» no lleguen hasta la co- de cette sordide et lamentable affaire»
community to which he is proud to nidad a la que se enorgullece de perte- munidad a la cual está orgulloso de n’atteigne pas la communauté à laquelle
belong. His daughter, “Louise,” is by necer. Su hija, «Louise», está ahora en pertenecer. Su hija, Louise, está ahora il est fier d’appartenir. Sa fille «Louise»
20now a college sophomore, “Mona el segundo curso de la universidad. en las aulas de un colegio: Mona Dahl est maintenant en seconde année de
Dahl” is a student in Paris. “Rita” «Mona Dahl» estudia en París. «Rita» estudia en París. Rita se ha casado faculté; «Mona Dahl» est étudiante à
has recently married the se ha casado recientemente con el recientemente con el dueño de un Paris; «Rita» a récemment épousé le
proprietor of a hotel in Florida. dueño de un hotel de Florida. La se- hotel de Florida. La señora de propriétaire d’un hôtel de Floride. Mrs.
Mrs. “Richard F. Schiller” died in ñora de «Richard F. Schiller» murió Richard F. Schiller murió al dar a luz «Richard F. Schiller» est morte en
[en el que la criatura]25childbed, giving birth to a stillborn girl, al dar a luz a una niña que nacióXa un niño que nació muerto, en la couches le jour de Noël 1952 à Gray
on Christmas Day 1952, in muerta, en la Navidad de 1952, en Navidad de 1952, en Gray Star, un Star, un village perdu aux confins du
Gray Star, a settlemen in the remotest Gray Star, una población del más re- establecimiento del lejano noroeste. Nord-Ouest, en mettant au monde
Northwest. “Vivian Darkbloom” moto Noroeste. «Vivian Darkbloom» Vivian Darkbloom es autora de una une fillette mort-née. «Vivian
has written a biography, “My ha escrito una biografía, Mi Cue, que biografía, Mi réplica, que se publi- Darkbloom» a écrit une biographie,
30Cue,” to be publshed shortly, and se publicará próximamente, y los crí- cará próximamente. Los críticos que My Cue, qui va paraître bientôt, et
critics who have perused the ticos que han leído el original lo de- han examinado el manuscrito lo de- les critiques qui ont lu le manuscrit
manuscript call it her best book. claran su mejor libro. Los encargados claran su mejor libro. Los cuidadores considèrent que c’est son meilleur
The caretakers of the various de los diversos cementerios menciona- de los diversos cementerios mencio- livre. Les gardiens des divers
cemeteries involved report that dos informan de que no se ven fantas- nados informan que no se ven fan- cimetières concernés disent n’avoir
35no ghosts walk. mas deambulando por ellos. tasmas por ningún lado. vu rôder aucun revenant.
Viewed simply as a novel, Considerada sencillamente como una Considerada sencillamente como Considéré sous l’angle purement
“Lolita” deals with situations and novela, Lolita presenta situaciones y novela, Lolita presenta situaciones y romanesque, Lolita traite de
emotions that would remain emociones que el lector encontraría emociones que el lector encontraría situations et d’émotions qui, si le
40exasperatingly vague to the reader exasperantes por su vaguedad si su ex- exasperantes por su vaguedad si su récit en avait été étiolé par des
etiolate v.tr. 1 make (a plant) pale by excluding light. 2 had their expression been etiolated presión se hubiese diluido mediante in- expresión se hubiese diluido median- détours insipides, demeureraient
give a sickly hue to (a person).
by means of platitudinous sípidas evasivas. Por cierto que no se te insípidas evasivas. Por cier- d’une exaspérante obscurité aux
evasions. True, not a single hallará en todo el libro un solo término to que no se hallará en todo el yeux du lecteur. Certes, on ne
obscene term is to be found in theXobsceno; en verdad, el _____ filisteo de libro un solo término obsceno; trouve pas un seul terme obscène
45whole work; indeed, the robust mente más bien sucia a quien las conven- en verdad, el robusto filisteo a dans tout l’ouvrage ; et le solide
philistine who is conditioned by ciones modernas han constreñido para que quien las convenciones moder- philistin accoutumé par les
qualm n. 1 escrúpulo, reparo [about, en]: we had no modern conventions into accepting acepte, sin excesivos aspavientos, una nas persuaden de que acepte sin conventions modernes à accepter
qenu alllemvsa arlboo audt egloanintge a h2e daudd waith it, no tuvimos reparos without qualms a lavish array of profusa ornamentación de palabras con- escrúpulos una profusa ornamentación sans broncher les mots orduriers qui
lavish generoso, pródigo 2 esplédido, lujoso four-letter words in a banal novel, sideradas malsonantes en cualquier novela de palabras de cuatro letras en cualquier foisonnent dans un roman banal sera
lavis2h g e1n geriovuinsg, uonr sptirnotdinugc.i n g3 ienx claersgseiv qeu, aonvteitri-easb; upnrdoafunst.e.50will be quite shocked by their trivial, sentirá no poco asombro al compro- novela trivial, sentirá no poco asombro al sans doute très choqué de ne pas les
(often foll. by on) bestow or spend (money, effort, praise, absence here. If, however, for this bar que [10] aquí están ausentes. Pero si, comprobar que aquí están ausentes. Pero si, rencontrer ici. Cependant, si, pour
etc.) abundantly. paradoxical prude’s comfort, an para alivio de esos paradójicos mojigatos, para alivio de esos paradójicos mojigatos, satisfaire la paradoxale pruderie de
editor attempted to dilute or omit un revisor intentara disimular o supri- algún editor intentara disimular o su- celui-ci, le correcteur entreprenait de
scenes that a certain type of mindXmir determinadas escenas que cierto tipo primir escenas que cierto tipo de men- diluer ou d’omettre telles scènes que
55might call “aphrodisiac” (see in de mentalidad llamaría «afrodisíacas» talidad llamaría «afrodisíacas» (véase des esprits d’un certain genre pourraient
this respect the monumental (véase en este sentido la monumental en este sentido la documental resolución qualifier d’«aphrodisiaques» (voir à ce
decision rendered December 6, decisión judicial tomada el 6 de diciem- sentenciada el 6 de diciembre de 1933 sujet le jugement capital prononcé le
1933, by Hon. John M. Woolsey in bre de 1933 por el Honorable John M. por el Honorable John M. Woolsey 6 décembre 1933 par l’honorable
regard to another, considerably Woolsey con respecto a otro libro, con- con respecto a otro libro, considera- John Woolsey à propos d’un autre livre
(X) eSreag uúnn l idbircoh oab ssecennteon yc,i ap,o rU clyosnsseigsu, iednet eJ,a pmoedsía J voeyncdee, rnseo60more outspoken book), one would siderablemente más explícito(X)), ha- blemente más explícito), habría que infiniment plus cru(1)), il faudrait tout
en los Estados Unidos. (N. del T) have to forego the publication of bría que desistir por completo de la pu- desistir por completo de la pu- simplement renoncer à publier Lolita,
“Lolita” altogether, since those blicación de Lolita, puesto que esas es- blicación de Lolita, puesto que esas car les scènes susdites, que l’on pourrait
very scenes that one might inpetly cenas a las que, llevados de su cortedad escenas mismas –que torpemente po- accuser sottement de posséder en
accuse of sensuous existence of intelectual, algunos podrían acusar de dríamos acusar de poseer una elles-mêmes une existence sensuelle,
65their own, are the most strictly poseer una sensualidad gratuita son las existencia sensual y gratuita– son las más sont précisément celles qui sont le plus
functional ones in the development más estrictamente funcionales en el de- estrictamente funcionales en el desarro- strictement [25] Jonctionnelles dans le
of a tragic tale tending sarrollo de un trágico relato que apunta, llo de una trágica narración que apunta déroulement de ce tragique récit qui tend
unswervingly to nothing less thanXsin desviarse ni un ápice de su objetivo, nada sin desviarse nada menos que a una sans relâche vers ce qu’il faut bien
a moral apotheosis. The cynic may más y nada menos que a una apoteosis moral. El apoteosis moral. El cínico alegará appeler une apothéose morale. Les
70say that commercial pornography cínico alegará tal vez que la pornografía comer- que la pornografía comercial tie- cyniques vous diront que la pornographie
makes the same claim; the cial también afirma tener esa pretensión; en cam- ne la misma pretensión; el médico commerciale a les mêmes prétentions; les
learned may counter by asserting bio, el intelectual quizás objete que la apasio- objetará que la apasionada confe- érudits riposteront en affirmant que la
that “H.H.”’s impassioned nada confesión de «H. H.» es una tempestad en sión de «H. H.» es una tempestad confession passionnée de «H. H.» est
confession is a tempest in a test tube; un vaso de agua; que, por lo menos, el en un tubo de ensayo; que por lo une tempête au fond d’une cornue,
75that at least 12% of American doce por ciento de los varones adul- menos el doce por ciento de los va- que 12 % au moins des
adult males—a “conservative” tos norteamericanos -estimación rones adultos norteamericanos –es- adultes américains de sexe
estimate according to Dr.Xharto «moderada», según la docto-Xtimación harto moderada según la mâle -«au bas mot» selon le
Blanche Schwarzmann ra Blanche Schwarzmann doctora Blanche Schwarzmann docteur Blanche Schwarzmann
4
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
4/3 1952: a corrected author’s error (“September-Octo5ber 1952,” instead of the 1958 edition’s “September”). The following pages in the text contain corrections which
are detailed in the Notes: pp. 4 (below), 6, 19, i3, 31, 32, 52, 60, 117, 121, 138, 150, 162, 185, 193, 195, 197, 199, 204, 225, 230, 232, 253, 259, 262, 264, 314, and
316. The 1958 Putnam’s edition was set in type from the 1955 Olympia Press edition. The latter contains many minuscule mistakes (e.g., punctuation) which were
carried over into the Putnam’s edition and identified only when the present text was in page proof. Although these errors have been corrected, it was impossible to
describe them separately in the Notes. However, since the present edition follows the Putnam’s format exactly, save for the pagination (each Putnam page is two
higher), assiduous students of such textual matters can easily identify these corrections by collating the two texts, as follows, adding two to get the Putnam’s page:
p. 5, line sixteen; p. 31, line fourteen; p. 40, last line; p. 63, lines three and twenty-six; p. 73, line nineteen; p. 82, last line; p. 111, line seventeen; p. 136, line thirteen;
p. 141, lines six and seven; p. 150, line twenty-five1;0 p. 156, line six; p. 158, line sixteen; p. 161, line fifteen; p. 164, line nine; p. 179, line three; p. 18o, line nine; p.
