Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014845, Wed, 7 Feb 2007 15:32:14 -0200

Subject
Re: to SS : had not the gully held its lily,
had not the thunderstorm drawn near (1953)
From
Date
Body
SS wrote: to the line 231 we read "a beautiful variant, with one curious gap": Poor old man Swift, poor ---, poor Baudelaire.If, for Shade, "e" in Baudelaire is mute, then a name that fits would be Kinbote. (As he hints.) If "e" is not mute, it would be Shade. The reference to the line 501 adds to the ambiguity: L'if, In the comments lifeless tree! Your great Maybe, Rabelais . Clearly, here "e" in Rabelais is mute, as indicates Kinbote, and this apparently supports the point that for Shade "e" in Baudelaire is mute.But in the next line ... I.P.H., a lay
this mute "e" pops up! My own interpretation is that all this indicates rather constant presence of the author (VN) and the "play" goes far beyond the text... But other interpretations are possible.

Jansy Mello: Beautiful (quality versus quantity) line of argumentation. As you know in PF there are several annotations about IPH, "L' If", if-peut-etre/potato and various translational problems with If & Yew and botany and iambic lines. This led me to VN's own " Irregular Iambics" ( Vladimir Nabokov, Poems and Problems) where Nabokov inserted a curious annotation about its title ( IF and Russian prosody).
I'd like to bring these notes up at the List ( not that I grasped VN's point, entirely) hoping that it might not become simply a parroty association ):

Note:
"Title: "Irregular" ( or "faulty," nepravil'nie ) refers to the fact that in Russian prosody esli ( if) is never scudded, as for example the word meshdu ( between) is allowed to be by an old tradition. There is no reason, however, why this other light and fluid disyllable should not be treated similarly, especially at the beginning of an iambic line"

Sergei, when I wrote " Kinbote telepathically prompting Shade or VN's playing with the idea that both Shade and CK were just one and
the same." I thereby meant that the integrationalistic idea is a ploy devided by VN himself, i.e, I was referring to the "rather constant presence of the author (VN)", as you argued

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





Attachment