Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0025649, Thu, 28 Aug 2014 01:52:17 +0300

Subject
Chose University in Ada
Date
Body
Van's and Demon's alma mater, Chose University seems to correspond to our world's Cambridge, VN's and Byron's University. A student of Cambridge, Byron ("a lame beau who takes with him a young tame Moscow bear and who sobs out verses about cypresses") appears in VN's drama in blank verse Smert' ("Death," 1923):

Один описывал со вкусом,
как давеча он ловко ударял
ладонью мяч об каменные стенки;
другой втыкал сухие замечанья
о книгах, им прочитанных, о цифрах
заученных, но жёлчно замолчал,
когда вошёл мой третий гость — красавец
хромой,— ведя ручного медвежонка
московского,— и цепью зверь ни разу
не громыхнул, пока его хозяин,
на стол поставив локти и к прозрачным
вискам прижав манжеты кружевные,
выплакивал стихи о кипарисах. (Act Two)

On his deathbed Byron (who had a daughter named Ada) said: Jo lascio qualche cosa di саrо nel mondo (It., "I leave in this world something dear to me").* In French qualche cosa means quelque chose.

See also my recent post "sweethearts & vodka in Ada."

Btw., what makes Nina Berberova, the author of Kursiv moy ("The Italics are Mine," an autobiography), say that in his review of Peshchera ("The Cave") VN ridicules Aldanov?

*see Vinogradov, Byron (1936)

Alexey Sklyarenko

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