Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0015193, Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:27:12 -0400

Subject
Re: THOUGHTS: Crashaw, "Hebe's Cup," and "Night Rote" in PF
From
Date
Body
Hebe's Cup was discussed here twice, in 1997 and 2005, and both times related to Tyutchev (Il'yn and Dolinin, see below).

DBJ is also correct saying that Shade (or any English professor) is -- but for VN, and for any Russia-educated Russian, "Hebe's Cup" is the immediate image of Tyutchev's most famous poem, The Spring Storm - as many other textbook items, e.g. six-winged seraph from Pushkin discussed at the same time in 2005

Note an interesting contest for the best English translation of The Spring Storm at:
http://www.poezia.ru/article.php?sid=42249

Note that Tyutchev's famous description of Hebe's Cup, "The Cup of Thunder" ("Gromokipyashchii kubok") is also the most famous title of Igor Severyanin's poetry book (1913).

Thus Shade's book title is further connected to Severyanin, not only to Tyutchev!

Victor Fet


*********

An exchange between DBJ and Sergey Il'yn on Fri, 19 Dec 1997

>c) Shade's third poetry
>collection is entitled HEBE'S CUP. There is no getting away from the fact
>that this is an allusion to Tyutchev's "I love a thunderstorm at the
>beginning of May": "Thou wilt say, giddy, laughing Hebe,/ while feeding
>Zeus' eagle,/ has poured her thunderously-boiling goblet from the sky to the
>earth.
>-------------------------------------------------
DBJ: I DON'T SEE THAT SHADE'S POEM TITLE SHOWS THAT HE KNOWS THE TYUTCHEV
POEM. "HEBE'S CUP" IS AN IMAGE KNOWN TO EVERY ENGLISH PROFESSOR.

and Alexander Dolinin's to Jansy on Fri, 16 Sep 2005

>>>>Beside the allusion to "The Prophet" you pinpointed there are at least two
other ones to Pushkin: "Father Time, all gray" (cf.: "Iamshchik likhoi,
sedoe vremia") and "consonne / D'appui, Echo's fey child" (cf. Pushkin's
poem "The Rhyme" (1830) in which the nymph Echo gives birth to a "fey
child" Rhyme), one to Tiutchev ("Hebe's Cup")...
>>>>>>>>

Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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