Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0024462, Sun, 11 Aug 2013 15:24:02 +0300

Subject
more roses in LATH
Date
Body
According to the hero of Chekhov's story "My Life," even pretty Anyuta Blagovo (a namesake of Vadim's second wife) is but a dogrose compared to beautiful Maria Dolzhikov (who consents to marry the extravagant Misail) who looks to Misail like a fine cultured rose:

Я мысленно ставил её рядом с нашими барышнями, и даже красивая, солидная Анюта Благово не выдерживала сравнения с нею; разница была громадная, как между хорошей культурной розой и диким шиповником. (Chapter Seven)

In his poem V restorane (In a Restaurant, 1910) Blok (who in another poem compares Florence to a smoky iris) famously mentions a black rose:

Я сидел у окна в переполненном зале.
Где-то пели смычки о любви.
Я послал тебе чёрную розу в бокале
Золотого, как небо, аи.

I sat by the window in a crowded room.
Distant bows were singing of love.
I sent you a black rose in a goblet
Of champagne, golden as the sky.

Iris Black is Vadim's first wife.

Rozy (Roses) is a collection of poetry (1930) by G. Ivanov (satirized by VN as Galatov in Lips to Lips and as Johnson in The Night Journey, a fragment of Vivian Calmbrood's poem).

Re Viedma: in Russian we spell it Вьедма (V'edma). V'edma = ved'ma (witch)

Alexey Sklyarenko

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