Subject
apotheosis in Ada
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Date
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Next day Demon was having tea at his favorite hotel with a Bohemian lady whom he had never seen before and was never to see again (she desired his recommendation for a job in the Glass Fish-and-Flower department in a Boston museum) when she interrupted her voluble self to indicate Marina and Aqua, blankly slinking across the hall in modish sullenness and bluish furs with Dan Veen and a dackel behind, and said:
'Curious how that appalling actress resembles "Eve on the Clepsydrophone" in Parmigianino's famous picture.' (1.2)
"The Future Eve" (1886) is a novel by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1838-89). Eve of the future is the girl named Hadaly created by Thomas Edison in an effort to overcome the flaws and artificiality of real women and create a perfect and natural woman who could bring a man true happiness.
Maximilian Voloshin's essay on Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (included in Liki tvorchestva, "The Faces of Creative Work") is entitled Apofeoz mechty ("The Apotheosis of Dream," 1904).
According to Ada, the Night of the Burning Barn (July 28? August 4?) is the apotheosis of "Ardis the First" (summer of 1884):
'All bright kids are depraved. I see you do recollect -'
'Not that particular occasion, but the apple tree, and when you kissed my neck, et tout le reste. And then - zdravstvuyte: apofeoz, the Night of the Burning Barn!' (1.8)
"Eve on the Clepsydrophone" showed a naked girl with a peach-like apple cupped in her half-raised hand sitting sideways on a convolvulus-garlanded support, and had for its discoverer the additional appeal of recalling Marina when, rung out of a hotel bathroom by the phone, and perched on the arm of a chair, she muffled the receiver while asking her lover something that he could not make out because the bath's voice drowned her whisper... Both men were a little drunk, and Demon secretly wondered if the rather banal resemblance of that Edenic girl to a young actress, whom his visitor had no doubt seen on the stage in 'Eugene and Lara' or 'Lenore Raven' (both painfully panned by a 'disgustingly incorruptible' young critic), should be, or would be, commented upon. It was not: such nymphs were really very much alike because of their elemental limpidity since the similarities of young bodies of water are but murmurs of natural innocence and double-talk mirrors, that's my hat, his is older, but we have the same London hatter. (1.2)
Soon after his duel with Baron d'Onsky Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father) married Marina's twin sister Aqua:
By April 10 it was Aqua who was nursing him, while Marina had flown back to her rehearsals of 'Lucile,' yet another execrable drama heading for yet another flop at the Ladore playhouse. (1.2)
In her memoir essay on Voloshin, Zhivoe o zhivom ("A Living Word about a Living Man," 1932), Marina Tsvetaev tells about Voloshin's attempts to draw her in a hoax: to create the twins of genius (brother and sister who write poetry):
А потом (совсем уж захлебнувшись) нет! зачем потом, сейчас же, одновременно с Петуховым мы создадим ещё поэта, - поэтессу или поэта? - и поэтессу и поэта, это будут близнецы, поэтические близнецы, Крюковы, скажем, брат и сестра. Мы создадим то, чего ещё не было, то есть гениальных близнецов.
At the beginning of essay Marina Tsvetaev expresses satisfaction that Voloshin (who says, in one of his poems, that he himself is fire) died in the middle of the summer (August 11, end of July by the Old Style), at noon, in his hour:
Одиннадцатого августа - в Коктебеле - в двенадцать часов пополудни - скончался поэт Максимилиан Волошин.
Первое, что я почувствовала, прочтя эти строки, было, после естественного удара смерти - удовлетворённость: в полдень: в свой час.
...Ибо сущность Волошина - полдневная, а полдень из всех часов суток - самый телесный, вещественный, с телами без теней и с телами, спящими без снов, а если их и видящими - то один сплошной сон земли. И, одновременно, самый магический, мифический и мистический час суток, такой же маго-мифо-мистический, как полночь. Час Великого Пана, Demon de Midi, и нашего скромного русского полуденного, о котором я в детстве, в Калужской губернии, своими ушами: "Ленка, идем купаться!" - "Не пойду-у: полуденный утащит". - Магия, мифика и мистика самой земли, самого земного состава.
