Congratulations, Jansy (if I may?), you touched upon a very important and almost unexplored subject: Russian poetry allusions in Shade's "Pale Fire." Beside the allusion to "The Prophet" you pinpointed there are at least two other ones to Pushkin: "Father Time, all gray" (cf.: "Iamshchik likhoi, sedoe vremia") and "consonne / D'appui, Echo's fey child" (cf. Pushkin's poem "The Rhyme" (1830) in which the nymph Echo gives birth to a "fey child" Rhyme), one to Tiutchev ("Hebe's Cup") and probably some more I missed. Together with the obvious allusions to Tolstoy (" Death of Ivan Il'ich") and Dostoevsky, they form an interesting Russian background in the seemingly American poem and reveal the presence of the bilingual author.
As for "The Prophet" itself, it refers not to the Revelation but, as Pushkin scholars demonstrated long time ago, to the Book of Isaiah, 6:
"Above it [Lord's Throne] stood the seraphims: each one had six wings ... Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand ... And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. And I heard the voice of the Lord ... And he said, Go and tell this people..."
There are other Biblical and non-Biblical sources too, but this one is central.

Alexander Dolinin

At 11:27 AM 9/16/05 -0700, you wrote:


----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
    Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 07:27:32 -0300
    From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
 Subject: Fw: translation/ Pushkin
      To: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu

A recording in VN´s voice had been available in the internet. It could even have
been in Zembla. I´m certain others will remember it to offer you the address.

I would like to connect Pushkin´s poem "Prorok" to a line in Pale Fire (Canto 2)
 in which VN speaks of a six winged seraph.
I´ve been working on the "in a glass, darkly" biblical reference and now I
discovered a whole series of links with Revelations 4.
Paintings with those "flamingo winged seraphs" can be found in a book:
"Revelations - Art of the Apocalypse" (Nancy Grubb,Abbeville Press) but only if
one is really looking after them.  It is a peculiarity of "seraphs" that one,
having six wings. Cherubs and Angels have them in a different count...  There
is also a Ieronimusch Bosch Triptych, not the one several scholars studied in
connection with ADA ( "The Garden of Earthly delights" ) but "The Last
Judgement" .
The six winged seraphs of Revelations 4 were there described as "Beasts" and
interpreted as the Four evangelists ( Lion, Eagle...) or the various tribes of
Judah.

These four winged beasts, once we know that, are to be seen in Hans Memling´s
"Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos", but not in "flamingo wings". But in
various places they are red ( Jacquemart de Hesdin, Psalms of Penitence. Christ
in Majesty, Book of Hours... and that makes sense! Not only "hours" and time,
but The Majestic Look...)
Christ in Majesty and the Four Evangelists  that is also suggestive is in the
Westminster Psalter, at the British Library.

Carolyn told me about Pushkin´s poem. She said that the words "six wingued
seraphs" sounds very beautiful in Russian.
Could you find it in Russian for me in case I add Pushkin as a reference, beside
the Apocalypse? ( P.Meyer only wrote about "Revelations"  indirectly, by Alpha
and Omega and
concerning Apocalypse, quoting the word from Wordsworth)
Jansy




----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2005 3:54 AM
Subject: translation


Box #2 is out of reach without a lot of work, so I found this one on the
internet (I changed it a little):

The Prophet

Parched with the spirit's thirst, I crossed
An endless desert sunk in gloom,
And where the tracks met and I stood lost.
A six-winged seraph came to me.

Fingers light as dream he laid
Upon my lids; I opened wide
My eagle eyes, and gazed around.

He laid his fingers on my ears
And they with roaring sound were filled:
The music of the spheres I heard,
The flight of angels through the skies,
The beasts that creap beneath the sea,
The heady uprush of the vine.

Then like a lover kissing me,
He tore at and removed my tongue
Fluent in lies and vanity;
Then tore my fainting lips apart
And, with his right hand steeped in blood,
He armed me with a serpent's dart.

With his bright sword then he split my breast;
And tore from thence the pulsing heart;
A glowing livid coal he thrust
Into the empty place where once it beat.

I lay there in that desert, dead,
And God called out to me and said:
'Arise my prophet,  and hear, and see,
And by those who have turned aside from me,
Let my works be seen and heard
And with thy fiery words set them aflame.'

1827




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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----- End forwarded message -----
Dear Don
 
A recording in VN´s voice had been available in the internet. It could even have been in Zembla. I´m certain others will remember it to offer you the address.
 
I would like to connect Pushkin´s poem "Prorok" to a line in Pale Fire (Canto 2)  in which VN speaks of a six winged seraph.
I´ve been working on the "in a glass, darkly" biblical reference and now I discovered a whole series of links with Revelations 4. 
Paintings with those "flamingo winged seraphs" can be found in a book: "Revelations - Art of the Apocalypse" (Nancy Grubb,Abbeville Press) but only if one is really looking after them.  It is a peculiarity of "seraphs" that one, having six wings. Cherubs and Angels have them in a different count...  There is also a Ieronimusch Bosch Triptych, not the one several scholars studied in connection with ADA ( "The Garden of Earthly delights" ) but "The Last Judgement" .
The six winged seraphs of Revelations 4 were there described as "Beasts" and interpreted as the Four evangelists ( Lion, Eagle...) or the various tribes of Judah.
 
These four winged beasts, once we know that, are to be seen in Hans Memling´s "Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos", but not in "flamingo wings". But in various places they are red ( Jacquemart de Hesdin, Psalms of Penitence. Christ in Majesty, Book of Hours... and that makes sense! Not only "hours" and time, but The Majestic Look...)
Christ in Majesty and the Four Evangelists  that is also suggestive is in the Westminster Psalter, at the British Library.
 
Carolyn told me about Pushkin´s poem. She said that the words "six wingued seraphs" sounds very beautiful in Russian.
Could you find it in Russian for me in case I add Pushkin as a reference, beside the Apocalypse? ( P.Meyer only wrote about "Revelations"  indirectly, by Alpha and Omega and  
concerning Apocalypse, quoting the word from Wordsworth)
Jansy
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2005 3:54 AM
Subject: translation

Box #2 is out of reach without a lot of work, so I found this one on the internet (I changed it a little):

The Prophet
 
Parched with the spirit's thirst, I crossed
An endless desert sunk in gloom,
And where the tracks met and I stood lost.
A six-winged seraph came to me.

Fingers light as dream he laid
Upon my lids; I opened wide
My eagle eyes, and gazed around.

He laid his fingers on my ears
And they with roaring sound were filled:
The music of the spheres I heard,
The flight of angels through the skies,
The beasts that creap beneath the sea,
The heady uprush of the vine.

Then like a lover kissing me,
He tore at and removed my tongue
Fluent in lies and vanity;
Then tore my fainting lips apart
And, with his right hand steeped in blood,
He armed me with a serpent's dart.

With his bright sword then he split my breast;
And tore from thence the pulsing heart;
A glowing livid coal he thrust
Into the empty place where once it beat.

I lay there in that desert, dead,
And God called out to me and said:
'Arise my prophet,  and hear, and see,
And by those who have turned aside from me,
Let my works be seen and heard
And with thy fiery words set them aflame.'
 
1827
 
 

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.12/75 - Release Date: 17/8/2005