So, there are multiple ways, at multiple levels, that Nabokov is defending his work in this afterword. For one thing, he insults the publishers.

因此，在这篇后记中，纳博科夫在多种不同层面上,为他的作品辩护，一方面，他侮辱他的出版商。

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选

And it's Hawthorne's satire, It's apocalyptic, angry critique of all these Americans who think they're inventing everything anew every day.

这就是霍桑的讽刺作品,这是一篇启示录般的故事,是对这群自认为每天都发明新玩意儿的,美国人的愤怒谴责

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选

It's the model of investment and profit that characterized so many of Milton's own early writings, including that promise, you'll remember, to his fellow Englishmen that he would one day produce a work of literature that his countrymen would not willingly let die.

这是一种投资模式和带有很多弥尔顿早期写作特征的收益,它包括了那个诺言，你们应该记得,那个诺言指他说有一天要为自己的追随者们写一篇文学作品,他的同胞们不希望这个诺言落空。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

Entire compositions are rarely written in the chromatic scale.

整篇的作品很少全部用半音音阶构成

耶鲁公开课 - 聆听音乐课程节选