No need to remind most of you of this, but today (July 2) is the 30th anniversary of Nabokov's death. Not knowing how to commemorate the event, I decided to reread a few poems from the plump volume Stikhotvoreniia i poemy ("Poems and Long Poems", Moscow, 1991). I opened the book at random and saw the poem Godovshchina ("The Anniversary," 1926, "V te dni, dai Bog, ot kraiu i do kraiu..."), in which the lines occur:
 
The transient poets, we shall sleep;
I, for instance, who in a chance combat was touched by an angel
and have returned to the home dust,
shall sleep perfectly.
 
Please excuse the poor translation.
 
Alexey Sklyarenko

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