----- Original Message -----

 

"Smert' mila, eto taina" in literal translation means "death is sweet, this is a secret."

I'm glad to learn that the meaning of the original "Italian" phrase can be decoded after all. So probably the theory suggested by V. L. Shokhina (the commentator whom I cited) is far-fetched.

 

Now I also have an important query. Could somebody of you who has a copy of Poems and Problems write for me the English translation of lines 5-8 of VN's Russian poem To Prince S. M. Kachurin? The corresponding lines in the Russian original are:

 

"Svyashchennikom amerikanskim

tvoy bednyi drug pereodet,

i vsem dolinam dagestanskim

ya shlyu zavistlivyi privet."

 

Our splendid publichka (the Public Library) simply hasn't a copy of PP. And I'm not sure that there is a copy at the Nabokov museum.

 

Many thanks in advance,

Alexey  Sklyarenko, S-P