218, line ten; p. 226, line seven; p. 239, line thirteen; p. 243, line twenty-three; P. 255, line five; p. 262, line twenty-five; p. 275, line four; p. 276, line thirty-three; and
p. 278, line two.
4/4 “real people” . . . “true story “.: in the Afterword, Nabokov mentions his “impersonation of suave John Ray” (p. 311); but by mocking the conventional reader’s desire
for verisimilitude, as Nabokov does in the opening paragraphs of Laughter in the Dark, Despair, Invitation to a Beheading, and The Gift, Dr. Ray here expresses the
concerns of a novelist rather than psychologist, suggesting that the mask has not remained totally in place. There are subtle oscillations between the shrill locutions
and behavioristic homilies of Ray and the quite rea15sonable statements of an authorial voice projected, as it were, from the wings. Note 4/9 underlines this, while 5/
1 and 5/3-5/5 suggest other instances of that presence.
4/5 sophomore: a corrected misprint (a period instead of the 1958 edition’s semicolon after “sophomore”).
20
4/6 Mrs. “Richard F. Schiller”.. Lolita’s married name, first revealed on p. 266. The covert disclosure of Lolita’s death is significant, for the announcement that the three
main characters are now dead challenges the “old-fashioned reader” ‘s idea of “story”: to reveal the outcome before the story even begins is of course to ruin it. The
heroine of “The Beauty” (1934), an untranslated Nabokov story, also dies in childbirth within a year after her marriage (noted by Andrew Field, Nabokov: His Life in
Act [Boston, 1967], p. 330).
4/7 1952: for a hermetic allusion to this crucial year, s2e5e 251/14.
4/8 Gray Star: it is most remote, for there is no town by this name anywhere in the world. Nabokov calls it “the capital town of the book” (p. 316). A gray star is one veiled
by haze (Lolita’s surname), and H.H. recalls “the haze of stars” that has always “remained with me.” See 15/1 and 280/1.
4/9 “Vivian Darkbloom “ . . . “My Cue “.. “Vivian Darkbloom” is Clare Quilty’s mistress and an anagram of “Vladimir Nabokov” (see my 1967 Wisconsin Studies article,
p. 216, and my 1968 Denver Quarterly article, p. 32 [see bibliography]). “Vivian Darkbloom” is the author of “Notes to Ada,” which is appended to the 1970 Penguin
paperback edition and the 1990 Vintage edition. A30mong her alphabetical cousins are “Vivian Bloodmark, a philosophical friend of mine,” who appears in Speak,
Memory (p. 218), and “Mr. Vivian Badlook,” a photographer and teacher of English in the 1968 translation of the 1928 novel King, Queen, Knave (p. 153)-and they
all descend from “Vivian Calmbrood” (see Field, op. cit., p. 73), the alleged author of The Wanderers, an uncompleted play written by Nabokov in Russian (the
anagram is helped along by the fact that in Cyrillic, the c is a k ). One act of it was published in the émigré almanac Facets (1923), as an English play written by
Vivian Calmbrood in 1768 and translated by V. Sirin (the pen name under which all of Nabokov’s Russian work appeared). In a discussion in Ada (1969) of Van
Veen’s first novel, Letters from Terra, mention is made of the influence “of an obscene ancient Arab, expounder of anagrammatic dreams, Ben Sirine” (p. 34,4).
As for H.H. and John Ray, unless characters in a novel can be said to have miraculously fashioned their creators, someone else must be responsible for an
anagram of the author’s name, and such pheno3m5ena undermine the narratives realistic base by pointing beyond the book to Nabokov, the stage manager,
ventriloquist, and puppeteer, who might simply state, “My cue.” Because Nabokov considered publishing Lolita anonymously (see p. 313), there was also a purely
utilitarian reason for anagrammatizing his name, as proof of authorship. “Cue” is also the cognomen of Clare Quilty, who pursues H.H. throughout the novel. But
who is Quilty?-a question the reader will surely ask (see the Introduction, pp. xxx-lxvii, and 31/9). As with H.H. and Lolita (née Dolores Haze), Quilty’s name lends
itself to wordplay by turns jocose (see 223/1) and significant, since H.H. suggests that Clare Quilty is clearly guilty. Clare is also a town in Michigan (see 159/1), and,
although Nabokov did not know it until this note came into being, Quilty is a town in County Clare, Ireland, appropriate to a verbally playful novel in which there are
several apt references to James Joyce. See 4/11.
40
4/10 etiolated: to blanch or whiten a plant by exclusion of sunlight.
45
50
55
4/11 outspoken book: Ulysses (1922), by James Joyce (1883-1941), Irish novelist and poet. Judge Woolsey’s historic decision paved the way for the 1934 American
publication of Ulysses, and his decision, along with a statement by Morris Ernst, prefaces the Modern Library edition of the novel. Ray’s parenthetical allusion
echoes and compresses its complete
60
title: “THE MONUMENTAL DECISION OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
RENDERED DECEMBER 6, 1933, BY HON. JOHN M. WOOLSEY LIFTING THE BAN
ON ‘ULYSSES.’ “ Ray’s Foreword in part burlesques the expert opinions which have inevitably prefaced subsequent “controversial”
novels. For other allusions to Joyce, see 69/1, 120/4, 187/1, 198/3, 207/3, 221/1, 250/3, 262/3, and 284/4.
65
5/1 moral apotheosis. a just description of H.H.’s realization at the end of the novel: “the hopelessly poignant thing was not Lolita’s absence from my side, but the
absence of her voice from that concord” (p. 308).
70
5/2 12%: such “sextistics” (as H.H. or Quilty might call them) poke fun at the work of Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) and his Indiana University Institute for Sex Research.
5/3 Blanche Schwarzmann: schwarz is German for “bl7a5ck”; her name is “White Blackman,” because, to Nabokov, Freudians figuratively see no colors other than black
and white (see 5/6). “White blackman” also describes the attire of a recently “white widowed male” (see 3/1). For a similarly hued lady, see p. Soi and “Melanie
Weiss.”
5
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
(verbal communication) —enjoy (comunicación verbal)- pasan anual- (comunicación verbal)– pasan anual- (communication verbale)-connaissent
yearly, in one way or another, mente de un modo u otro por la pe- mente de un modo u otro por la pe- chaque année, sous une forme ou une
the special experience “H.H.” culiar experiencia descrita con tan- culiar experiencia descrita con tal autre, l’expérience très spéciale que
describes with such despare; that ta desesperación por «H. H.», y que si desesperación por «H. H.»; que si décrit «H. H.» avec tant de désespoir,
5 had our demented diarist gone, in nuestro obseso narrador hubiera con- nuestro ofuscado autobiógrafo et que si notre mémorialiste dément
the fatal summer of 1947, to a sultado, en el fatal verano de 1947, hubiera consultado, en ese vera- avait consulté un psychothérapeute
competent psycho-pathologist, a un psicopatólogo competen- no fatal de 1947, a un psicópata compétent, en ce fatal été
there would have been no te, no habría ocurrido el de- competente, no habría ocurrido de 1947, le désastre eût été
disaster; but then, neither would sastre. Claro que tampoco el desastre. Pero tampoco habría évité - mais, bien sûr, le présent livre
10there have been this book. existiría este libro. aparecido este libro. n’aurait pas vu le jour non plus.
This commentator may be Este comentarista pide excusas Se excusará a este comentador On voudra bien pardonner au
excused for repeating what he por repetir algo en lo que ha hecho que repita lo que ha enfatizado présent commentateur de répéter ce
has stressed in his own books hincapié en sus libros y conferen- en sus libros y conferencias: lo qu’il a maintes fois expliqué dans ses
15and lectures, namely that cias, es decir, que lo «ofensivo» no ofensivo no suele ser más que un écrits et ses conférences, à savoir que
“offensive” is frequently but a suele ser más que un sinónimo de sinónimo de lo insólito. Una l’épithète «choquant» n’est bien souvent
synonym for “unusual;” and a lo «insólito»; que una obra de arte obra de arte es, desde luego, qu’un synonyme d’«insolite», et que
great work of art is of course es, en esencia, siempre original, siempre original; su naturaleza toute grande oeuvre d’art est bien sûr
always original, and thus by its por lo cual su naturaleza misma misma, por lo tanto, hace que se toujours originale et devrait ainsi par
20very nature should come as a hace que se presente como una sor- presente como una sorpresa más nature exercer un effet de surprise plus
more or less shocking surprise. presa más o menos escandalosa. o menos alarmante. No tengo la ou moins choquant. Loin de moi
I have no intention to glorify No tengo la intención de glorificar intención de glorificar a «H. H.». l’intention de faire l’apologie de «H.
