Subject
Fw: Amis quoting Nabokov
From
Date
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Message
----- Original Message -----
From: DMITRI NABOKOV
To: D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 12:23 PM
Subject:: Amis quoting Nabokov
Dear Don,
If there were a prize waiting out there, Sergej would have won it today, not Tomorrow.
DN
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 9:55 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fw: Amis quoting Nabokov
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sergej Aksenov" sa354@cam.ac.uk
Hello,
It seems to me that Amis's passage below echos a fragment from
Nabokov's letter to his wife, dated February 20, 1937:
"My dear love, vse Iriny mira bessilny... Vostochnaya storona kazhdoi
moey minuty uzhe osveshena svetom nashei priblizhayusheysya vstrechi".
My lame translation
"My dear love, all Irinas of the world are powerless... The eastern side of
my every minute is already lit by the light of our approaching meeting".
Source: Vladimir Nabokov. Selected Letters: 1940-1977. Ed. by D.
Nabokov and M.J. Bruccoli. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich/Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1989, P. 19.
This letter is probably translated into English in the above volume...
I shamelessly copied the passage in Russian and reference from Yuri
Leving's notes to Vesna v Fialte in Simposium's Collected Russian
Works, Vol.4, P.774. His note is on the following passage from Vesna v
Fialte, which he thinks is the source for the auto-citation in the letter:
"Doma ya ostavil zhenu, detei: vsegda prisutstvuyushuyu na yasnom
severe moego estestva, vsegda plyvushuyu ryadom so mnoi, dazhe skvoz
menya, a vse-taki vne menya, sistemu schastya".
My extremely lame translation
"I left at home my wife, children, the ever present on the serene
North of my essence, ever floating next to me, even through me, and
yet outside of me -- system of happiness."
Sergej
On Jul 5 2003, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> EDNOTE. Can anyone identify the VN letter evoked below?
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ludger Tolksdorf
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 5:21 AM
> Subject: Amis quoting Nabokov
>
>
> 1) A passage from Martin Amis's Night Train (Jonathan Cape, 1997)
> seems to remind me of a letter in Nabokov's Collected Letters. "The
> postmark says Philadelphia, where Trader was attending a two-day
> conference on 'The Mind and Physical Laws.' It's almost
> embarrassing: I can hardly bring myself to quote from it. 'Already
> the eastern side of every moment of mine is lit by you and the
> thought of tomorrow ...' I love you. I miss
> you. No. Jennifer Rockwell didn't have a problem with this
> boyfriend. He's perfect. He's everything we all want." (p. 83)
----- Original Message -----
From: DMITRI NABOKOV
To: D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 12:23 PM
Subject:: Amis quoting Nabokov
Dear Don,
If there were a prize waiting out there, Sergej would have won it today, not Tomorrow.
DN
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 9:55 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fw: Amis quoting Nabokov
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sergej Aksenov" sa354@cam.ac.uk
Hello,
It seems to me that Amis's passage below echos a fragment from
Nabokov's letter to his wife, dated February 20, 1937:
"My dear love, vse Iriny mira bessilny... Vostochnaya storona kazhdoi
moey minuty uzhe osveshena svetom nashei priblizhayusheysya vstrechi".
My lame translation
"My dear love, all Irinas of the world are powerless... The eastern side of
my every minute is already lit by the light of our approaching meeting".
Source: Vladimir Nabokov. Selected Letters: 1940-1977. Ed. by D.
Nabokov and M.J. Bruccoli. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich/Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1989, P. 19.
This letter is probably translated into English in the above volume...
I shamelessly copied the passage in Russian and reference from Yuri
Leving's notes to Vesna v Fialte in Simposium's Collected Russian
Works, Vol.4, P.774. His note is on the following passage from Vesna v
Fialte, which he thinks is the source for the auto-citation in the letter:
"Doma ya ostavil zhenu, detei: vsegda prisutstvuyushuyu na yasnom
severe moego estestva, vsegda plyvushuyu ryadom so mnoi, dazhe skvoz
menya, a vse-taki vne menya, sistemu schastya".
My extremely lame translation
"I left at home my wife, children, the ever present on the serene
North of my essence, ever floating next to me, even through me, and
yet outside of me -- system of happiness."
Sergej
On Jul 5 2003, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
> EDNOTE. Can anyone identify the VN letter evoked below?
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ludger Tolksdorf
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 5:21 AM
> Subject: Amis quoting Nabokov
>
>
> 1) A passage from Martin Amis's Night Train (Jonathan Cape, 1997)
> seems to remind me of a letter in Nabokov's Collected Letters. "The
> postmark says Philadelphia, where Trader was attending a two-day
> conference on 'The Mind and Physical Laws.' It's almost
> embarrassing: I can hardly bring myself to quote from it. 'Already
> the eastern side of every moment of mine is lit by you and the
> thought of tomorrow ...' I love you. I miss
> you. No. Jennifer Rockwell didn't have a problem with this
> boyfriend. He's perfect. He's everything we all want." (p. 83)