From:
D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net] Sent: Wednesday,
July 09, 2003 9:55 PM To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU Subject: Fw: Amis
quoting Nabokov
----- Original Message ----- From: "Sergej Aksenov" sa354@cam.ac.uk
Hello,
It seems to me that Amis's passage below echos
a fragment from Nabokov's letter to his wife, dated February 20,
1937:
"My dear love, vse Iriny mira bessilny... Vostochnaya storona
kazhdoi moey minuty uzhe osveshena svetom nashei priblizhayusheysya
vstrechi".
My lame translation
"My dear love, all
Irinas of the world are powerless... The eastern side of my every
minute is already lit by the light of our approaching
meeting".
Source: Vladimir Nabokov. Selected Letters: 1940-1977.
Ed. by D. Nabokov and M.J. Bruccoli. New York: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich/Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1989, P. 19.
This
letter is probably translated into English in the above volume... I
shamelessly copied the passage in Russian and reference from
Yuri Leving's notes to Vesna v Fialte in Simposium's Collected
Russian Works, Vol.4, P.774. His note is on the following passage from
Vesna v Fialte, which he thinks is the source for the auto-citation in
the letter:
"Doma ya ostavil zhenu, detei: vsegda prisutstvuyushuyu
na yasnom severe moego estestva, vsegda plyvushuyu ryadom so mnoi,
dazhe skvoz menya, a vse-taki vne menya, sistemu
schastya".
My extremely lame translation
"I left at
home my wife, children, the ever present on the serene North of my
essence, ever floating next to me, even through me, and yet outside of
me -- system of happiness."
Sergej
On
Jul 5 2003, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> EDNOTE. Can
anyone identify the VN letter evoked below?
> -----
Original Message ----- > From: Ludger Tolksdorf > To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum > Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 5:21
AM > Subject: Amis quoting
Nabokov > > > 1) A passage from Martin
Amis's Night Train (Jonathan Cape, 1997) > seems to remind me of a
letter in Nabokov's Collected Letters. "The > postmark says
Philadelphia, where Trader was attending a two-day > conference on
'The Mind and Physical Laws.' It's almost > embarrassing: I can
hardly bring myself to quote from it. 'Already > the eastern side of
every moment of mine is lit by you and the > thought of tomorrow
...' I love you. I miss > you. No. Jennifer Rockwell didn't have a
problem with this > boyfriend. He's perfect. He's everything we all
want." (p. 83)