Subject
Basilevski & Atropovich in LATH
From
Date
Body
"To have touched Violin for so many years
And not recognize the Strings in light!"
Are these lines from Annenski's "The Bow and the Strings" a clue to LATH? The first three of Vadim's three or four successive wives (Iris Black, Annette Blagovo, Louise Adamson) are really his sisters (see D. B. Johnson's article "The Ambidextrous Universe of LATH"), but Vadim never realizes it! According to Hodasevich, Andrey Bely's tragedy was that he was in love with Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok (Shch. in Bely's memoirs) who reciprocated his feelings but refused to leave her husband saying, in a letter to Bely, that she loved her husband with a sister's love. On the other hand, in his poem Angel-khranitel' ("The Guardian Angel", 1906) Blok calls his wife sestra, i nevesta, i doch' (my sister, and bride, and daughter):
Люблю Тебя, Ангел-Хранитель во мгле.
Во мгле, что со мною всегда на земле.
За то, что ты светлой невестой была,
За то, что ты тайну мою отняла.
За то, что связала нас тайна и ночь,
Что ты мне сестра, и невеста, и дочь.
За то, что нам долгая жизнь суждена,
О, даже за то, что мы - муж и жена!
I love You, My Guardian Angel, in gloom.
In gloom, that has followed me out of the womb.
Because you were once my fair gorgeous bride.
Because you have seen all the secrets I hide.
Because we are bound by secrets and night.
Because you’re my sister, my daughter, my bride.
Because we are destined to live a long life,
And more so, because we are - husband and wife!
Vadim's second wife, Annette Blagovo, is the mother of Bel, Vadim's daughter with whom he almost falls in love.
Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok was Mendeleev's daughter. Kalikakov (a Soviet spy mentioned in my previous post) also reminds one of kaliy (potassium, a metallic element in Mendeleev's periodic system). In one of his pallid poems the critic Georgiy Adamovich (VN's faithful Zoilus) famously mentions tsianistyi kaliy (potassium cyanide):
Куртку потёртую с беличьим мехом
Как мне забыть?
Голос ленивый небесным ли эхом
Мне заглушить?
Ночью настойчиво бьётся ненастье
В шаткую дверь,
Гасит свечу... Мое бедное счастье,
Где ты теперь?
Имя тебе непонятное дали,
Ты - забытьё.
Или, точнее, цианистый калий -
Имя твоё.
(...You were given an unintelligible name,
you are the oblivion.
Or, rather, your name is
potassium cyanide.)
In LATH Adamovich's personality is split between two critics: Basilevski (Vadim Vadimovich's faithful Zoilus who follows him to America) and Adam Atropovich (the unforgettable leader of the talented, illiterate, intuitive new critics). While Basilevski hints at Vasiliev (in The Gift, a fat old journalist who writes in Gazeta), Atropovich comes from Atropos, the Fate who cuts the thread of life.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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And not recognize the Strings in light!"
Are these lines from Annenski's "The Bow and the Strings" a clue to LATH? The first three of Vadim's three or four successive wives (Iris Black, Annette Blagovo, Louise Adamson) are really his sisters (see D. B. Johnson's article "The Ambidextrous Universe of LATH"), but Vadim never realizes it! According to Hodasevich, Andrey Bely's tragedy was that he was in love with Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok (Shch. in Bely's memoirs) who reciprocated his feelings but refused to leave her husband saying, in a letter to Bely, that she loved her husband with a sister's love. On the other hand, in his poem Angel-khranitel' ("The Guardian Angel", 1906) Blok calls his wife sestra, i nevesta, i doch' (my sister, and bride, and daughter):
Люблю Тебя, Ангел-Хранитель во мгле.
Во мгле, что со мною всегда на земле.
За то, что ты светлой невестой была,
За то, что ты тайну мою отняла.
За то, что связала нас тайна и ночь,
Что ты мне сестра, и невеста, и дочь.
За то, что нам долгая жизнь суждена,
О, даже за то, что мы - муж и жена!
I love You, My Guardian Angel, in gloom.
In gloom, that has followed me out of the womb.
Because you were once my fair gorgeous bride.
Because you have seen all the secrets I hide.
Because we are bound by secrets and night.
Because you’re my sister, my daughter, my bride.
Because we are destined to live a long life,
And more so, because we are - husband and wife!
Vadim's second wife, Annette Blagovo, is the mother of Bel, Vadim's daughter with whom he almost falls in love.
Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok was Mendeleev's daughter. Kalikakov (a Soviet spy mentioned in my previous post) also reminds one of kaliy (potassium, a metallic element in Mendeleev's periodic system). In one of his pallid poems the critic Georgiy Adamovich (VN's faithful Zoilus) famously mentions tsianistyi kaliy (potassium cyanide):
Куртку потёртую с беличьим мехом
Как мне забыть?
Голос ленивый небесным ли эхом
Мне заглушить?
Ночью настойчиво бьётся ненастье
В шаткую дверь,
Гасит свечу... Мое бедное счастье,
Где ты теперь?
Имя тебе непонятное дали,
Ты - забытьё.
Или, точнее, цианистый калий -
Имя твоё.
(...You were given an unintelligible name,
you are the oblivion.
Or, rather, your name is
potassium cyanide.)
In LATH Adamovich's personality is split between two critics: Basilevski (Vadim Vadimovich's faithful Zoilus who follows him to America) and Adam Atropovich (the unforgettable leader of the talented, illiterate, intuitive new critics). While Basilevski hints at Vasiliev (in The Gift, a fat old journalist who writes in Gazeta), Atropovich comes from Atropos, the Fate who cuts the thread of life.
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/