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Cora Day: afterthought
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Day being the time between sunrise and sunset, the name Cora Day made me think of Khodasevich's last book of poetry "Европейская ночь" ("The European Night", 1928). When it is day in America (where Cora Day shot Murat), it is night in Europe (where Charlotte Corday stabbed Marat), and vice versa. In other words, American Day = European Night. Khodasevich's book opens with the poem entitled "Петербург" ("St. Petersburg", 1925). The poem entitled "Берлинское" ("The Berlin Lines", 1922) ends as follows:
И, проникая в жизнь чужую,
Вдруг с отвращеньем узнаю
Отрубленную, неживую,
Ночную голову мою.
And, penetrating the alien life,
I suddenly recognize with disgust
The chopped off, dead,
Nocturnal head of mine.
One of the best poems in the book is the six-liner:
Было на улице полутемно.
Стукнуло где-то под крышей окно.
Свет промелькнул, занавеска взвилась,
Быстрая тень со стены сорвалась -
Счастлив, кто падает вниз головой:
Мир для него хоть на миг - а иной.
The closing couplet translates:
Happy who's falling down heels over head:
To him the world - if only momentarily - is different.
Finally, toward the end of the absolutely marvelous "Соррентинские фотографии" ("The Sorrento Snapshots", 1926) we see Falconet's equestrian statue of Peter I reflected... in the sea near Naples:
И, отражён кастелломарской
Зеленоватою волной,
Огромный страж России царской
Вниз опрокинут головой.
Так отражался он Невой,
Зловещий, огненный и мрачный,
Таким явился предо мной -
Ошибка плёнки неудачной.
Sorry, I can't venture a translation of these wonderful lines. I hope there are English translations of Khodasevich in Verses and Versions (the book I don't happen to have in my library). Note that the monument in the photo is reflected вниз головой (upside down).
Cora Day + ordo = cory door + Ada
Cora Day + gardens + o = cor ardens + yagoda
Corday + prelude = Cordula de Prey
Corday + Orpheus + bars = Bras d'Or + coryphaeus
ordo - Lat., order; cf. seculorum novus nascitur ordo, the Latin phrase quoted in Chapter Four of The Gift; ordo = odor
cory door - Van's and Ada's jocular phrase for "corridor"
cor ardens - Lat., ardent heart (the title of V. Ivanov's book of poetry, 1912)
yagoda - Rus., berry; cf. "like any Russian country girl lakomyashchayasya yagodami (feasting on berries)" (1.3); cf. Yagoda, a head of Stalin's secret police; Dzerzhinski (the head of Lenin's secret police)famously said that chekist (a Cheka man) must have an ardent heart
Cordula de Prey - a character in Ada, Van's mistress
Orpheus - the legendary Greek poet and musician; Orpheus appears in the final line of Khodasevich's "Баллада" ("The Ballad", 1921), the last poem in his previous collection, "Тяжёлая лира" ("The Heavy Lyre", 1922)
bars - Russ., ounce, snow leopard
Bras d'Or - on Antiterra, an American province; Prince Peter Zemsky, Van's and Ada's great-grandfather was a governor of Bras d'Or
coryphaeus - the leader of the chorus in the ancient Greek drama
Alexey Sklyarenko
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И, проникая в жизнь чужую,
Вдруг с отвращеньем узнаю
Отрубленную, неживую,
Ночную голову мою.
And, penetrating the alien life,
I suddenly recognize with disgust
The chopped off, dead,
Nocturnal head of mine.
One of the best poems in the book is the six-liner:
Было на улице полутемно.
Стукнуло где-то под крышей окно.
Свет промелькнул, занавеска взвилась,
Быстрая тень со стены сорвалась -
Счастлив, кто падает вниз головой:
Мир для него хоть на миг - а иной.
The closing couplet translates:
Happy who's falling down heels over head:
To him the world - if only momentarily - is different.
Finally, toward the end of the absolutely marvelous "Соррентинские фотографии" ("The Sorrento Snapshots", 1926) we see Falconet's equestrian statue of Peter I reflected... in the sea near Naples:
И, отражён кастелломарской
Зеленоватою волной,
Огромный страж России царской
Вниз опрокинут головой.
Так отражался он Невой,
Зловещий, огненный и мрачный,
Таким явился предо мной -
Ошибка плёнки неудачной.
Sorry, I can't venture a translation of these wonderful lines. I hope there are English translations of Khodasevich in Verses and Versions (the book I don't happen to have in my library). Note that the monument in the photo is reflected вниз головой (upside down).
Cora Day + ordo = cory door + Ada
Cora Day + gardens + o = cor ardens + yagoda
Corday + prelude = Cordula de Prey
Corday + Orpheus + bars = Bras d'Or + coryphaeus
ordo - Lat., order; cf. seculorum novus nascitur ordo, the Latin phrase quoted in Chapter Four of The Gift; ordo = odor
cory door - Van's and Ada's jocular phrase for "corridor"
cor ardens - Lat., ardent heart (the title of V. Ivanov's book of poetry, 1912)
yagoda - Rus., berry; cf. "like any Russian country girl lakomyashchayasya yagodami (feasting on berries)" (1.3); cf. Yagoda, a head of Stalin's secret police; Dzerzhinski (the head of Lenin's secret police)famously said that chekist (a Cheka man) must have an ardent heart
Cordula de Prey - a character in Ada, Van's mistress
Orpheus - the legendary Greek poet and musician; Orpheus appears in the final line of Khodasevich's "Баллада" ("The Ballad", 1921), the last poem in his previous collection, "Тяжёлая лира" ("The Heavy Lyre", 1922)
bars - Russ., ounce, snow leopard
Bras d'Or - on Antiterra, an American province; Prince Peter Zemsky, Van's and Ada's great-grandfather was a governor of Bras d'Or
coryphaeus - the leader of the chorus in the ancient Greek drama
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/