Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004360, Mon, 6 Sep 1999 09:12:27 -0700

Subject
Query: Poetry in Mary (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Alex Billington <alex@zembla.freeserve.co.uk>

This is possibly a trivial matter, but could anyone who knows any of the following poems in "Mary" please tell me who wrote them or which poems they are? (VN may have invented them - I'm not sure):

Vanya's arms and legs they tied
Long in jail was he mortified [p. 62 penguin edition of Mary, mid Ch. 8]

---

But today it is spring and mimosa for sale
At all corners it is offered today.
I am bringing you some; like a dream, it is frail -

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Let me get rid of the shackles of love
And let me try to stop thinking!
Replenish, replenish the glasses with wine -
Let me keep drinking and drinking!

---

Write to them that my little boy Lyov
I kiss as much as I can,
That an Austrian helmet from Lvov
To bring for his birthday I plan
But a separate note to my father -

The last three are at the end of Ch. 13, pp.88-9 in the Penguin edition.

Many thanks in advance if anyone can help,

-- Alex Billington <alex@zembla.freeserve.co.uk>