Nabokov Continued: Authority in Translation

I found this week's readings incredibly interesting, specifically in how they provided more insight into Nabokov's personal philosophy when it comes to translation and writing. While he was the staunchest advocate for strict fidelity with the source text, in his correspondence with Pertzoff, he makes several changes to the original which seem to directly oppose that idea. This presents a fascinating question-- seeing as Nabokov himself is the one rewriting this, does this really oppose his philosophy of fidelity? After all, he's the original author. While many aspects of the translation rewritten by him would seem to go against his desire for 1:1 accuracy, given the fact that the original author is the one rewriting these things, it could be argued that he is creating a new original. This is discussed heavily in conversations of self-translation where a bilingual author translates their own work into another language and in the process of doing so, makes hefty changes to their work. Is this still a translation? Or is this just a furthered version of the original text?

I thought this paired very well with the Kundera reading as well, discussing "authority" in translation. These collaborations between the author and the translator can serve to create something that perhaps even transcends translation entirely.

-Evan