“H.H.” No doubt, he is horrible, is a «H. H.». Sin duda, es un hombre Sin duda, es un hombre abomi- H.». Il est, à n’en pas douter, un
is abject, he is a shining example horrible, abyecto, un ejemplo fla- nable, abyecto, un ejemplo fla- personnage abject et horrible, un
25of moral leprosy, a mixture of grante de lepra moral, una mez- grante de lepra moral, una mez- exemple insigne de lèpre morale, un
5/4 a mixture of. . . supreme misery: an accurate ferocity and jocularity that cla de ferocidad y jocosidad que cla de ferocidad y jocosidad que composé de jovialité et de férocité qui
description of the pain at the center of H.H.’s betrays supreme misery acaso revele una suprema desdi- acaso revele una suprema desdi- masque peut-être une détresse sans
playfulness.
conducive propicio, favorable perhaps, but is not conducive to cha, pero que no puede resultar cha, pero que no puede ejercer fond mais n’est pas fait pour inspirer
favorecer, ser propicio
attractiveness. He is ponderously atractiva. Es afectado hasta ra- atracción. Su capricho llega a la la sympathie. Il est pompeux et
30capricious. Many of his casual yar en lo ridículo. Muchas de extravagancia. Muchas de sus fantasque. La plupart des
opinions on the people and las opiniones que expresa aquí y opiniones formuladas aquí y allá commentaires dont il accable au passage
scenery of this country are allá acerca de las gentes y los pai- sobre las gentes y el paisaje de les habitants et le cadre de ce pays sont
ludicrous. A desperate honesty sajes de este país son ridículas. este país son ridículas. Cierta risibles. La sincérité désespérée que l’on
that throbs through his Cierta desesperada honradez que desesperada honradez que vibra sent vibrer tout au long de sa confession
35confession does not absolve him vibra en su confesión no le ab- en su confesión no lo absuelve [26] ne saurait pour autant l’absoudre
from sins of diabolical cunning. suelve de pecados de diabólica de pecados de diabólica astu- de ses péchés qui sont d’une fourberie
He is abnormal. He is not a astucia. Es anormal. No es un cia. Es un anormal. No es un diabolique. C’est un être anormal et, à
gentleman. But how magically caballero. Pero ¡con qué magia caballero. Pero, ¡con qué ma- coup sûr, tout le contraire d’un gentleman.
his singing violin can su violín armonioso conjura gia su violín armonioso conju- Mais son archet magique sait faire naître
5/5 Rhiasy s’sin rghientgo rvicio rlienv: eaanlso tthheer vgoaicpe ino f thheis tmexatkuerer. Ionf40conjure up a tendresse, aXen nosotros una ternura, una com-Xra en nosotros una ternura, una une musique si pleine de tendresse et de
his Foreword to Invitation to a Beheading, compassion for Lolita that pasión hacia Lolita que hace que nos compasión hacia Lolita que nos en- compassion pour Lolita que l’on
Nabokov calls the novel a “violin in a void,” and in makes us entranced with the sintamos fascinados por el libro al trega a la fascinación del libro, al succombe au charme du livre
Speak, Memory he calls the poet Boris Poplavski
“a far violin among near balalaikas” (p.287). book while abhorring its mismo tiempo que abominamos de propio tiempo que abominamos de alors même que l’on abhorre
author! su autor! su autor! son auteur.
45
As a case history, “Lolita” will Como exposición de un caso clí- Como exposición de un caso, En tant que document clinique, il est
become, no doubt, a classic in nico, Lolita habrá de ser, sin duda, Lolita habrá de ser, sin duda, una très vraisemblable que Lolita deviendra
psychiatric circles. As a work of una obra clásica en los círculos psi- obra clásica en los círculos psiquiá- un classique dans les milieux
art, it transcends its expiatory quiátricos. Como obra de arte, trascien- tricos. Como obra de arte, trasciende psychiatriques. En tant qu’oeuvre d’art,
50aspects; and still more important de sus aspectos expiatorios; y más im- su aspecto expiatorio. Y más importante l’ouvrage transcende son aspect
to us than scientific significance portante aún para nosotros que su tras- aún, para nosotros, que su trascenden- expiatoire ; toutefois, ce n’est pas tant son
and literary worth, is the ethicalXcendencia científica y su dignidad li-Xcia científica y su dignidad lite- intérêt scientifique ou sa valeur littéraire
impact the book should have on teraria es el impacto ético que el li- raria es el impacto ético que el li- qui nous importe que l’impact moral qu’il
the serious reader; for in this bro tendrá sobre el lector serio; bro tendrá sobre el lector serio. devrait avoir sur le lecteur sérieux ; car,
55poignant personal study there pues en este punzante estudio per- Pues en este punzante estudio per- à travers cette poignante analyse
lurks a general lesson; the sonal se encierra una lección gene- sonal se encierra una lección ge- personnelle, transparaît une leçon
wayward child, the egotistic ral; la niña descarriada, la madre neral. La niña descarriada, la ma- universelle ; cette enfant rétive, cette mère
mother, the panting maniac— egotista, el anheloso maníaco no son tan sólo dre egoísta, el anheloso maniático égoïste et cet obsédé pantelant ne sont pas
these are not only vivid charactersXlos protagonistas vigorosamente retratados no son tan sólo vívidos caracteres seulement les personnages hauts en couleur
60in a unique story: they warn us of de una historia única: nos previenen de una historia única; nos previe- d’une histoire unique en son genre : ils
dangerous trends; they point out contra peligrosas tendencias, seña- nen contra peligrosas tendencias, nous mettent en garde contre de
potent evils. “Lolita” should lan males potenciales. Lolita hará evidencian males poderosos. Lolita périlleuses tendances, ils stigmatisent des
make all of us—parents, social que todos nosotros -padres, traba- hará que todos nosotros –padres, maux redoutables. Lolita devrait nous
workers, educators—apply jadores sociales, educadores- nos sociólogos, educadores– nos consa- inviter tous -parents, travailleurs sociaux,
65ourselves with still greater consagremos con interés y perspec- gremos con celo y visión mucho éducateurs - à redoubler d’efforts et à faire
vigilance and vision to the task of tiva mucho mayores a la tarea de lo- mayores a la tarea de lograr una ge- preuve de vigilance et de sagacité afin
bringing up a better generation in grar una generación mejor en un neración mejor en un mundo más d’élever une génération meilleure dans un
a safer world. mundo más seguro. seguro. monde plus sûr.
70 John Ray, Jr., Ph.D. JOHN RAY, JR. Doctor en Filosofía JOHN RAY JR., Doctor en Filosofía, Widworth, Massachusetts, 5 août 1955.
Widworth, Mass. Widworth, Massachusetts, ¿?Widworth, Mass. ______________ JOHN RAY JR, docteur.
August 5, 1955 5 de agosto de 1955 [12]
75
6
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
5/6 a case history: among other things, Lolita parodies such studies, and Nabokov’s quarrel with psychoanalysis is well-known. No Foreword to his translated novels seems complete unless a few words are addressed to “the
Viennese delegation,” who are also invoked frequently throughout the works. Asked in a 1966 National Educational Television interview why he “detest[ed] Dr. Freud,” Nabokov replied: “I think he’s crude, I think he’s
medieval, and I don’t want an elderly gentleman from Vienna with an umbrella inflicting his dreams upon me. I don’t have the dreams that he discusses in his books. I don’t see umbrellas in my dreams. Or balloons” (this
half-hour interview may be rented for a nominal fee from the Audio-Visual Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47401; the film, notes their catalog, is “available to responsible individuals and groups both in and
out of Indiana”). When I queried Nabokov about Freud (by now a trite question), just to see if he could rise to the occasion once more, he obliged me: “Oh, I am not up to discussing again that figure of fun. He is not worthy
of more attention than I have granted him in my novels and in Speak, Memory. Let the credulous and the vulgar continue to believe that all mental woes can be cured by a daily application of old Greek myths to their private
parts. I really do not care” (Wisconsin Studies inte5r0view).
In Speak, Memory, Nabokov recalls having seen from a Biarritz window “a huge custard-colored balloon . . . being inflated by Sigismond Lejoyeux, a local aeronaut” (p.156); and “the police state of sexual myth” (p.
