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Dmitri Nabokov correction for NABOKOV's BUTTERFLIES
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FROM DMITRI NABOKOV:
No matter how meticulously prepared, proofed, and produced, the more complex a book the likelier it is to contain an occasional error. Such slips, even if they may eventually enhance the bibliographic value of early printings, should be noted and corrected.
Two errors have been so far noticed in the first printing of NABOKOV's BUTTERFLIES:
1. The printing, on page 121 of a very approximate translation of an excerpt from VN's poem "Butterflies," misattributed to Dmitri Nabokov and inserted during the production process solely to facilitate calculation of typesetting space. [DN's correct version is given below.]
2. The inadvertent substitution, on page 221, line 24, of the incorrect "ostriches" for the correct "storks."
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CORRECT VERSION FOR 2ND PRINTING OF NABOKOV'S BUTTERFLIES, BEACON, P. 121
...From afar you can discern the swallowtail
from its sunny, tropic beauty:
along a grassy slope it dashes
and settles on a roadside dandelion.
My net swings, the muslin loudly rustles.
O, yellow demon, how you quiver!
I am afraid to tear its dentate little fringes
and its black, supremely slender tails.
Also, on occasion in the oriole-filled park,
some lucky mid-day, hot and windy,
I'd stand, ecstatic at the fragrance,
before a tall and fluffy lilac,
almost crimson in comparison
with the deep blue of the sky,
and, dangling from a cluster, palpitating,
the swallowtail, a gold-winged guest, grew tipsy,
while, blindingly, the wind was swaying
both butterfly and luscious cluster.
You aim, but the branches interfere;
you swing -- but with a flash it vanishes,
and from the net turned inside out
tumble only severed crests of flowers.
No matter how meticulously prepared, proofed, and produced, the more complex a book the likelier it is to contain an occasional error. Such slips, even if they may eventually enhance the bibliographic value of early printings, should be noted and corrected.
Two errors have been so far noticed in the first printing of NABOKOV's BUTTERFLIES:
1. The printing, on page 121 of a very approximate translation of an excerpt from VN's poem "Butterflies," misattributed to Dmitri Nabokov and inserted during the production process solely to facilitate calculation of typesetting space. [DN's correct version is given below.]
2. The inadvertent substitution, on page 221, line 24, of the incorrect "ostriches" for the correct "storks."
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CORRECT VERSION FOR 2ND PRINTING OF NABOKOV'S BUTTERFLIES, BEACON, P. 121
...From afar you can discern the swallowtail
from its sunny, tropic beauty:
along a grassy slope it dashes
and settles on a roadside dandelion.
My net swings, the muslin loudly rustles.
O, yellow demon, how you quiver!
I am afraid to tear its dentate little fringes
and its black, supremely slender tails.
Also, on occasion in the oriole-filled park,
some lucky mid-day, hot and windy,
I'd stand, ecstatic at the fragrance,
before a tall and fluffy lilac,
almost crimson in comparison
with the deep blue of the sky,
and, dangling from a cluster, palpitating,
the swallowtail, a gold-winged guest, grew tipsy,
while, blindingly, the wind was swaying
both butterfly and luscious cluster.
You aim, but the branches interfere;
you swing -- but with a flash it vanishes,
and from the net turned inside out
tumble only severed crests of flowers.