Subject
bashmachok (little shoe) in Sashka
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Dear Hafid,
Thanks for your comments. I confess, I know very little about women's habits and peculiarities. Here is the stanza's rough translation. There are a lot of people on the List who could do it better and faster and I sort of hoped they would come to my rescue.
He reached out his hand - the hand
touched the wall; reached out another
and gently felt for the toe of a little shoe.
Then he clasped a little foot, but what kind of foot it was?!
This foot seemed so diminutive,
so tender and soft that he involuntarily wondered,
if he hadn't hurt it.
In the meantime, his hand is traveling upwards,
Here is a round little knee... and here,
Here - but why do you laugh beforehand? -
Here it found itself on the twin hill...
It is interesting to compare the manipulations described in this stanza to those in the debauche a trois scene in Ada (2.8).
As to Carolyn's quiz, my guess is Bunin. Btw., an oriole (ivolga) also appears in one of his poems (like VN, I prefer Bunin's poetry to his "velvet" prose).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Thanks for your comments. I confess, I know very little about women's habits and peculiarities. Here is the stanza's rough translation. There are a lot of people on the List who could do it better and faster and I sort of hoped they would come to my rescue.
He reached out his hand - the hand
touched the wall; reached out another
and gently felt for the toe of a little shoe.
Then he clasped a little foot, but what kind of foot it was?!
This foot seemed so diminutive,
so tender and soft that he involuntarily wondered,
if he hadn't hurt it.
In the meantime, his hand is traveling upwards,
Here is a round little knee... and here,
Here - but why do you laugh beforehand? -
Here it found itself on the twin hill...
It is interesting to compare the manipulations described in this stanza to those in the debauche a trois scene in Ada (2.8).
As to Carolyn's quiz, my guess is Bunin. Btw., an oriole (ivolga) also appears in one of his poems (like VN, I prefer Bunin's poetry to his "velvet" prose).
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/