Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014244, Fri, 1 Dec 2006 16:30:11 -0200

Subject
Re: JF on PF topics: from CHW
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CHW quoted, in his message to JF:

"Nobody will heed my index,
I suppose,
But through it a gentle wind ex
Ponto blows


This is not a poem, and therefore not a “bad” poem. It is an itty-bitty bit of witty verse..."



My copy ( Vintage, 1966) carries different lines:

"Through the window of that index

Climbs a rose

And sometimes a gentle wind ex

Ponto blows."



In that one "I suppose" became "a rose" and unheedful readers are the "vulgar", not the "discerning ones" ( as we find in the lines that come before it.)

Does CHW know why his verses are different, which were written before, what is the corrected version?



CHW: You didn't answer my comment about your sentence: Basic premise: Accept that both halves of PF emanate entirely from the inventive mind of Botkin...

I asked you why you only saw two parts ( Poem and Commentary) as comprising "Pale Fire", not the Index, not the Foreword.

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