Subject
PALE FIRE echoes: Waxwings & the King of Zembla
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EDITOR's NOTE: NABOKV-L thanks Jenefer Coates for the item below. See my
note at end.
>From The Independent, London 31 Jan 2001:
"Cyril Weber from Carlisle was charmed to find his garden filled with
rare
Russian and Scandinavian waxwings. Until, that is, they started stuffing
down his garden apples. And, apparently, getting rather drunk. 'More
than
30 came into my garden,' he says. 'But then it all went wrong. Seven
have
already hit my lounge window and three have died.' Imagine what they're
like on the vodka."
----------------------------------
EDITOR's NOTE. That Zemblan (a.k.a. Bohemian) Waxwing that introduces
Shade's poem "Pale Fire", is, like Shade's Bombycillus garrulus in New
Wye's Appalachian setting, badly confused. The Bohemian Waxwing does not
occur in Appalachia (but only in the extreme NW of the US) and, although
common across Northern and central Russia (the taiga), it is not
normally found in England. One wonders whether VN, who was scrupulous
about matters ecological, intended to signal something about the
displaced garrulous Zemblan Kinbote who, like the Waxwing, is given to
over-consumption of alcohol. Incidentally, the Russian name of the
Bohemian Waxwing "sviristel'," derives from the bird's vocalization
"sveereeree- svereeree". English-language bird guides describe it as a
weak, high trill "zhree."
note at end.
>From The Independent, London 31 Jan 2001:
"Cyril Weber from Carlisle was charmed to find his garden filled with
rare
Russian and Scandinavian waxwings. Until, that is, they started stuffing
down his garden apples. And, apparently, getting rather drunk. 'More
than
30 came into my garden,' he says. 'But then it all went wrong. Seven
have
already hit my lounge window and three have died.' Imagine what they're
like on the vodka."
----------------------------------
EDITOR's NOTE. That Zemblan (a.k.a. Bohemian) Waxwing that introduces
Shade's poem "Pale Fire", is, like Shade's Bombycillus garrulus in New
Wye's Appalachian setting, badly confused. The Bohemian Waxwing does not
occur in Appalachia (but only in the extreme NW of the US) and, although
common across Northern and central Russia (the taiga), it is not
normally found in England. One wonders whether VN, who was scrupulous
about matters ecological, intended to signal something about the
displaced garrulous Zemblan Kinbote who, like the Waxwing, is given to
over-consumption of alcohol. Incidentally, the Russian name of the
Bohemian Waxwing "sviristel'," derives from the bird's vocalization
"sveereeree- svereeree". English-language bird guides describe it as a
weak, high trill "zhree."