Subject
Nadezhda and other deceitful women
From
Date
Body
Писатель. Полагаю, что в молодости вы лепетали между поцелуями, как все лживые женщины.
Антонина Павловна. Я давно-давно это забыла, Пётр Николаевич.
(A guest at Antonina Pavlovna's birthday party, the famous writer supposes that, when his hostess was young, she would lisp between kisses, as all deceitful women do. "The Event," Act Two)
The mother of Lyubov' and Vera, Antonina Pavlovna regrets having no Nadezhda. Nadezhda (hope) lying with its childish lisp to those who divine at Yuletide is mentioned by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin (Five: VII):
Настали святки. То-то радость!
Гадает ветреная младость,
Которой ничего не жаль,
Перед которой жизни даль
Лежит светла, необозрима;
Гадает старость сквозь очки
У гробовой своей доски,
Все потеряв невозвратимо;
И всё равно: надежда им
Лжёт детским лепетом своим.
Yuletide is here. Now that gladness!
Frivolous youth divines -
who nought has to regret,
in front of whom the faraway of life
lies luminous, unlimited;
old age divines, through spectacles,
at its sepulchral slab,
all having irrecoverably lost;
nor does it matter; hope to them
lies with its childish lisp.
Svyatki (Yuletide) brings to mind Vyazemsky's poem Svyatochnaya shutka ("The Yuletide Joke," 1830) and Chekhov's story Na svyatkakh ("At Yuletide," 1900). Btw., today is the first day of Svyatki ("Yuletide is here").
"The Event" ends in Meshaev the Second, who toyed with chiromancy during the long winter evenings in the country, reading Lyubov's palm and then pausing over that of Barboshin.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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/
Антонина Павловна. Я давно-давно это забыла, Пётр Николаевич.
(A guest at Antonina Pavlovna's birthday party, the famous writer supposes that, when his hostess was young, she would lisp between kisses, as all deceitful women do. "The Event," Act Two)
The mother of Lyubov' and Vera, Antonina Pavlovna regrets having no Nadezhda. Nadezhda (hope) lying with its childish lisp to those who divine at Yuletide is mentioned by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin (Five: VII):
Настали святки. То-то радость!
Гадает ветреная младость,
Которой ничего не жаль,
Перед которой жизни даль
Лежит светла, необозрима;
Гадает старость сквозь очки
У гробовой своей доски,
Все потеряв невозвратимо;
И всё равно: надежда им
Лжёт детским лепетом своим.
Yuletide is here. Now that gladness!
Frivolous youth divines -
who nought has to regret,
in front of whom the faraway of life
lies luminous, unlimited;
old age divines, through spectacles,
at its sepulchral slab,
all having irrecoverably lost;
nor does it matter; hope to them
lies with its childish lisp.
Svyatki (Yuletide) brings to mind Vyazemsky's poem Svyatochnaya shutka ("The Yuletide Joke," 1830) and Chekhov's story Na svyatkakh ("At Yuletide," 1900). Btw., today is the first day of Svyatki ("Yuletide is here").
"The Event" ends in Meshaev the Second, who toyed with chiromancy during the long winter evenings in the country, reading Lyubov's palm and then pausing over that of Barboshin.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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/