Thread: Hopeful jogger of memories

From Zelazny's "Nine Princes In Amber":

I ate a quick lunch, rode subways and buses for an hour, then got a cab to take me out to the Westchester address of Evelyn, my nominal sister and hopeful jogger of memories.

1. What does "jogger" mean here?
2. What does "hopeful" mean here?
The protagonist had lost his memories, if it is of any help.

there is an expression - to jog somebody's memory, which is quite easy to interpret. It would be "to make someone remember something". So, based on that, it's obvious now, that a jogger of memories is someone or something that makes you remember something.

As for hopeful, well, I don't see any difficulty in understanding this word, that would be someone or something that puts hope into you

1. To jog one's memory is to do or say something that causes the person to remember something (I think the common Russian way of saying it is всколыхнуть память). Thus, 'jogger' here is 'one who jogs', in the sense of it's one who stirs something up (memories in this case). The last three words are actually a compound noun, if it helps you can think of it as 'jogger-of-memories', it's three words used to express one concept.

2. I can see how it might be confusing, as it might appear that 'hopeful' describes how the sister feels. As a native English speaker, I understand 'hopeful' here as implying that the protagonist is visiting his sister hoping that something she will say or do will help him remember whatever it is he's forgotten (jog his memory), but he isn't really sure whether it'll work, just hopeful that it will. That is, 'hopeful' here modifies the idea of her being a 'jogger-of-memories', it doesn't describe how the sister actually feels about the situation (if that's what was confusing to you).

Спасибо!
Таким образом, художественный перевод может звучать так:
"... моя якобы сестра, которая, как я надеялся, могла всколыхнуть мою память / послужить толчком к пробуждению моей памяти".