crooned over by the old and caressed by the young,

被老人称颂被年轻人拥戴
oh, having a grand time and fooling everybody, and here was I.

他真是神气活现愚弄了众人我又何尝不是
And the contrast here is between someone who has remained tied to

这里的差异就在于一个一边与欧洲的过去有联系
that European past, remained comfortably alienated--

一边又舒适地保持疏远状态的人
and by that very means been able to fit into society--

通过这种方式得以融入社会
with someone who is in a much more ambivalent position,

和那种处在矛盾之中
someone who's trying to become an American writer,

试图成为一个美国作家
as Nabokov says he's doing: trying to invent America,

就像纳博科夫所说的他正在试图建造一个美国
trying to bridge the gap between Russian and English,

试图消除俄语和英语之间的鸿沟
but always finding that English is only a kind of second best.

结果发现英语其实也不错
And in fact it's more than that:

不只是这样
he translated Lolita back in to russian later on,

他随后将《洛丽塔》译成了俄语