Таково и творчество Волошина, в котором, по-женски-гениально-непосредственному слову поэтессы Аделаиды Герцык, меньше моря, чем материка, и больше берегов, чем реки.
According to the memoirist (who also mentions Demon de Midi), noon is an hour as mystical as midnight. Marina Tsvetaev quotes Adelaida Gertsyk, a poetess who said that in Voloshin's ouevre there is less sea than land and more banks than river (bol'she beregov, chem reki). Drugie berega ("Other Shores," 1954) is the title of the Russian version of VN's autobiography. Like Pushkin's Onegin, VN was born upon the Neva's banks (na bregakh Nevy). Horoscopically, Pushkin and Voloshin were bliznetsy (Gemini). On the other hand, Bliznets v tuchakh ("The Twin in Thunderclouds," 1914) is the title of one of the first collections of poetry of Pasternak. Pamyati Demona ("In Memory of Demon") is the opening poem of Pasternak's collection Sestra moya zhizn' ("My Sister Life," 1922). As he reads Van's palm, Demon tells him:
'What puzzles me as a palmist is the strange condition of the Sister of your Life. And the roughness!'
'Mascodagama,' whispered Van, raising his eyebrows. (1.38)
Van lies to his father that he had an affair with Rita, a Crimean cabaret dancer with whom his danced a tango on his hands:
'- Well, I'm resting after my torrid affair, in London, with my tango-partner whom you saw me dance with when you flew over for that last show - remember?' (ibid.)
After the Revolution Voloshin (whose first wife Margarita Sabashnikov is mentioned by Marina Tsvetaev in her memoir essay) lived in the Crimea (where VN met him in 1918) and died in his house in Koktebel (near Feodosia).
On Demonia (aka Antiterra, Earth's twin planet on which Ada is set) Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago (1957) is known as Les Amours du Docteur Mertvago, a mystical romance by a pastor (1.8), and Mertvago Forever (2.5).
with warmest thanks to Carolyn,
Alexey Sklyarenko
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'Curious how that appalling actress resembles "Eve on the Clepsydrophone" in Parmigianino's famous picture.' (1.2)
"The Future Eve" (1886) is a novel by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1838-89). Eve of the future is the girl named Hadaly created by Thomas Edison in an effort to overcome the flaws and artificiality of real women and create a perfect and natural woman who could bring a man true happiness.
Maximilian Voloshin's essay on Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (included in Liki tvorchestva, "The Faces of Creative Work") is entitled Apofeoz mechty ("The Apotheosis of Dream," 1904).
According to Ada, the Night of the Burning Barn (July 28? August 4?) is the apotheosis of "Ardis the First" (summer of 1884):
'All bright kids are depraved. I see you do recollect -'
'Not that particular occasion, but the apple tree, and when you kissed my neck, et tout le reste. And then - zdravstvuyte: apofeoz, the Night of the Burning Barn!' (1.8)
"Eve on the Clepsydrophone" showed a naked girl with a peach-like apple cupped in her half-raised hand sitting sideways on a convolvulus-garlanded support, and had for its discoverer the additional appeal of recalling Marina when, rung out of a hotel bathroom by the phone, and perched on the arm of a chair, she muffled the receiver while asking her lover something that he could not make out because the bath's voice drowned her whisper... Both men were a little drunk, and Demon secretly wondered if the rather banal resemblance of that Edenic girl to a young actress, whom his visitor had no doubt seen on the stage in 'Eugene and Lara' or 'Lenore Raven' (both painfully panned by a 'disgustingly incorruptible' young critic), should be, or would be, commented upon. It was not: such nymphs were really very much alike because of their elemental limpidity since the similarities of young bodies of water are but murmurs of natural innocence and double-talk mirrors, that's my hat, his is older, but we have the same London hatter. (1.2)
Soon after his duel with Baron d'Onsky Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father) married Marina's twin sister Aqua:
By April 10 it was Aqua who was nursing him, while Marina had flown back to her rehearsals of 'Lucile,' yet another execrable drama heading for yet another flop at the Ladore playhouse. (1.2)
In her memoir essay on Voloshin, Zhivoe o zhivom ("A Living Word about a Living Man," 1932), Marina Tsvetaev tells about Voloshin's attempts to draw her in a hoax: to create the twins of genius (brother and sister who write poetry):
А потом (совсем уж захлебнувшись) нет! зачем потом, сейчас же, одновременно с Петуховым мы создадим ещё поэта, - поэтессу или поэта? - и поэтессу и поэта, это будут близнецы, поэтические близнецы, Крюковы, скажем, брат и сестра. Мы создадим то, чего ещё не было, то есть гениальных близнецов.
