In Chapter Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his married life and mentions Lafontaine:
Life is a message scribbled in the dark.
Anonymous.
Espied on a pine’s bark,
As we were walking home the day she died,
An empty emerald case, squat and frog-eyed,
Hugging the trunk; and its companion piece,
A gum-logged ant.
That Englishman in Nice,
A proud and happy linguist: je nourris
Les pauvres cigales - meaning that he
Fed the poor sea gulls! Lafontaine was wrong:
Dead is the mandible, alive the song. (ll. 235-244)
“Life is a message scribbled in the dark. Anonymous” brings to mind Karamzin’s epigram on life (Dec. 31, 1797):
Что наша жизнь? Роман. — Кто автор? Аноним.
Читаем по складам, смеёмся, плачем... спим.
Life? A romance. By whom? Anonymous.
We spell it out; it makes us laugh and weep,
And then put us
To sleep.
In his EO Commentary (vol. II, p. 145) VN points out that in a bout-rimés exchange (using rhymes supplied by Dmitriev) Karamzin made the following New Year prophecy for 1799 (which was to be the year of Pushkin’s birth):
To sing all things, Pindar will be reborn.
In Chapter Four (L: 9-14) of Eugene Onegin Pushkin compares married life (for which Lenski was born) to roman vo vkuse Lafontena (a novel in the genre of Lafontaine):
Он весел был. Чрез две недели
Назначен был счастливый срок.
И тайна брачныя постели,
И сладостной любви венок
Его восторгов ожидали.
Гимена хлопоты, печали,
Зевоты хладная чреда
Ему не снились никогда.
Меж тем как мы, враги Гимена,
В домашней жизни зрим один
Ряд утомительных картин,
Роман во вкусе Лафонтена...26
Мой бедный Ленский, сердцем он
Для оной жизни был рождён.
Merry he was. A fortnight hence
the blissful date was set,
and the nuptial bed's mystery
and love's sweet crown awaited
his transports.
Hymen's cares, woes,
yawnings' chill train,
he never visioned.
Whereas we, enemies of Hymen,
perceive in home life but a series
of tedious images,
a novel in the genre of Lafontaine.26
O my poor Lenski! For the said
life he at heart was born.
Pushkin’s note 26: August Lafontaine, author of numerous family novels.
A German writer, August Lafontaine (1758-1831) is not to be confused with Jean Lafontaine (1621-95), a French fabulist mentioned by Shade. Zevoty khladnaya chreda (yawnings' chill train) that Lenski never visioned brings to mind Yawn mentioned by Shade at the end of his poem:
I feel I understand
Existence, or at least a minute part
Of my existence, only through my art,
In terms of combinational delight;
And if my private universe scans right,
So does the verse of galaxies divine
Which I suspect is an iambic line.
I'm reasonably sure that we survive
And that my darling somewhere is alive,
As I am reasonably sure that I
Shall wake at six tomorrow, on July
The twenty-second, nineteen fifty-nine,
And that the day will probably be fine;
So this alarm clock let me set myself,
Yawn, and put back Shade's "Poems" on their shelf. (ll. 971-984)
Soon after writing these lines Shade is killed by Gradus. July 21, 1959 (the day of Shade’s death), was Monday. Poor Lenski dies in a pistol duel with Onegin on Monday, Jan. 14, two days after Tatiana’s name-day (Jan. 12, Saturday). Lenski’s last verses chanced to be preserved:
«Куда, куда вы удалились,
Весны моей златые дни?
Что день грядущий мне готовит?
Его мой взор напрасно ловит,
В глубокой мгле таится он.
Нет нужды; прав судьбы закон.
Паду ли я, стрелой пронзенный,
Иль мимо пролетит она,
Всё благо: бдения и сна
Приходит час определенный;
Благословен и день забот,
Благословен и тьмы приход!
«Блеснёт заутра луч денницы
И заиграет яркий день;
А я, быть может, я гробницы
Сойду в таинственную сень,
И память юного поэта
Поглотит медленная Лета,
Забудет мир меня; но ты
Придёшь ли, дева красоты,
Слезу пролить над ранней урной
И думать: он меня любил,
Он мне единой посвятил
Рассвет печальный жизни бурной!..
Сердечный друг, желанный друг,
Приди, приди: я твой супруг!..»
“Whither, ah! whither are ye fled,
my springtime's golden days?
What has the coming day in store for me?
In vain my gaze attempts to grasp it;
in deep gloom it lies hidden.
It matters not; fate's law is just.
Whether I fall, pierced by the dart, or whether
it flies by — all is right:
of waking and of sleep
comes the determined hour;
blest is the day of cares,
blest, too, is the advent of darkness!
The ray of dawn will gleam tomorrow,
and brilliant day will scintillate;
whilst I, perhaps — I shall descend
into the tomb's mysterious shelter,
and the young poet's memory
slow Lethe will engulf;
the world will forget me; but thou,
wilt thou come, maid of beauty,
to shed a tear over the early urn
and think: he loved me,
to me alone he consecrated
the doleful daybreak of a stormy life!...
Friend of my heart, desired friend, come,
come: I'm thy spouse!” (Six: XXI: 3-14; XXII)
The guests at Tatiana’s name-day party include Buyanov, Pushkin’s first cousin. Buyanov is the main character of Opasnyi sosed (“The Dangerous Neighbor, 1811), a narrative poem by Vasiliy Lvovich Pushkin (Alexander Pushkin’s uncle). Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla, Kinbote is Shade’s dangerous neighbor. The three main characters in PF, Shade, Kinbote and Gradus seem to represent three different aspects of Botkin’s personality. An American scholar of Russian descent, Professor Vsevolod Botkin went mad and became Shade, Kinbote and Gradus after the tragic death of his daughter Nadezhda (Hazel Shade of Kinbote’s commentary). Nadezhda means “hope.” There is a hope that, when Kinbote completes his work on Shade’s poem and commits suicide (on Monday, Oct. 19, 1959, the anniversary of Pushkin’s Lyceum), Botkin, like Count Vorontsov (a target of Pushkin's epigrams, "half-milord, half-merchant, etc."), will be full again. I suggest that poor Botkin is VN’s first cousin.
Let me also draw your attention to the updated version of my previous post, “President McAber & Worm in PF.”