Subject
syllogism in Pale Fire
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Date
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A syllogism: other men die; but I
Am not another; therefore I'll not die. (Pale Fire, Canto Two, lines 213-14)
Cf. Tynyanov, Pushkin, Part Two: Lyceum, Chapter Three: "The Cahier of Aleksandr Petrovich Kunitsyn:"
Кажется, им забавно самое содержание силлогизмов, например: <Все люди смертны, господин N - человек, следственно, г. N - смертен>. Слишком простая истина, что г. N - человек, вызвала у Пушкина улыбку. (The very subject matter of syllogisms seems to amuse them, as for example: "All men are mortal, Mr. N is a man, ergo Mr. N is mortal." The too simple fact ["truth"] that Mr. N is a man made Pushkin smile.)
In a discarded variant Shade writes: I like my name: Shade, Ombre, almost 'man' / In Spanish...
Shade is almost man (as his name suggests). Similarly, young Pushkin questions the too simple fact that Mr. N is a man. If Mr. N is not a man, he is not mortal. Perhaps, Shade won't die after all?
In his great mature poem "Ya pamyatnik sebe vozdvig..." ("Exegi Monumentum," 1836) Pushkin claims: Net, ves' ya ne umru. Dusha v zavetnoy lire / moy prakh perezhivyot i tlen'ya ubezhit ("No, I'll not wholly die. My soul in the sacred lyre / is to survive my dust and flee decay"). All men die. But poets like Pushkin and Nabokov are not like all other men. They do not wholly die. At least a part of them survives.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Am not another; therefore I'll not die. (Pale Fire, Canto Two, lines 213-14)
Cf. Tynyanov, Pushkin, Part Two: Lyceum, Chapter Three: "The Cahier of Aleksandr Petrovich Kunitsyn:"
Кажется, им забавно самое содержание силлогизмов, например: <Все люди смертны, господин N - человек, следственно, г. N - смертен>. Слишком простая истина, что г. N - человек, вызвала у Пушкина улыбку. (The very subject matter of syllogisms seems to amuse them, as for example: "All men are mortal, Mr. N is a man, ergo Mr. N is mortal." The too simple fact ["truth"] that Mr. N is a man made Pushkin smile.)
In a discarded variant Shade writes: I like my name: Shade, Ombre, almost 'man' / In Spanish...
Shade is almost man (as his name suggests). Similarly, young Pushkin questions the too simple fact that Mr. N is a man. If Mr. N is not a man, he is not mortal. Perhaps, Shade won't die after all?
In his great mature poem "Ya pamyatnik sebe vozdvig..." ("Exegi Monumentum," 1836) Pushkin claims: Net, ves' ya ne umru. Dusha v zavetnoy lire / moy prakh perezhivyot i tlen'ya ubezhit ("No, I'll not wholly die. My soul in the sacred lyre / is to survive my dust and flee decay"). All men die. But poets like Pushkin and Nabokov are not like all other men. They do not wholly die. At least a part of them survives.
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
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/