3oo) is in Ada called “psykitsch” (p. 29). The good doctor’s paronomastic avatars are “Dr. Sig Heiler” (p. 28), and “A Dr. Froid . . . who may have been an émigré brother with a passport-changed name of the Dr. Froit of
Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu” (p. 27). Since no parodist could improve on Erich Fromm’s realization that “The little cap of red velvet in the German version of Little Red Riding Hood is a symbol of menstruation” (from The
Forgotten Language, 1951, p. 240), or Dr. Oskar Pfister’s felicitously expressed thought that “When a youth is all the time sticking his finger through his buttonhole . . . the analytic teacher knows that the appetite of the
lustful one knows no limit in his phantasies” (from The Psychoanalytical Method, 1917, p. 79), Nabokov the literary anatomist simply includes these treasures in Pale Fire (p. 271). See Lolita, pp. 34, 167, 194-195, 250,
and 285; and 35/1, 125/3, 254/3, and 274/4
55
60
6/1 John Ray, Jr.: the first John Ray (1627-1705) was an English naturalist famous for his systems of natural classification. His system of plant classification greatly influenced the development of systematic botany (Historia
plantarium, 1686-1704). He was the first to attempt a definition of what constitutes a species. His system of insects, as set forth in Methodus insectorum (1705) and Historia insectorum (1713), is based on the concept of
metamorphosis (see 16/6). The reference to Ray is no coincidence (it was first pointed out by Diana Butler, in “Lolita Lepidoptera,” New World Writing r6 [196o], p. 63). Nabokov was a distinguished lepidopterist, worked
in Lepidoptera as a Research Fellow in the Museu65m of Comparative Zoology at Harvard (1942-1948), and published some twenty papers on the subject. While I was visiting him in 1966, he took from the shelf his copy
of Alexander B. Klots’s standard work, A Field Guide to the Butterflies (1951), and, opening it, pointed to the first sentence of the section on “Genus Lycxides Scudden The Orange Margined Blues,” which reads: “The recent
work of Nabokov has entirely rearranged the classification of this genus” (p. 164). “That’s real fame,” said the author of Lolita. “That means more than anything a literary critic could say.” In Speak, Memory (Chapter Six),
he writes evocatively of his entomological forays, of the fleeting moments of ecstasy he experiences in catching exquisite and rare butterflies. These emotions are perhaps best summarized in his poem “A Discovery”
(1943; from Poems, p. i5), its twentieth line echoing what he said to me more than two decades later:
Ifound it in a legendary land / all rocks and lavender and tufted grass, / where it was settled on some sodden sand / hard by the torrent of a mountain pass.
The features it combines mark it as new / to science: shape and shade-the special tinge, / akin to moonlight, tempering its blue, / the dingy underside, the checquered fringe.
My needles have teased out its sc7u0lptured sex; / corroded tissues could no longer hide / that priceless mote now dimpling the convex / and limpid teardrop on a lighted slide.
Smoothly a screw is turned; out of the mist / two ambered hooks symmetrically slope, / or scales like battledores of amethyst / cross the charmed circle of the microscope.
I found it and I named it, being versed / in taxonomic Latin; thus became / godfather to an insect and its first / describer-and I want no other fame.
Wide open on its pin (though fast asleep), / and safe from creeping relatives and rust, / in the secluded stronghold where we keep / type specimens it will transcend its dust.
Dark pictures, thrones, the stones that pilgrims kiss, / poems that take a thousand years to die / but ape the immortality of this / red label on a little butterfly.
There are many references to butterflies in Lolita, but it must be remembered that it is Nabokov, and not H.H., who is the expert. As Nabokov said, “H.H. knows nothing about Lepidoptera. In fact, I went out of my
way to indicate [p. 110 and p. 1571 that he confuses the hawkmoths visiting flowers at dusk with ‘gray hummingbirds.’ “ The author has implored the unscientific annotator to omit references to Lepidoptera, “a tricky subject.”
Only the most specific lepidopterological allusions7 w5ill be noted, though even this modest trove will make it clear how the butterfly motif enables Nabokov to leave behind on H.H.’s pages a trail of his own phosphorescent
fingerprints. For entomological allusions, see 9/5, 10/3, I2/1, 16/6, 42/5, 46/1, 56/2, 110/3, 112/1, 126/2, 141/1, 156/2, 157/2, 189/5, 209/1, 210/2, 211/4, 227/4, 231/1, 234/2, 258/5, 259/1, 262/6, 301/5, 315/1, and 316/
10. 6/2 1955: a corrected author’s error (the date was not included in the 1958 edition).
7
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
5
10
Involute: 1. Literally, to turn inward or roll inward.
2. To decrease in size after an enlargement. The
uterus involutes after pregnancy. The thymus
15 involutes after adolescence. 3. To undergo a
retrograde change. After treatment, a tumor may
involute. 4. To shrink physically and emotionally
with advancing age.
involución. (Del lat. involutio, -onis, acción de en-
volver). 1. f. Acción y efecto de involucionar. 2.
f. Detención y retroceso de una evolución bioló-
gica, política, cultural, económica, etc. ~ senil.
1. f. Med. Conjunto de fenómenos de esclerosis y
20 atrofia característicos de la vejez. ~ uterina. 1. f.
Med. Retorno del útero al estado de reposo des-
pués del parto.
involute 1 involved, intricate. 2 curled spirally. 3
Bot. rolled inwards at the edges.
n. Geom. the locus of a point fixed on a straight line
that rolls without sliding on a curve and is in the
plane of that curve (cf. evolute).
25 involute 1 involute(of some shells) closely coiled so
that the axis is obscured enrollado en espirial
2 involute, rolled especially of petals or leaves
in bud; having margins rolled inward
1 a : curled spirally b (1) : curled or curved inward
(2) : having the edges rolled over the upper surface
toward the midrib <an involute leaf> c : having
the form of an involute <a gear with involute
teeth> 2 : INVOLVED, INTRICATE (intrin-
30 cado)
35
40
PART ONE PRIMERA PARTE PRIMERA PARTE Première partie
1 I 1
45 Lolita, light of my life, fire of Lolita, luz de mi vida, fuego de mis Lolita, luz de mi vida, fuego de mis Lolita, lumière de ma vie, feu de
loin n. Culin (de cerdo) lomo (de ternera, vaca) solomillo my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo- entrañas. Pecado mío, alma mía. Lo- (cid:23)entrañas. Pecado mío, alma mía. Lo- mes reins. Mon péché, mon âme.
loin n. 1 (in pl.) the part of the body on both sides of the lee-ta: the tip of the tongue li-ta: la punta de la lengua emprende un li-ta: la punta de la lengua emprende un Lo-lii-ta : le bout de la langue fait
spine between the false ribs and the hip-bones. 2 a
joint of meat that includes the loin vertebrae. taking a trip of three steps down viaje de tres pasos paladar abajo hasta viaje de tres pasos desde el borde del trois petits pas le long du palais
tap 1 : to strike a light audible blow : rap 2 : to walk the palate to tap, at three, on the apoyarse, en el tercero, en el borde de paladar para apoyarse, en el tercero, en pour taper, à trois, contre les
with light audible steps 50teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. los dientes. Lo. Li. Ta. el borde de los dientes. Lo.Li.Ta. dents. Lo. Lii. Ta.
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the Era Lo, sencillamente Lo, por la mañana, cuando estaba Era Lo, sencillamente Lo, por la Le matin, elle était Lo, simplement
morning, standing four feet ten derecha, con su metro cuarenta y ocho de estatura, sobre un pie mañana, un metro cuarenta y ocho Lo, avec son mètre quarante-six et
in one sock. She was Lola in enfundado en un calcetín. Era Lola cuando llevaba puestos los de estatura con pies descalzos. Era son unique chaussette. Elle était Lola
55slacks. She was Dolly at school. pantalones. Era Dolly en la es- Lola con pantalones. Era Dolly en la en pantalon. Elle était Dolly à l’école.
She was Dolores on the dotted cuela. Era Dolores cuando firmaba.Xescuela. Era Dolores cuando firmaba. Elle était Dolores sur les pointillés.
line. But in my arms she was Pero en mis brazos fue Pero en mis brazos era siempre Mais dans mes bras, elle était
always Lolita. siempre Lolita. Lolita. toujours Lolita.
60 Did she have a precursor? She did, ¿Tuvo Lolita una precursora? Natu- ¿Tuvo Lolita una precursora? Une autre l’avait-elle précédée?
indeed she did. In point of fact, there ralmente que sí. En realidad, Lolita no Por cierto que la tuvo. En verdad, Oui, en fait oui. En vérité, il n’y aurait
might have been no Lolita at all had hubiera podido existir para mí si un ve- Lolita no pudo existir para mí si peut-être jamais eu de Lolita si, un été,
I not loved, one summer, a certain rano no hubiese amado a otra niña un verano no hubiese amado a otra je n’avais aimé au préalable une
* puntos suspensivos que susustituyen en initial girl-child. In a princedom by iniciática. En un principado junto alX........ «En un principado junto certaine enfant. Dans une principauté au
esta última edición «niña iniciática» 65the sea. Oh when? About as mar. ¿Cuándo? Aquel verano faltaban al mar.» ¿Cuándo? Tantos años bord de la mer. Quand était-ce? Environ
many years before Lolita was born para que naciera Lolita casi tantos años antes de que naciera Lolita autant d’années avant la naissance de
as my age was that summer. You como los que tenía yo entonces. Pue- como tenía yo ese verano. Siem- Lolita que j’en comptais cet été-là. Vous
can always count on a murderer den confiar en que la prosa de los asesi- pre puede uno contar con un ase- pouvez faire confiance à un meurtrier
for a fancy prose style. nos sea siempre elegante. sino para una prosa fantástica. pour avoir une prose alambiquée.
