Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002302, Mon, 25 Aug 1997 21:56:20 -0700

Subject
VN spoof in a Codrescu short story? (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Ian Stoba and Laurie Mandigo-Stoba <stoba@earthlink.net>


I came across an interesting passage today in a short story by Andrei
Codrescu which seemed like a possible VN reference. The story, Samba de
los Agentes, is a satirical account of a refugee writer from Bogota. Jose,
the writer, is in the immigration office, where he meets a Romanian
character talking about Dracula's bad rap (Codrescu himself I assume), and
shortly thereafter is given a lecture by an official on the sort of writer
that immigration prefers. The official hands him a poem:

********
Counterrevolutionary song sung by the White Guards in the Ukraine 1921 in
praise of the United States - a new translation by (name deleted)

At the small arms seminar
Vera and I whispered about Lenin's bananski
There isn't any said Vera
He left it behind in Indianski

The mountains are covered with manna
We have only just begun to fight
Like the corn in far away Indiana
We will conquer the Bolshevik blight

At the small arms seminar
Aliosha inserted the firing clip for Anna
A snow drift came from the mountains
As beautiful as the hair of Fata Morgana

We will stomp each Bolshevik with our boot
Like a wiggling scarlet piranha
The mountains will be free forsooth
And we will be famous in far away Indiana
*********

Is it just me? I have to admit I'm a bit uncertain if it's Nabokov, or the
INS that is the butt of this particular joke.

Regards,

Laurie Mandigo-Stoba
stoba@earthlink.net