Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001894, Tue, 25 Mar 1997 09:00:21 -0800

Subject
Re: Tsvetaeva (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Gennady Barabtarlo <gragb@showme.missouri.edu> offers a
translation and comment on the VN "Tsvetaeva" poem. NABOKV-L wishes to
thank Galya Diment (USA), Bernard Kreise (France), Sasha Dolinin (USA &
Russia), Sergey Il'yn (Moscow) and Gene Barabtarlo (USA) for their
responses to Ulrike Goldschweer's (Germany) query.
-----------------------------------------

Iosif krasnyi, -- ne Iosif
Prekrasnyi: prepre-
Krasnyi -- vzgliad brosiv,
Sad vyrastivshii! Vepr'

gornyi! *Vyshe* gor! Luchshe sta Lin-
dbergov, trekhsot poliusov
svetlei! Iz-pod tolstykh usov
Solntse Rossii: Stalin!

[Joseph the Red, -- not Joseph
the Fair: most fair, fair-
est of all -- with one gaze cast
Planting orchards! Boar mount -

ainous! Towering over mounts! Better than a five-score of Lin-
dbergs, brighter than fifteen-score
of poles! The sun of Russia, from under
Thick moustaches: Stalin!


See a reportr on a most curious recent incident round this little gem,
remindful of the famous Vasili Shishkov hoax -- "Zvezda", 11, 1996,
p. 150ff.


Gennady Barabtarlo
451 GCB University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
573-882-9454 Fax 573-884-8456