Stanislav Shvabrin's post reminds me that when I was an undergraduate in Russian at UCLA, Michael Flier, then one of our teaching assistants, taught us to sing the poem to the Londonderry air (aka "O, Danny Boy).  He sang it with a country western twang (ya voss lyubee-al, lyubove yes-cho bates mo-oh-zhet). Try it - definitely a hoot.

Carolyn

p.s. Regarding this poem - most Russians take it seriously (sentimentally) whereas it strikes me as being a very bitter piece of irony.


On Oct 9, 2015, at 7:48 AM, Shvabrin, Stanislav wrote:

Dear List,

A clarification on my guess regarding VN's Russian description of "Ya pomnyu chudnoe mgnoven'e" in the margins of his "gofmanskii Pushkin" of 1937: when I wrote that this description could have been destined for his Pushkin public talk of 1931, I meant the revised version of this talk c. 1949. VN revisited this talk at the request of Vladimir Zenzinov who wanted him to give it at a literary soiree in New York, but VN eventually decided against it. 

Best wishes,

Stanislav Shvabrin
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