70
Ladies and gentlemen of the Señoras y señores del jurado, la Señoras y señores del jura- Mesdames et messieurs les jurés,
jury, exhibit number one is what prueba número uno es lo que los do, la prueba número uno es lo la pièce à conviction numéro un est
the seraphs, the misinformed, serafines, los mal informados e in- que envidiaron los serafines de cela même que convoitaient les
simple, noble-winged genuos serafines de majestuosas Poe, los errados, simples séraphins, ces êtres ignares,
75seraphs, envied. Look at this alas, envidiaron. Contemplen esta serafines de nobles alas. Mirad simplistes, aux ailes altières. Voyez
tangle of thorns. maraña de espinas. esta maraña de espinas. cet entrelacs d’épines. [31]
8
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
PART ONE
CHAPTER I
9/1 Lolita, light of my life. her name is the first word in the Foreword, as well as the first and last words of the novel. Such symmetries and carefully effected alliterations and rhythms undermine the credibility of H.H.’s
“point of view,” since the narrative is presented as a5n unrevised first draft, mistakes intact, started in a psychiatric ward and completed in a prison cell, the product of the fifty-six frenzied final days of H.H.’s life (see
his reminder, p. 308, and 32/7 and 34/3). When asked how her name occurred to him, Nabokov replied, “For my nymphet I needed a diminutive with a lyrical lilt to it. One of the most limpid and luminous letters
is ‘L.’ The suffix ‘-ita’ has a lot of Latin tenderness, and this I required too. Hence- Lolita. However, it should not be pronounced as . . . most Americans pronounce it: Low-lee-ta, with a heavy, clammy ‘L’ and a long
‘O.’ No, the first syllable should be as in ‘lollipop,’ the U liquid and delicate, the ‘lee’ not too sharp. Spaniards and Italians pronounce it, of course, with exactly the necessary note of archness and caress. Another
consideration was the welcome murmur of its source name, the fountain name: those roses and tears in ‘Dolores’ [see 9/5]. MY little girl’s heart-rending fate had to be taken into account together with the cuteness
and limpidity. Dolores also provided her with another, plainer, more familiar and infantile diminutive: Dolly, which went nicely with the surname ‘Haze,’ where Irish mists blend with a German bunny-I mean a small
German hare [= base]” (Playboy interview). Since most everything is in a name, Nabokov both memorializes and instructs in Ada: “For the big picnic on Ada’s twelfth birthday . . . the child was permitted to wear
her lolita (thus dubbed after the little Andalusian g1ip0sy [see Carmen note, 244/1-A.A.] of that name in Osberg’s novel and pronounced, incidentally, with a Spanish ‘t,’ not a thick English one) . . .” (p. 77). Lolita’s
name is lovingly celebrated by Anthony Burgess in his poem, “To Vladimir Nabokov on His Seventieth Birthday,” in TriQuarterly, No. 17 (Winter 197o):
That nymphet’s beauty lay less on her bones Than in her name’s proclaimed two allophones. A boned veracity slow to be found In all the channels of recorded sound.
9/2 Lo-lee-ta: the middle syllable alludes to “Annabel Lee” 6849), by Edgar Allan Poe 68o9-x849), H.H. will lead one to believe that “Annabel Leigh” is the cause of his misery: “Annabel Haze, alias Dolores Lee, alias
Loleeta,” he says on p. 167. References to Poe are noted in 3i/5, 43/5, 75/5, 107/1, 118/2, 189/3, and z9=/=; while “Annabel Lee” is variously invoked on pp. 4o, i=5, and =30, and otherwise as noted 9/7, 9/8, i=/
1, 13/4, 39/1, 4=/3, 47/4, 53/5, and 166/2. But rath15er than identify every “Annabel Lee” echo occurring in the first chapter and elsewhere, the text of the poem is provided:
It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea, / That a maiden there lived whom you may know / By the name of Annabel Lee; / And this maiden she lived with no other thought / Than to love and be
loved by me.
She was a child and I was a child, / In this kingdom by the sea, / But we loved with a love that was more than love / I and my Annabel Lee / With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven / Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago, / In this kingdom by the sea, / A wind blew out of a cloud by night / Chilling my Annabel Lee; / So that her high-bore kinsmen came / And bore her away from me, / To shut her
up in a sepulchre / In this kingdom by the sea. 20
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, / Went envying her and me: / Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, / In this kingdom by the sea) / That the wind came out of the cloud, chilling / And killing my Annabel
Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love / Of those who were older than we / Of many far wiser than we / And neither the angels in Heaven above / Nor the demons down under the sea / Can ever dissever my
soul from the soul / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee: / For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
25
And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; / And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side / Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride / In her sepulchre there by the sea
/ In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Poe is referred to more than twenty times in Lolita (echoes of “my darling” haven’t been counted), far more than any other writer (followed by Mérimée, Shakespeare, and Joyce, in that order). Not surprisingly,
Poe allusions have been the most readily identifiable to readers and earlier commentators (I pointed out several in my 1967 Wisconsin Studies article, “Lolita: The Springboard of Parody” [see bibliography]). See
also the earlier articles by Elizabeth Phillips (“The Hocus-Pocus of Lolita, “Literature and Psychology, X [Summer 196o], 97-IOI) and Arthur F. DuBois (“Poe and Lolita, “CEA Critic, XXVI [No. 6,1963], i, 7). More
recent is Carl R. Proffer’s thorough compilation in3 K0eys to Lolita (henceforth called Keys ), pp. 34-45
Although my Notes seldom discuss in detail the significance of the literary allusions they limn [depict], Poe’s conspicuous presence surely calls for a few general remarks; subsequent Notes will establish the
most specific -and obvious-links between H.H. and Poe (e.g., their “child brides”; see 43/5). Poe is appropriate for many reasons. He wrote the kind of Doppelgänger tale (“William Wilson”) which the H.H.-Quilty
relationship seemingly parallels but ultimately upends, and he of course “fathered” the detective tale. Although, as a reader, Nabokov abhorred the detective story, he was not alone in recognizing that the genres
properties are well-suited to the fictive treatment of metaphysical questions and problems of identity and perception. Thus-along with other contemporary writers such as Graham Greene (Brighton Rock, 1938),
Raymond Queneau (Pierrot mon ami [Pierrot], 1942), Jorge Luis Borges (“Death and the Compass,” “An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain,” “The Garden of Forking Paths” [first published in Ellery Queen’s
Mystery Magazine ], and “The South”), Alain Robbe-Grillet (Les Gommes [The Erasers], 1953), Michel Butor (L’Emploi du temps [Passing Time], 1956), and Thomas Pynchon (1!, 1963)-Nabokov often transmuted
or parodied the forms, techniques, and themes of 3t5he detective story, as in Despair, The Real Life of Sebastian Knigbt, Lolita, and, less directly, in The Eye, where, Nabokov said, “The texture of the tale mimics
that of detective fiction.” The reader of Lolita is invited to wend his way through a labyrinth of clues in order to solve the mystery of Quilty’s identity, which in part makes Lolita a “tale of ratiocination,” to use Poe’s
phrase (see 3i/9). Early in the novel one is told that H.H. is a murderer. Has he killed Charlotte? Or Lolita? (See also Keys, p. 39.) The reader is led to expect both possibilities, and his various attempts at
ratiocination should ultimately tell the reader as much about his own mind as about the “crimes,” “identities,” or “psychological development” of fictional characters. For allusions to detective story writers other than
Poe, see 3i/2 (Agatha Christie), 64/1 (Conan Doyle), and 211/1 and 250/5 (Maurice Leblanc).
It is also in part through Poe that Nabokov manages to suggest some consistently held attitudes toward language and literature. H.H. says of his artistic labors, “The beastly and beautiful merged at one point,
and it is that borderline I would like to fix, and I feel I fail to do so utterly. Why?” (p. 135). The rhetorical question is coy enough, because he has answered it at the beginning of his narrative; he hasn’t failed, but
neither can he ever be entirely successful, becaus4e0 “Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with!” (p. 32)-an admission many Romantic and Symbolist writers would not make. Nabokov’s remark about Joyce’s
giving “too much verbal body to words” (Playboy interview) succinctly defines the burden the post-Romantics placed on the word, as though it were an endlessly resonant object rather than one component in a
referential system of signs (see 120/4 for a parody of Joycean stream-of-consciousness writing). H.H.’s acknowledgment of the limitations of language leaves many writers open to criticism, especially Romantic
poets such as Poe. “When I was young I liked Poe, and I still love Melville,” said Nabokov; “I tore apart the fantasies of Poe,” writes John Shade in Pale Fire (line 632 of the poem); the implications are clear enough.
In Lolita, his choice of both subject matter and narrator parody Poe’s designation, in “The Philosophy of Composition,” of the “most poetical topic in the world”; “the death of a beautiful woman . . . and equally is
it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover” (see also my 1967 Wisconsin Studies article, op. cit., p. 236). Both Annabel Lee and Lolita “die,” the latter figuratively as well
as literally, in terms of her fading nymphic qualities and escape from H.H., who seems to invoke yet another of Poe’s lost ladies when he caps Lolita “Lenore” (though the primary allusion is to Bürger’s poem, said
Nabokov; see 207/5). 45
The speaker in Poe’s “Lenore” gropes for the right elegiac chord: “How shall the ritual, then, be read?-the requiem how be sung / By you-by yours, the evil eye,-by yours, the slanderous tongue / That did to
death the innocence that died, and died so young?” How shall it be “sung” is also the main question in Lolita, and Nabokov found his answer in a parodic style that seems to parody all styles, including the novel’s
own. “You talk like a book, Dad, “ Lolita tells H.H.; and, in order to protect his own efforts to capture her essence, he tries to exhaust the “fictional gestures,” such as Edgar Poe’s, which would reduce the nymphet’s
ineffable qualities to a convention of language or literature. “Wellread Humbert” thus toys with one writer after another, as though only through parody and caricature can he rule out the possibility of his memoir’s
finally being nothing more than what the authorial voice in Invitation to a Beheading suggests to its captive creation: “Or is this all but obsolete romantic rot, Cincinnatus?” (p. 139).
