JM:    Leafing thru an old copy of ”The Gift” to check marginalia and sentences I’d underlined before throwing it away, for its replacement had just reached me, I was struck by wonder once again after finding among the highlighted lines V.Nabokov’s concise comment on his view of Tamerlane’s lust for power,  vanity and the price paid for his conquests: “Gradually, as a result of all these raids on the past of Russian thought, he developed a new yearning for Russia (…)And while piling up knowledge, while extracting his finished creation out of this mountain, he remembered something else: a pile of stones on an Asian pass; warriors going on campaign each placed a stone there; on the way back each took a stone from the pile; that which was left represented forever the number of those fallen in battle.  Thus in a pile of stones Tamerlane foresaw a monument.(The Gift, Penguin ed.1981,p.188)



Sergey Sakun:   It’s a coincidence again. About the possible origin of this legend I also wrote in my LJ half a year ago.

http://gippodemos.livejournal.com/10710.html


This legend, probably, was taken by Nabokov from a P. N. Krasnov’s essay "Cinema" [1913]


П. Н. Краснов 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Krasnov


«Кинематограф» [1913 г.]

http://az.lib.ru/k/krasnow_p_n/text_0350.shtml


«Много, много лет тому назад, говорит киргизское предание, по этой степи проходил Тамерлан. Он шел к реке Джергалину и к великому озеру Иссыккуль. И когда подошел он к отрогу, идущему от «Божьего трона» (Хан-жен-гри) и преграждающему путь к Туркестану, вздумал он пересчитать свое войско. 
Впереди была узкая тропа, круто поднимавшаяся в горы, поросшая густым еловым лесом. И приказал Тамерлан каждому воину, говорит предание, взять камень и бросить его подле того места, где он стоял. Подходили, зашитые в звериные шкуры, в остроконечных малахаях, отороченных мехом, скуластые, желтые, узкоглазые монголы, с колчанами стрел за плечами и клали камень за камнем. И росла гора камней. Слышался тихий стук бросаемых камней, и следующим приходилось бросать выше и выше. И орда проходила, оставляя новую страшную гору за собою. 
Прошло несколько лет. Войско Тамерлана возвращалось обратно. И вздумалось Тамерлану пересчитать своих воинов снова, и он приказал своим солдатам опять бросать камни подле старой кучи камней — и набросали они только 1/3 камней. 2/3 полегло при великих завоеваниях монгольского полководца…»


/“ Many, many years ago, says the Kyrgyz tradition, for this steppe held Tamerlane. He walked to the river Dzhergalinu and Great Lakes Issyk-Kul. And when he came to the spurs, coming from the "throne of God" (Han-jen-gris) and blocks the way to Turkestan, he decided to count his army.

Ahead was a narrow trail, a steep climb in the mountains, covered with dense spruce forest. And Tamerlan ordered every soldier, that says the legend, take a stone and throw it near the place where he stood. Approached narrowly eyed Mongols sewn in animal skins, in peaked malachai, trimmed with fur, high cheekbones, yellow, with quivers of arrows on his shoulders and laid stone by stone. And the growing mountain of stones. I heard a soft knock throwing stones, and the next had to throw higher and higher. And a horde passed, leaving a terrible new hill behind him.

Several years passed. Tamerlane's troops come back. And Tamerlane occurred to count his men again, and he ordered his soldiers to throw stones again beside the old pile of stones - and they are only sketched 1/3 stones. 2/3 were killed during the great Mongol conquests..."/ ( Translated using Google.  Correct, if it necessary, please.)


“Thus in a pile of stones Tamerlane foresaw a monument”


And monuments are look much more majestic in the Krasnov’s version of this legend. (1 + 1/3 instead of only 1/3)



-- 

Best regards,

Sergey Sakun                           mailto:svs79@mail.ru




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