Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0003206, Fri, 17 Jul 1998 11:44:20 -0700

Subject
Dr Botkin (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
EDITOR's NOTE. Sergei Botkin is the Moscow translator several of VN
English novels -- as well as much else. English translation provided
below.
----------------------
From: "Sergey B. Il'yn" <isb@glas.apc.org>

Dr. Botkin, kotorogo v aetu minutu pogrbayut v Petropavlovskom Sobore
vmeste s chlenami tzarskoy sem'i, byl vrachom imperatorskoy sem'i i,
kazhetsya, potomstvennym. Podozrevayu, chto upominaemyi v SM VIII 3
"famous phisian", priezjavshiy k Nabokovym lechit' ot hemophilia "the son
of my father's Polis valet" aeto imenno on. Starshee pokolenie Botkinykh,
tri brata, [elj;ybr, literator i vrach, igralo v Rossii proshlogo veka
ochen' primetnuyu rol'. Vsego Dobrogo S. ---------------------


Eng. Trans by editor.
Dr. Botkin, who is being buried at this very moment in
Petropavlovsk Cathedral together with the members of the royal family was
physician to the Imperial family and, it seems, hereditarily so. I suspect
that he was the "famous physician" (mentioned in SPEAK, MEMORY, viii, 3)
who came to the Nabokov home to treat "the son of my father's Polish
valet" for his hemophilia. The older generation of the Botkin family,
three brothers -- (an undecipherable word, a man of letters, and a doctor)
played an eminent role in XIXth century Russia.