Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000503, Tue, 14 Mar 1995 12:56:25 -0800

Subject
Re: Platon Nabokov (fwd)
Date
Body
Oh, yes, he does write -- he is a published poet, and several of his
poems are quoted in the Panorama article. A "genius" gene? -- I won't go
that far, but then the other Nabokov did not have a genius gene as a poet
either (I think). Someone read to Platon Nabokov's poetry in prison --
someone who knew it by heart -- and Platon Nabokov liked it. To give you an
example of Platon's own poetry, here are some stanzas from his poem
"Nostalgiia" (Nostalgia)

Ia pered snom mechtal uekhat',
Stikhi, dast Bog, prochest' V.N.
Da, izmechtavshiisia kak nekhot',
usnuv, uslyshal iz-za sten:

'Cho privezesh' ottuda milyi
druzhok moi -- sakharnyi rozhok?
rosistyi landysh? zvon unylyi?
Stikhi -- sebe zh pod novyi srok?

Sidi uzh tam, shlifuia frazu,
da ne nadeisia na avos',
Zhestokoserdiia zarazu
i v vek ne vylechit', nebos'.

Intelligentsia Rossii,
cho tam, cho tut, obrechena,
kak ni terpeli, ni prosili,
glukha k otverzhennym strana....etc

It's obviously NOT great poetry. His life is more interesting though. His
father was arrested in the 30s and then executed (so was, later, his
stepfather). Before his arrest Joseph Nabokov apparently said: "The only
thing I can leave for my son as his inheritance is our last name." Platon
himself was arrested in 1951, got ten years, was released in 1955 but did
not get fully rehabilitated till 1991, when he was also published for the
first time. GD


On Tue, 14 Mar 1995, Jeff Edmunds wrote:
> An addendum to Galya Diment's wonderful tidbit about VN's long lost
>relative:
> Apparently another relative of Nabokov's (this one much less
>distant) surfaced recently in France. Details are sketchy, so I'll leave
> further explanations until I've had time to investigate more thoroughly.
> I wonder if Russia's Platon Nabokov writes. Did he get the genius
gene? > > > Jeff Edmunds > jhe@psulias.psu.edu
>