9/3 four feet ten: see 262/6 for an involuted [intricate5] 0conversion to inches.
9/4 Lola: in addition to being a diminutive of “Dolores,” it is the name of the young cabaret entertainer who enchants a middle-aged professor in the German film, The Blue Angel (1930), directed by Josef von Sternberg.
Nabokov never saw the film (though he did see still photos from it) and doubted that he had the association in mind. Lola was played by Marlene Dietrich (1904- ), and it is worth noting that H.H. describes Lolita’s
mother as having “features of a type that may be defined as a weak solution of Marlene Dietrich” (p. 37) and, after he reports her death, bids “Adieu, Marlene!” (p. 103). In Ada, Van Veen visits a don and his family,
“a charming wife and a triplet of charming twelve-year-old daughters, Ala, Lolá and Lalage-especially Lalage” (“the age”twelve, a nymphet’s prime (p. 353)1
9/5 Dolores: derived from the Latin, dolor: sorrow, pain 5(5see 43/2). Traditionaily an allusion to the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, and the Seven Sorrows concerning the life of Jesus. H.H. observes a church, “Mission
Dolores,” and takes advantage of the ready-made pun; “good title for book” (p. 158). Less spiritual are the sorrows detailed in “Dolores” (1866), by Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), English poet (see also Keys,
p. 28). “Our Lady of Pain” is its constant refrain, and her father is Priap, whom H.H. mentions several times (see 42/4). The name Dolores is in two ways “closely interwound with the inmost fiber of the book,” as
John Ray says on p. 4. When in the Afterword Nabokov defines the “nerves of the novel,” he concludes with “the tinkling sounds of the valley town coming up the mountain trail (on which I caught the first known
female of Lycaerides sublivens Nabokov)” (p. Y6). Diana Butler, in “Lolita Lepidoptera,” op. cit., p. 62, notes that this important capture was made at Telluride, Colorado (see p. 312), and that in his paper on it,
Nabokov identifies Telluride as a “cul-de-sac . . . at the end of two converging roads, one from Placerville, the other from Dolores” (The Lepidopterists’ News, VI, 1952). Dolores is in fact everywhere in that region:
river, town, and county are so named. When H.H. finally confronts Quilty, he asks, “do you recall a little girl called Dolores Haze, Dolly Haze? Dolly called Dolores, Colo.?” (p. 296). “Dolly” is an appropriate
diminutive (“you / took a dull doll to pieces / and th6r0ew its head away,” writes H.H. of Quilty [p. 300)). For the entomological allusions, see 6/1. On shiphoard in Ada, Van Veen sees a film of Don Juan’s Last Fling
in which Dolores the dancing girl turns out to be Ada (pp. 488-49o). Ada later gives Van “a sidelong ‘Dolores’ glance” (p. 513).
9/6 in point of fact: the childhood “trauma” which H.H. will soon offer as the psychological explanation of his condition (see p. i3). H.H.’s first chapter is so extraordinarily short in order to mock the traditional novel’s
expository opening. How reassuring, by comparison, are the initial paragraphs of those conventional novels-so anachronistic to Nabokov-which prepare the reader for the story about to unfold by supplying him with
the complete psychological, social, and moral prehistories of the characters. Anticipating such needs, H.H. poses the reader’s questions (“Did she have a precursor?”; “Oh when?”), and parodies more than that
kind of reader dependence on such exposition. It may seem surprising in a supposedly “confessional” novel that this should be the narrator’s initial concern; but it is by way of a challenge to play, like the
good-humored cry of “Avanti” with which Luzhin g65reets Turati in The Defense, before they begin their great match game. H.H.’s “point of fact” mocks the “scientific” certitude of psychiatrists who have turned
intensely private myths and symbols-in short, fictions-into hard fact. The H.H. who is the subject of a case study immediately undercuts the persuasiveness of his own specific “trauma” by projecting it in fragments
of another man’s verse; literary allusions, after all, point away from the unique, inviolable, formative “inner reality” of a neurotic or psychotic consciousness. Annabel Leigh, the object of H.H.’s unconsummated
love, has no reality other than literary. See also Keys, p. 45
9/7 princedom by the sea: a variant of the most famous line in “Annabel Lee.” Poe’s “kingdom” has been changed to accommodate the fact that H.H. is always an aspirant, never an absolute monarch. On p.166 he
calls Lolita “My Frigid Princess.”
70
9/8 noble-winged seraphs, envied: a pastiche composed of a phrase from line II of “Annabel Lee” and a verb from line 22. “Seraphs” are the highest of the nine orders of angels; in the Bible they have six wings, as
well as hands and feet, and a human voice (Isaiah 6:2). “The seraph with his six flamingo wings” is invoked by John Shade in Pale Fire (line 225 of the poem).
9/9 tangle of thorns: another H.H., the penitent, confessor, and martyr to love, calls attention to his thorns, the immodest reference to so sacred an image suggesting that the reader would do well to judge H.H.’s tone
rather than his deeds. When H.H. addresses the “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” as he will do so often, he summarizes the judicial proclivities of those literal-minded and moralistic readers who, having soberly
considered what John Ray, Jr., has said, already hate “Humbert the Horrible.” On p. 270, H.H. calls Lolita “crucified”-a verb that sincerely projects his “moral apotheosis.”
75
9
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
5
2 2 2 2
Chapter 2
I was born in 1910, in Paris. Nací en París en 1910. Mi pa- Nací en París en 1910. Mi pa- Je naquis à Paris, en 1910. Mon
My father was a gentle, easy-going dre era una persona amable y to-Xdre era una persona suave, de tra- père, homme doux et accommodant,
10person, a salad of racial genes: lerante, una ensalada de orígenes to fácil, una ensalada de orígenes était une macédoine de gènes raciaux :
dash I n 1 (precipitado) carrera: he made a dash for a Swiss citizen, of mixed raciales: ciudadano suizo de [15] raciales: ciudadano suizo de as- il était lui-même citoyen suisse mais
tDheep f rUonSt (dcoaorrr,e srea )e secsappróin pt o r 3la ( ppeuqeruteañ par icnacniptiadla d 2) French and Austrian descent, ascendencia francesa y austríaca, cendencia francesa y austríaca, d’ascendance mi-française,
pdaosqhu iotof ,l epmizocna , jguoictea,: aañdadd ae udnasah p oizfc ap edpep peirm ainedn taa with a dash of the Danube in con un toque del Danubio en las con una corriente del Danubio mi-autrichienne, avec un soupçon de
y una gota de limón 4 Tip guión 5 estilo: she has his veins. I am going to pass venas. Revisaré en un minuto al- en las venas. Revisaré en un mi- Danube dans les veines. Dans un
more dash than cash, tiene más estilo que dinero II
vt 1 (tirar) arrojar 2 (romper) estrellar 15around in a minute some lovely, gunas encantadoras postales de nuto algunas encantadoras posta- instant, je vais faire passer de jolies
glossy-blue picture-postcards. azulado brillo. Poseía un lujoso les de brillo azulino. Poseía un cartes postales bleues et glacées. Il
10/1 Jerome Dunn, the alpinist: in a novel so allusive He owned a luxurious hotel on hotel en la Riviera. Su padre y lujoso hotel en la Riviera. Su pa- possédait un palace sur la Côte d’Azur.
