Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0026625, Sat, 14 Nov 2015 17:52:46 +0300

Subject
lastochka & other birds in Pale Fire
Date
Body
According to Kinbote, the maiden name of Shade's wife Sybil, Irondell, comes
from hirondelle (Fr., "swallow"). Shade's and Kinbote's "real" name seems to
be Vsevolod Botkin, and the "real" name of Botkin's wife seems to be Sofia
Lastochkin. At the end of his poem Lastochka ("The Swallow," 1794) Derzhavin
compares his soul to a swallow and wonders if in the ethereal abyss he would
ever see his deceased wife:



Душа моя! гостья ты мира:
Не ты ли перната сия? -
Воспой же бессмертие, лира!

Восстану, восстану и я, -
Восстану, - и в бездне эфира
Увижу ль тебя я, Пленира?



My soul! You are a guest of the world:

Isn't you this feathered creature?

So sing of immortality, my lyre!

I too, I too will arise,

I will arise and in the abyss of ether

Will I see you, my Plenira?



Derzhavin called his first wife Plenira. In a footnote to his "Ode to Count
Khvostov" (1825) Pushkin mentions the fact that throughout his numerous
poems Khvostov calls his wife (born Princess Gorchakov) Temyra:



Графиня Хвостова, урождённая княжна Горчакова, достойная супруга маститого
нашего Певца. Во многочисленных своих стихотворениях везде называет он её
Темирою (см. последн. замеч. в оде <Заздравный кубок>).



A guest of Khvostov, Suvorov died in his St. Petersburg house in the
presence of Derzhavin. In his Snigir' ("The Bullfinch," 1800), a poem
written on Suvorov's death, Derzhavin mentions Giena ("Hyena," as the poet
calls Napoleon's France):



Что ты заводишь песню военну
Флейте подобно, милый снигирь?
С кем мы пойдём войной на Гиену?
Кто теперь вождь наш? Кто богатырь?
Сильный где, храбрый, быстрый Суворов?
Северны громы в гробе лежат.



In Russian, giena (hyena) is a homonym of geenna (Gehenna). In his poem
Imitation of the Italian (1836), beginning Kak s dreva sorvalsya predatel'
uchenik: ("When the traitor disciple fell from the tree:"), Pushkin mentions
Judas' trup zhivoy (living corpse) cast by the devil into the maw of starved
Gehenna:



Как с древа сорвался предатель ученик,

Диявол прилетел, к лицу его приник,

Дхнул жизнь в него, взвился с своей добычей смрадной

И бросил труп живой в гортань геенны гладной...

Там бесы, радуясь и плеща, на рога

Прияли с хохотом всемирного врага

И шумно понесли к проклятому владыке,

И сатана, привстав, с веселием на лике

Лобзанием своим насквозь прожег уста,

В предательскую ночь лобзавшие Христа.



The poem is Pushkin's rendering in the Alexandrines of a sonnet about Judas
(Sopra Giuda) by the Italian poet Francesco Gianni (1760-1822). Btw.,
according to Kinbote, in Zemblan 'tree' is grados.



Zhivoy trup ("A Living Corpse," 1900) is a play by Leo Tostoy. The full
title of Tolstoy's play Vlast' t'my ("The Power of Darkness," 1887) is
Vlast' t'my, ili Kogotok uvyaz - vsey ptichke propast' ("The Power of
Darkness, or if a Claw is Caught, the Bird is Lost").



Carolyn, you are not inventing or parodying. Lastochka ("The Swift") in VN's
reading can be listened to here:



https://www.google.ru/url?sa=t
<https://www.google.ru/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBsQtwI
wAGoVChMI3ZqM6uaPyQIVa6dyCh0snwcy&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%
3Fv%3DTdn5SxFAMEg&usg=AFQjCNGwIkmbVa7X_ZF4MFdV5r4Dxy0P-A&sig2=6IAra01RAbLDca
99Aq57Ng&bvm=bv.107467506,d.bGQ&cad=rjt>
&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBsQtwIwAGoVChMI3ZqM6uaPyQIVa6dyCh0snw
cy&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTdn5SxFAMEg&usg=AFQjCNGwI
kmbVa7X_ZF4MFdV5r4Dxy0P-A&sig2=6IAra01RAbLDca99Aq57Ng&bvm=bv.107467506,d.bGQ
&cad=rjt



Alexey Sklyarenko


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