Discussion about Babel's serpents

[David Powelstock]

I'm sure that Robert Mann is correct about the "zmeiki," with respect to the figurative overtones of the passage. But Babel' is also describing a concrete phenomenon: young, ambitious, probably vampish (and possibly treacherous) female singers in Odessa. And it seems fairly likely that the use of zmeiki here is Babel's own metaphor, quite apt and decodable from context, rather than an idiom or slang. However, there is also the possibility that using zmeika for a certain kind of woman is slang that existed once but has since been lost, or never quite caught on. 

As a translator myself, I would, after due diligence in researching attested uses of zmeiki in this sense, treat it as Babel''s own figure and invent something suitably brilliant and evocative in English.

Cheers,
David

David Powelstock
Asst. Prof. of Russian & East European Literatures
Chair, Program in Russian & East European Studies
Brandeis University
GREA, MS 024
Waltham, MA  02454-9110
781.736.3347 (Office)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Robert Mann
> Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 12:51 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Discussion about Babel's serpents
> 
> I think the little serpents that foretell the future in Babel’s “Odessa”
> are intended to be interpreted as serpents (rather than lightning or
> zippers). Babel’s outlook was Nietzschean. In much of his fiction, he
> portrays the world in the context of Nietzsche’s theory of Apollo and
> Dionysus. “Odessa” is a sort of hymn to the sun (to Apollo). The narrator
> longs for a “singer of the sun.” Babel gives this longing a mythical, or
> religious, coloring, partly by alluding to a “literary Messiah.” The
> serpents that are “seen” as augurs of the future are probably another way
> of evoking the realm of Greek myth and the sun god Apollo. The Greeks (and
> Romans) practiced forms of divination based on the behavior of snakes.
> Apollo’s temple at Delphi was crawling with serpent lore (Python, Pythia…)
> and possibly with snakes as well. Babel’s allusive technique is
> reminiscent of Bely, Bunin and other writers of his time who grew up as
> Nietzsche became popular in Russia. There’s a little-known b!
>  ook on this topic, called The Dionysian Art of Isaac Babel (Berkeley
> Slavic Specialties).
>   Robert Mann
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------