as Lolita it is only natural to be suspicious of the
most innocuous references, and to search for the Riviera. His father and two sus dos abuelos habían vendido dre y sus dos abuelos habían ven- Son père et ses deux grands-pères
allusions under every bush. Anticipating the efforts grandfathers had sold wine, jewels vino, alhajas y seda, respectiva- dido vino, alhajas y seda, respec- avaient été respectivement négociants
of future exegetes, I will occasionally offer
non-notes-“anti-annotations” which simply state20and silk, respectively. At thirty he mente. A los treinta años se casó tivamente. A los treinta años se en vins, en bijoux et en soieries. À
that Nabokov intended no allusion whatsoever. married an English girl, daughter con una muchacha inglesa, hija casó con una muchacha inglesa, trente ans, il épousa une jeune
Thus, “Jerome Dunn” is non-allusive, as are of Jerome Dunn, the alpinist, de Jerome Dunn, el alpinista, y hija de Jerome Dunn, el alpinis- Anglaise, fille de Jerome Dunn,
“Clarence Choate Clark,” H.H.’s lawyer (p. 3), and
John Ray’s residence of “Widworth, Mass.” (p. and granddaughter of two Dorset nieta de dos párrocos de Dorset, ta, y nieta de los párrocos de l’alpiniste, et petite-fille de deux
6). For important caveats in Nabokov’s own words, parsons, experts in obscure expertos en temas insólitos: Dorset, expertos en temas oscu- clergymen du Dorset, spécialistes en
see 56/1 and 221/2. 25subjects—paleopedology and paleopedología y arpas eólicas, ros: paleopedología y arpas obscures matières - la paléopédologie
10/2 paleopedology and Aeolian barps: respectively, Aeolian harps, respectively. My respectivamente. Mi madre, muy eólicas. Mi madre, muy fotogéni- pour l’un et les harpes éoliennes pour
the branch of pedology concerned with the soils very photogenic mother died in fotogénica, murió a causa de un ca, murió a causa de un absurdo l’autre. Ma mère, femme très
of past geological ages, and a box-shaped musical
instrument on which the wind produces varying a freak accident (picnic, absurdo accidente (un rayo du- accidente (un rayo durante un photogénique, mourut dans un accident
harmonies (after Aeolus, Greek god of the winds). lightning) when I was three, and, rante un picnic) cuando tenía yo pic-nic) cuando tenía yo tres años, bizarre (un pique-nique, la foudre)
A favorite romantic metaphor for the poet’s
sensibility. 30save for a pocket of warmth in tres años, y, salvo una bolsa de ca- y salvo una zona de tibieza en el quand j’avais trois ans et, hormis un
the darkest past, nothing of her lor en mi pasado más remoto, nada pasado más impenetrable, nada petit noyau de chaleur au fin fond du
subsists within the hollows subsiste de ella en las hondonadas subsiste de ella en las hondona- passé, il ne reste rien d’elle dans les
and dells of memory, over y valles del recuerdo sobre los das y valles del recuerdo sobre concavités et les vallons du souvenir
which, if you can still stand cuales, si aún pueden ustedes so- los cuales, si aún pueden ustedes sur lesquels, si vous pouvez encore
35my style (I am writing under brellevar mi estilo (escribo bajo sobrellevar mi estilo (escribo supporter mon style (j’écris sous
observation), the sun of my vigilancia), se puso el sol en mi bajo vigilancia), se puso el sol observation), s’était couché le soleil de
infancy had set: surely, you all infancia: sin duda, todos ustedes de mi infancia: sin duda todos us- mon enfance : vous avez tous connu,
know those redolent remnants conocen esos fragantes resabios tedes conocen esos fragantes resa- j’en suis sûr, ces derniers vestiges de
of day suspended, with the de días suspendidos, como bios de días suspendidos, como jour, imprégnés de parfums et piqués
10/3 midge: a gnat-like insect. For entomological40midges, about some hedge in moscas minúsculas, en torno de al- moscas minúsculas, en torno de al- de moucherons, en suspens au-dessus
allusions, see 6/1. bloom or suddenly entered and gún seto en flor o súbitamente inva- gún seto en flor o súbitamente in- d’une haie en fleur, ou soudain pénétrés
traversed by the rambler, at dido y atravesado por las trepadoras, vadido y atravesado por las trepado- et traversés par le promeneur, au pied
the bottom of a hill, in the al pie de una colina, en la penumbra ras, al pie de una colina, en la pe- d’une [32] colline, dans le crépuscule
furry adj (animal, etc) peludo a furry rabbit, un conejo summer dusk; a furry warmth,Xestival, llenos de sedosa tibieza yXnumbra estival: sedosa tibieza, d’été - la chaleur d’une fourrure, le
spaebluudrroo s a (juguete) de peluche. (voz) espesa, sarrosa,45golden midges. Xde dorados moscardones. Xdorados moscardones. brasillement des moucherons.
10/4 Sybil: or sibyl, from the Greek; any of several My mother’s elder sister, Sybil, La hermana mayor de mi madre, Sybil, La hermana mayor de mi madre, La sueur aînée de ma mère, Sybil,
prophetesses credited to widely separate parts
of the ancient world. H.H.’s aunt is well-named, whom a cousin of my father’s had casada con un primo de mi padre Sybil, casada con un primo de mi qu’un cousin de mon père avait épousée
since she predicts her own death. married and then neglected, served que la abandonó, servía en mi ám- padre que le abandonó, servía en puis abandonnée, faisait office dans ma
50in my immediate family as a kind of bito familiar como gobernanta mi ámbito familiar como proche famille, à titre gratuit, de
unpaid governess and housekeeper. gratuita y ama de llaves. gobernanta gratuita y ama de lla- gouvernante et d’intendante. Quelqu’un
Somebody told me later that she had Alguien me dijo después que estuvo ves. Alguien me dijo después que m’apprit plus tard qu’elle avait été fort
been in love with my father, and that enamorada de mi padre y que él, estuvo enamorada de mi padre y éprise de mon père, sentiment
lightheartedly cheerful/thoughtless he had lightheartedly taken despreocupadamente, sacó prove- que él, livianamente, sacó prove- dont il avait profité allégrement
55advantage of it one rainy day and cho de tal sentimiento en un día llu- cho de tal sentimiento en un día llu- un jour de pluie pour l’oublier dès
forgotten it by the time the vioso y se olvidó de ella cuando el vioso, para olvidar la cosa cuando le retour du beau temps.
weather cleared. I was extremely tiempo aclaró. Yo le tenía mucho el tiempo aclaró. Yo le tenía mucho J’éprouvais pour elle une tendresse
fond of her, despite the rigidity— cariño; a pesar de la rigidez —la cariño, a pesar de la rigidez –la ri- extrême, en dépit de la rigidité - de
the fatal rigidity—of some of herXprofética rigidez— de algunas de gidez fatal– de algunas de sus nor- la funeste rigidité - de certains de ses
60rules. Perhaps she wanted to make sus normas. Quizás lo que ella desea- mas. Quizá lo que ella deseaba era ha- principes. Peut-être voulait-elle faire de
of me, in the fullness of time, a ba era hacer de mí, si llegaba el caso, cer de mí, en la plenitud del tiempo, moi, avec le temps, un veuf plus
better widower than my father. Aunt un viudo mejor que mi padre. Tía un viudo mejor que mi padre. Mi Sybil exemplaire que mon père ne l’était. Tante
Sybil had pink-rimmed azure eyes Sybil tenía ojos azules, ribeteados tenía los ojos azules, ribeteados de Sybil avait des yeux d’azur bordés de
and a waxen complexion. She wrote de rosa, y una piel como la cera. rojo, y la piel como de cera. Era rose, et un teint de cire. Elle écrivait des
65poetry. She was poetically Escribía poemas. Era poéticamen- poéticamente supersticiosa. De- vers. Elle était superstitieuse comme peut
superstitious. She said she knew te supersticiosa. Estaba segura de cía que estaba segura de morir no l’être un poète. Elle savait, disait-elle,
she would die soon after my morir no bien cumpliera yo los die- bien cumpliera yo dieciséis y así qu’elle allait mourir peu après mon
sixteenth birthday, and did. Her ciséis años, y así fue. Su marido, fue. Su marido, un gran trafican- seizième anniversaire, et elle tint parole.
husband, a great traveler in destacado viajante de artículos de perfu- te de perfumes, pasó la mayor Son mari, un éminent représentant en
70perfumes, spent most of his time in mería, pasó la mayor parte de su vida en parte del tiempo en parfumerie, passait le plus clair de son
America, where eventually he Norteamérica, donde, andando el tiempo, Norteamérica, donde acabó fun- temps en Amérique, où il finit par
founded a firm and acquired fundó una fábrica de perfumes y adquirió dando una compañía que adquirió fonder une entreprise et par faire
a bit ciertas, algunas, no pocoas a bit of real estate. Xnumerosas propiedades. X______ bienes raíces. quelques investissements dans l’immobilier.
75 I grew, a happy, healthy Crecí como un niño feliz, sa- Crecí como un niño feliz, sa- J’étais un enfant heureux et en bonne santé,
chatoyant tornasolado child in a bright would of ludable, en un mundo brillante ludable, en un mundo brillante et je grandis dans un monde chatoyant de
illustrated books, clean sand, de libros ilustrados, arena limpia, de libros ilustrados, arena lim- livres illustrés, de sable propre,
orange trees, friendly dogs, sea naranjos, perros amistosos, [16] pia, naranjos, perros amistosos, d’orangers, de chiens affectueux, de
10
Most of the Notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. & JR Nabokov’s (revised) tr. de Francesc Roca tr.de E. Tejedor [Enrique Pezzoni] tr. de Maurice Courtier (revisada)
vistas and smiling faces. paisajes marítimos y rostros son- paisajes marítimos y rostros son- perspectives marines et de
Around me the splendid Hotel rientes. En torno a mí, el esplén- rientes. En torno a mí, la esplén- visages souriants. Le fastueux
10/5 Mirana: a heat-shimmer blend of “mirage,” “se Mirana revolved as a kind of dido Hotel Mirana giraba como una dida mansión Mirana giraba hôtel Mirana gravitait autour de ma
mirer” (French; to look at oneself; admire oneself), private universe, a especie de universo privado, un como una especie de universo petite personne tel un univers bien à
“Mirabella,” and “Fata Morgana” (a kind of mirage
most frequently seen in the Strait of Messina, and5 whitewashed cosmos within cosmos blanqueado dentro del otro privado, un cosmos blanqueado moi, cosmos blanchi à la chaux au
formerly considered the work of fairies who would the blue greater one that más vasto y azul que resplandecía dentro del otro más vasto y azul coeur du cosmos plus vaste encore et
thus lure sailors aground). Bewitching Lolita is blazed outside. From the fuera de él. Desde la fregona que que resplandecía fuera de él. tout bleu qui resplendissait au-dehors.
