JM: Jorge Luis Borges once stated that he considered
himself lucky by not knowing Greek, for he would read The
Odyssey through versions in which
every translator revealed something different
about Homer: "it was as if he'd acquired not only one book, but an
entire library" - thus confirming Walter Benjamin's assessment,
namely, that the original literary text is only "a first manifestation"
that demands different interpretations and further versions ( cf.
"Angelus Novus").
I speak no Russian but, fortunately, my translation of
"Dar" is by Michael Scammell in collaboration with Vladimir Nabokov.
Unfortunately, though, I got no other translations in other
languages, but this one in English.
Very partial excerpts from one of the entries for "The Gift" after clicking
Y.Leving's online concordance:
July 12th, 1900: Fyodor’s date of birth (G12)
" It appears that the biography of Chernyshevski is written in a
circular fashion much like The Gift; the biography ends with N. Chernyshevski’s
birth and the mention of his death and arrest occurs before it actually happens.
Also, there seems to be some symbolism in the dates. Both Fyodor’s and
Chernyshevksi’s birthdays are the same, and particular emphasized dates coincide
with key moments in Russian history i.e. 1917 and the Bolshevik revolution, 1861
and the emancipation of the serfs, etc. Also, certain dates seem to be repeated
a lot i.e. the month April or January is repeated often, the number 4 comes up a
lot in the dates (or even numbers especially those divisible by 4), the year
1919 and years in the 1850s or 1860s are mentioned frequently. However, deeper
analysis needs to be taken in order to legitimize these connections and to
elucidate new ones. See also: A.A. Dolinin, "Nabokov's time doubling: from The
Gift to Lolita." Nabokov Studies (2) 1995, 3-40."
I was curious to read that "Both Fyodor’s and Chernyshevksi’s
birthdays are the same." In "Pale Fire" John Shade, C.Kinbote and
Gradus share birthdays in July 5. There are other
matched birth-dates in PF - and we know VN was fascinated by numbers (
0-1-2...n; 1-2...n ), including his childhood's confusion related to
his brother's age( SN was born in the XXth Century). There are Van's two
birthdays in January 1 and July worth checking into.
Would any invariant element, present in "Dar's" July 12
choice, reappear in Pale Fire?
Whimsically counting lines in PF, trying to discover
novel symmetries in the first and last Cantos (like
those in Two and Three, with their identical length and covering
27 cards each*), I concluded that Shade's eighty cards imply
he employed 26 cards to write I and IV,
with their 166/165 lines, at the pace of 55 lines a day.
The total of 26 for both Cantos is almost comparable to the 27
cards for Cantos 2 and 3) - take or leave one.
Besides, Canto I is one line longer than my counting by
averages suggests ( I'm lousy with numbers, though).
Kinbote's
commentaries, on Canto Three, court strange Kinbotean
cross-references (not tautologies, but tautology seems to lurk in them) on
Line 501 [ L´if...The yew in
French. It is curious that the Zemblan word for the weeping willow is also "if" (the yew is tas)]
After
this there are two other entries, both for line 502.
The rest gets
no more comments, since CK skips to Line 549 [
on the big G and "the Gist of the matter" (original
sin)], written already in July 13.
The
uncommented lines written in July 12 describe how Shade'd been engaged
for a term to "lecture on the Worm," moving to Yewshade with little Hazel
and Sybil towareds a "higher state". It is when he expresses the most
tender recollections of his wife, together with his darkest forebodings
about "a boundless void" and a "task unfinished" (line 544).
The circularity of foreshadowed death, birth and a putative
rebirth, are ever present themes since the first line. It comes through in
Canto Two (started on the poet's birthday) by a description of his courting and marriage leading
to encompass Hazel's span of life. If "Pale Fire" is as carefully planned as Kinbote often affirms,
Shade's death is part of the structure of PF (just like Gradus).
This led me to T.S.Eliot's "Four Quartets": "The
end is where we start from..../ Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a
beginning,/ Every poem an epitaph..."**.
Would
Chernyshevski's July birthday have influenced all the other July choices?
If so, why?
C
onsidering VN's fascination with continuities,cesurae, cause and
effect, numbers and (+1), I note that that January is the first
month in a semester and July, the first in the second.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* Kinbote (Foreword) informs that
Pale Fire "is a poem in heroic couplets, of nine hundred
ninety-nine lines, divided into four cantos" and that his author (born
July 5, 1898, died July 21, 1959) wrote them "during the
last twenty days of his life ... in the small hours of July
2."
"He started the next canto on his birthday and
finished it on July 11. Another week was devoted to Canto Three.Canto Four was
begun on July 19." (:Canto Three seems to have begun in July 12 and finished in July
18, and its verses are numbered from lines 501 to 834.)
** - T.S.Eliot's
Four Quartets: In No.1, the first lines are: "Time present and time past/ Are
both perhaps present in time future,/And time future contained in time
past." In No. 4 we
find: "Midwinter spring is its own season/Sempiternal though sodden towards
sundown,/Suspended in time, between pole and tropic [...] Later: What we call
the beginning is often the end/ And to make and end is to make a beginning./ The
end is where we start from..../ Every phrase and every sentence is an end and
a beginning,/ Every poem an
epitaph..."