Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001903, Wed, 26 Mar 1997 10:21:17 -0800

Subject
Re: DN - - Riddle (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:39:35 -0800
From: Neil Spence <nspence@pyrimage.com>
To: 'Donald Barton Johnson' <chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu>
Subject: RE: DN - - Riddle (fwd)

The answer would be "cares", the additional "s" makes bitter "cares" a
sweet "caress". The cautious mountaineer would be contemplating a
glacial ridge, or "serac".

Neil Spence nspence@pyrimage.com
Pyramid Imaging
545 Mission Street
Third Floor
San Francisco CA 94105
(415) 247-5845 FAX: (415) 882-4848


----------
From: Donald Barton Johnson [SMTP:chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 1997 8:48 AM
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu
Subject: DN - - Riddle (fwd)

EDITORIAL NOTE. NABOKOV-L thanks Dmitri Nabokv for the following
electronic "scoop." An unpublished puzzle poem from VN himself.
Alas, editorial ethnics exclude the editor, his family and NABOKV-L
employees from entering the contest.
---------------------------------------
From: Dmitri Nabokov via "Sandy P. Klein" <taxi@flinet.com>
- - - - - - -


AFTER A HARD DAY OF HOCKEY PRACTICE, A LITTLE REWARD FOR THOSE
WHO HAVE BEEN WADING THROUGH MY LENGTHIER ITEMS - - THE
FOLLOWING FROM FATHER:


A RIDDLE


A word there is of plural number,

An enemy of peaceful slumber*;

Now if you add an s to this - -

O magic metamorphosis:

plural is plural now no more,

And sweet what bitter was before.



* And if read backward, it may cause
The cautious mountaineer to pause.





DN NOTE: FATHER DID THIS FOR ME. IT'S NOT HARD - - EVEN I
SOLVED IT. THE FIRST CORRECT ANSWER WILL GET A FAX-SIMILE
OF VN'S PENCILED FICHE BRISTOL (THEREFORE PLEASE INCLUDE
FAX NO. ON POSTING). NO SHOEBOX-TOP REQUIRED. NO
CONNECTION WITH TSVETAEVA, ALTHOUGH THAT 1937 POEM WILL
BE INCLUDED IN A LARGE COLLECTION OF ENGLISHED VN VERSE.