Dear List,
On 18 Jul 1994 A.Bouazza pointed out "a remarkable coincidence":
Wallace Steven's poem, "Variations on a Summer Day," ( 1939)"has these lambently
Nabokovsque lines":
"..... The moon follows the sun like a
French
Translation of a Russian poet."
While investigating in the archives for references
about W.Stevens I found several entries ( from 1997 to 2004) mainly
elaborating on whether " VN liked W.S.'s poetry." The constantly
evolving mood of these discussions led me to one of W.Steven's use
of Vico's idea that "the true history of the human race is a
history of its progressive mental states" ( "The Necessary
Angel").
W.Steven's verses, and
the coincidence mentioned by AB more than ten years
ago, may not only bring Nabokov to our minds but also, even
if only superficially, the sun and moon in "Pale Fire" (a novel our
List-participants now seem to be reluctant to substitute for any other in their
debates). Not as superficially,
though, these lines also succintly deal with a similar
problem as the one we encounter in VN's constant
preoccupation with translation, so often voiced by Kinbote.
And yet, my intention here is to introduce another kind
of discussion, one that may develop
concerning the changes of our psychological apprehension of
poetry,tropes and sounds, observable while we follow the
discussions about "Pale
Fire" that have been taking place for
so many years in the List.
I think that this novel does not now strike
the reader in the same way as it did when it was
first published. For example, Matthew
Roth's recent discovery about VN's probable reference to poets,
such as Edsel Ford and Darwin, may serve to guide a new shift of
one's apprehension of Nabokov's intentions while writing the
novel.
In my opinion, some of VN's ideas about
translation, reality, fiction and satire inevitably come
through the voice of Kinbote, or in Shade's, but they acquire a particular
poignancy when we look at them through the wealth of material his
often conflicting ( and ever expanding list of) references
indicate.