Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010787, Mon, 13 Dec 2004 09:57:53 -0800

Subject
Re: Fw: addendum: notes to TT-25
Date
Body


----- Forwarded message from a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp -----
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 20:54:22 +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>


Dear Dmitri,

Thank you very much for sharing the personal information so precious for VN
readers.

In Japanese, there is no way to distinguish "Sion" and "Chillon" unless one
knows how to spell them in French alphabet. This is not a counterpart, but
could be an example: my name Akiko can be written in twenty or so different
ways in Japanese (and each has different meaning), but there is no
difference if written in alphabet.

Best wishes,
Akiko
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2004 1:00 PM
Subject: Fw: addendum: notes to TT-25



----- Original Message -----
From: nabokov
To: 'D. Barton Johnson'
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 4:25 PM
Subject: FW: addendum: notes to TT-25


Dear Don, for Akiko,

I can see the Château de Chillon if I look southish from my suspended
garden. Sion is some 40-50 km further, up the Valais valley, near Sierre,
where I came in third in class in the 1964 Grand Prix de la Montagne in the
Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ (after getting a hefty fine for waking up 100,000
burgers during unscheduled practice a week before the race). I've been
taking up a lot of space. It's just that the echoes are so evocative. I
understand why "Sion" and "Chillon" are alike in Japanese, but how does one
distinguish them? Anyway, I don't think there would be any Dôle de Chillon.
Sion, yes, as well as the Aigle region, which is not far from Chillon, in
the direction of Sion. VN and I occasionally shared Fendant and Dôle (of
which there are many subspecies).

DN

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Klein [mailto:sk@starcapital.net]
Sent: vendredi, 10. décembre 2004 18:49
To: Cangrande@BlueWin.ch
Subject: Fwd: addendum: notes to TT-25


From: Donald B. Johnson [mailto:chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 12:43 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fwd: addendum: notes to TT-25



----- Forwarded message from a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp -----
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 16:05:43 +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>

Dear All,

I do appreciate so many splendid postings on TT-25.
I would like to add a few things that I did not include in my original
notes.

Best wishes,
Akiko

--------------

96.17-18: "One talks . . . years ago": Cf. Oscar Wilde's *The Ballad of
Reading Gaol (1898), I.I.5-6, I.7.1 (Brian Boyd's note to the LoA edition).
The lines he mentions are: "The poor dead woman whom he loved, / And
murdered in her bed"; "Yet each man kills the thing he loves." You can see
the whole ballad at
http://emotionalliteracyeducation.com/classic_books_online/rgaol10.htm .

97.09: Dole: Dole de Sion, one of the best red wines of Switzerland.
Cf. "Typically these white Fendant whites are low in acidity and dry with
no particularly pronounced aromas or flavours. The town of Sion is in the
middle of this region and the Fendant de Sion has one major claim to fame -
in Finnegan's Wake James Joyce selects it as his favourite white wine. We'll
never know if today's Fendant de Sion is the same wine as Joyce himself
drank - nor is it a given that great writers are necessarily connoisseurs of
wine - but what with it being the centenary of Bloomsday this year, the
Fendant de Sion is appearing all over Ireland.

Just to be sure that you'll make the connection, that iconic photograph
with the signature hat and shades is on the label, along with the number 100
several times over. There's a red too, called Dole de Sion, which has an
identical label. The red is made from Gamay and Pinot Noir, so it's not
completely unlike a rather insipid Burgundy or Beaujolais."

From "Swiss Wines":


http://216.239.63.104/search?q=cache:FXxXATbq2V4J:www.foodandwine.net/wine/wine0174.htm+dole+de+sion&hl=ja

First I found the wine in a Japanese wine book. As there is no difference
between Sion and Chillon in Japanese, I thought it could be Dole de Chillon.
If it were Dole de Chillon, I could have pointed out another thread of
Byron and a dungeon motif. Byron wrote "The Prisoner of Chillon" (1816)
inspired by Bonivard who was chained to one of the pillars of the dungeon
1530 - 1536. You can see Byron's name he scratched on the (a?) pillar for
himself.
The castle is near from Montreux Palace Hotel. (Sorry for the useless
information!)

Dole might be chosen because it sounds like "dole," grief, sorrow.


Correction:
I put "Gulov" meaning "Gurov" in the sentence below. Sorry for the typo.

However, Nina's scarf "already on the move like those dogs that recognize
you before their owners do" makes her see Victor as a spitz gives Gurov a
chance to talk to Anna in the Chekhov's story.

----- End forwarded message -----

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