often characterized as a fairy (see 31/3); the latter
word is derived from the Latin word fatum (fate, aproned pot-scrubber to the llevaba delantal hasta el potentado Desde la fregona de delantal has- De la souillon en tablier au potentat
destiny), and H.H. is pursued by bedeviling flanneled potentate, everybody vestido con traje de franela, a to- ta el potentado de franela, todos en flanelle, tout le monde
“Aubrey McFate” (see s6/1). 10liked me, everybody petted me. dos caía bien, todos me mimaban. gustaban de mí, todos me mimaban. m’aimait, me choyait. De vieilles
pet 1 neck, stroke or caress in an erotic manner, as
during lovemaking [no necesariamente magrear] Elderly American ladies Maduras damas norteamericanas Maduras damas norteamericanas Américaines appuyées sur leurs [33]
2 stroke or caress gently; «pet the lamb» leaning on their canes listed se apoyaban en sus bastones y se se apoyaban en sus bastones y se cannes clinaient au-dessus de moi
magrear sobar, manosear lascivamente a alguien. towards me like towers of Pisa. inclinaban hacia mí como torres inclinaban hacia mí como torres de pareilles à des tours de Pise. Des
fondle touch lightly and with affection, with brushing
motions; «He stroked his long beard» Ruined Russian princesses who de Pisa. Princesas rusas arruina- Pisa. Princesas rusas arruinadas que princesses russes ruinées m’offraient
15could not pay my father, das que no podían pagar a mi padre no podían pagar a mi padre me de coûteux bonbons, à défaut de
bought me expensive bonbons. me compraban bombones caros. Y compraban bombones caros. Y él, pouvoir payer mon père. Et lui, mon
10/6 Mon . . . papa: French; my dear little Daddy. He, mon cher petit papa, took él, mon cher petit papa, me saca- mon cher petit papa, me sacaba a na- cher petit papa*’, m’emmenait faire
me out boating and biking, ba a navegar y a pasear en bicicleta, vegar y a pasear en bicicleta, me en- des sorties à bicyclette ou en bateau,
taught me to swim and dive me enseñaba a nadar y a zambullir- señaba a nadar y a zambullirme y il m’apprenait à nager, à plonger et à
10/7 Don Quixote: the famous novel (16o5,1615) by
Miguel Cervantes (15471616); see 251/1o. Les20and water-ski, read to me me y a esquiar en el agua, me leía a esquiar en el agua, me leía faire du ski nautique, me lisait Don
Misérables (1862) is by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), Don Quixote and Les Don Quijote y Les Misérables, y Don Quijote y Les Misérables Quichotte et Les Misérables - et je
French novelist, playwright, and poet; see 256/3. Miserables, and I adored and yo le adoraba y le respetaba y y yo lo adoraba y lo respeta- l’adorais, le vénérais et me
respected him and felt glad for me enorgullecía de él cuando ba y me enorgullecía de él réjouissais pour lui chaque fois que
him whenever I overheard the llegaban hasta mí los comen- cuando llegaban a mí las dis- je surprenais les commentaires des
25servants discuss his various tarios de los criados sobre sus cusiones de los criados sobre employés sur ses différentes amies,
lady-friends, beautiful and numerosas amigas, seres her- sus varias amigas, seres her- ces belles et aimables créatures qui
kind beings who made much mosos y afectuosos que me mosos y afectuosos que me faisaient si grand cas de moi,
coo n. 1 the sound made by a pigeon,arrullo of me and cooed and shedXfestejaban mucho y vertíanXfestejaban mucho y vertían roucoulaient et versaient de précieuses
lov.v 1in garlyru; ll«aTr;h ec rmy osothftelyr , wahso o fh eplidg ehoenrs b 2a bspy ewaak ss ocfotloyi nogr precious tears over my preciosas lágrimas sobre mi preciosas lágrimas sobre mi larmes sur l’enfant enjoué mais orphelin
softly» 30cheerful motherlessness. alegre orfandad. alegre orfandad. de mère que j’étais.
ROUCOULER v. intr. 1. Faire entendre son cri* (roucoulement),
deens p aprrloapnot sd ute pnigdereosn ,e dt ela lan gtoouurrteeurex,ll efi.l e2r. (le1 8p3a5r)f.a Fiti ga.m Toeunrir. I attended an English day Iba a una escuela diurna ingle- Asistía a una escuela diurna in- Je fréquentais un externat anglais à
3. (1770). Trans. Chanter, dire langoureusement.
school a few miles from home, and sa a pocos kilómetros de Mirana; glesa a pocas millas de Mirana; quelques kilomètres de notre domicile ; là,
there I played rackets and fives, allí jugaba al tenis y a la pelota, allí jugaba al tenis y a la pelota, je jouais au jeu de paume et à la pelote,
35and got excellent marks, and sacaba muy buenas notas y man- obtenía excelentes calificaciones recevais d’excellentes notes et vivais
was on perfect terms with tenía excelentes relaciones con y estaba en términos perfectos con en parfaite entente avec mes
schoolmates and teachers mis compañeros y profesores. mis compañeros y profesores. Los condisciples comme avec mes maîtres.
alike. The only definite sexual Los únicos acontecimientos únicos acontecimientos definiti- Jusqu’à ma treizième année (c’est-à-dire
events that I can remember as inequívocamente sexuales que vamente sexuales que recuerdo jusqu’à ma première rencontre avec la
40having occurred before my recuerdo antes de que cumplie- antes de que cumpliera trece años petite Annabel), les seuls véritables
thirteenth birthday (that is, ra trece años (o sea, antes de que (o sea antes de que viera por pri- épisodes sexuels qui soient arrivés, pour
before I first saw my little viera por primera vez a mi pequeña mera vez a mi pequeña Annabel) autant qu’il m’en souvienne, furent les
Annabel) were: a solemn, Annabel) fueron una conversación fueron una conversación solemne, suivants une discussion solennelle,
decorous and purely solemne, decorosa y puramente decorosa y puramente teórica so- chaste et purement théorique, sur les
11/1 rose garden: see 52/5 and 56/1 for more45theoretical talk about pubertal teórica sobre las sorpresas de la bre las sorpresas de la pubertad, surprises de la puberté, qui eut lieu
school-house roses. surprises in the rose garden of pubertad, sostenida en la rosaleda sostenida en el rosal de la escue- dans la roseraie de l’école avec un
the school with an American de la escuela con un alumno nor- la con un alumno norteamericano, petit Américain, fils d’une actrice de
kid, the son of a then teamericano, hijo de una actriz hijo de una actriz cinematográfi- cinéma fort célèbre à l’époque et
celebrated motion-picture cinematográfica por entonces ca por entonces muy celebrada y qu’il ne rencontrait presque
50actress whom he seldom saw in muy celebrada y a la cual veía a la cual veía muy rara vez en jamais dans le monde tridimen-
the three-dimensional world; muy rara vez en el mundo el mundo tridimensional, y sionnel ; et quelques réactions
and some interesting reactions tridimensional; y ciertas intere- ciertas interesantes reacciones singulières de mon organisme à la
on the part of my organism to santes reacciones de mi organismo de mi organismo ante determi- vue de certaines photographies,
certain photographs, pearl and ante determinadas fotografías, nácar nadas fotografías, nácar y som- toutes de [34] nacre et d’ombres,
55umbra, with infinitely soft y sombras, con hendiduras infini- bras, con hendiduras infinita- avec des failles de chair infiniment
partings, in Pichon’s sumptuous tamente suaves, en el suntuoso mente suaves, en el suntuoso douces, dans le somptueux ouvrage de
11/2 La Beauté Humaine: French; “The Human Le Beaute Humaine that that I La beauté humaine, de Pinchon, La Beauté Humaine, de Pichon, Pichon, La beauté humaine, que j’avais
Beauty.” The book is invented, as is its author,
whose name is a play on “nichon, “ a French had filched from under a mountainXque había encontrado debajo de que había hurtado de debajo de dérobé dans la bibliothèque de l’hôtel où
(slang) epithet for the female breast. of marble-bound Graphics una pila de Graphics, encuader- una pila de Graphics encuaderna- il croulait sous une montagne de Graphics
filchs i:s apri,l fberi,r lsateral, sisar, ratear, sustraer,60in the hotel library. nados en papel jaspeado, en la bi- dos en papel jaspeado, en la biblio- aux reliures marbrées. Plus tard, mon
Later, in his delightful blioteca del hotel. Después, con teca de la mansión. Después, con père me communiqua, de sa
debonair manner, my su estilo deliciosamente afable, su estilo deliciosamente afable, mi façon charmante et affable, tout
father gave me all the mi padre me suministró toda la padre me suministró toda la infor- ce qu’il jugeait utile que je
information he thought I información que consideró nece- mación que consideró necesaria connusse sur le sexe ;
65needed about sex; this was just saria sobre el sexo; eso fue justo sobre el sexo; eso fue justo antes cela se passait à l’automne
before sending me, in the autumn antes de enviarme, en el otoño de de enviarme, en el otoño de 1923, 1923, juste avant qu’il ne
11/3 lycée: the basic institution of French secondary of 1923, to a lycée in Lyon (where 1923, a un lycée de Lyon (donde a un lycée de Lyon (donde habría- m’envoyât dans un lycée*, à Lyon
education; a student attends a lycée for seven
years (from age eleven to eighteen). we were to spend three winters); habría de pasar tres inviernos); mos de pasar tres inviernos); pero, (où nous allions passer trois
but alas, in the summer of that pero, ay, en el verano de ese año ay, en el verano de ese año mi pa- hivers) ; mais hélas, cet été-là, il
70year, he was touring Italy with mi padre recorría [17] Italia con dre recorría Italia con Madame de visitait l’Italie avec Mme de R. et
Mme de R. and her daughter, and Madame de R. y su hija, y yo no R. y su hija, y yo no tenía a nadie sa fille, et je n’avais personne
I had nobody to complain to,Xtenía a nadie a quien recurrir, aXcon quien consolarme, a nadie a auprès de qui me plaindre,
nobody to consult. nadie a quien consultar. quien consultar. personne à consulter.
75
11