At the beginning of essay Marina Tsvetaev expresses satisfaction that Voloshin (who says, in one of his poems, that he himself is fire) died in the middle of the summer (August 11, end of July by the Old Style), at noon, in his hour:
Одиннадцатого августа - в Коктебеле - в двенадцать часов пополудни - скончался поэт Максимилиан Волошин.
Первое, что я почувствовала, прочтя эти строки, было, после естественного удара смерти - удовлетворённость: в полдень: в свой час.
...Ибо сущность Волошина - полдневная, а полдень из всех часов суток - самый телесный, вещественный, с телами без теней и с телами, спящими без снов, а если их и видящими - то один сплошной сон земли. И, одновременно, самый магический, мифический и мистический час суток, такой же маго-мифо-мистический, как полночь. Час Великого Пана, Demon de Midi, и нашего скромного русского полуденного, о котором я в детстве, в Калужской губернии, своими ушами: "Ленка, идем купаться!" - "Не пойду-у: полуденный утащит". - Магия, мифика и мистика самой земли, самого земного состава.
Таково и творчество Волошина, в котором, по-женски-гениально-непосредственному слову поэтессы Аделаиды Герцык, меньше моря, чем материка, и больше берегов, чем реки.
According to the memoirist (who also mentions Demon de Midi), noon is an hour as mystical as midnight. Marina Tsvetaev quotes Adelaida Gertsyk, a poetess who said that in Voloshin's ouevre there is less sea than land and more banks than river (bol'she beregov, chem reki). Drugie berega ("Other Shores," 1954) is the title of the Russian version of VN's autobiography. Like Pushkin's Onegin, VN was born upon the Neva's banks (na bregakh Nevy). Horoscopically, Pushkin and Voloshin were bliznetsy (Gemini). On the other hand, Bliznets v tuchakh ("The Twin in Thunderclouds," 1914) is the title of one of the first collections of poetry of Pasternak. Pamyati Demona ("In Memory of Demon") is the opening poem of Pasternak's collection Sestra moya zhizn' ("My Sister Life," 1922). As he reads Van's palm, Demon tells him:
'What puzzles me as a palmist is the strange condition of the Sister of your Life. And the roughness!'
'Mascodagama,' whispered Van, raising his eyebrows. (1.38)
Van lies to his father that he had an affair with Rita, a Crimean cabaret dancer with whom his danced a tango on his hands:
'- Well, I'm resting after my torrid affair, in London, with my tango-partner whom you saw me dance with when you flew over for that last show - remember?' (ibid.)
After the Revolution Voloshin (whose first wife Margarita Sabashnikov is mentioned by Marina Tsvetaev in her memoir essay) lived in the Crimea (where VN met him in 1918) and died in his house in Koktebel (near Feodosia).
On Demonia (aka Antiterra, Earth's twin planet on which Ada is set) Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago (1957) is known as Les Amours du Docteur Mertvago, a mystical romance by a pastor (1.8), and Mertvago Forever (2.5).
with warmest thanks to Carolyn,
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/