Subject
Re: THOUGHTS: Derzhavin's Acrostic
From
Date
Body
Dmitri: Tushé! On nas pogubit!
(He¹ll be the ruin of us!)
On a linguistic point: although only the plural ruini [fem.] survives in
everyday Russian (presumably meaning both ruin and ruins in context),
there¹s a real case to be made for an original, archaic singular ruina,
quite capable of being resurrected by a playful POET such as Derzhavin. We
must not be slaves to the slovar¹? Most languages have singular [peculiar!]
plurals: trousers, scissors ... KUDOS (as in ³kudos *were not abundant in
the Nemser article.² * one kudo, two kudos! Some insist on two kudoi, others
kudea)
Who will now claim PRIORITY in discovering this NON-acrostic?
³As I was scanning Derzhavin¹s verse, I met an acrostic that wasn¹t there.
³It wasn¹t there again today; I wish to God it would go away.²
CTaH
On 26/02/2009 19:28, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
> Subject:
> Re: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS: Derzhavin's acrostic (was "New Republic" etc)
> From:
> Dmitri Nabokov
>
> Date:
> Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:33:55 +0100
> To:
> Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
> <mailto:NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
>
> "Accidential acrostrich", whether sharp, flat, honored, read, or ruined must
> have been doubtful nightingale even to Derzhavin's ear. Sorry, DN
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] (corrected version of previous mail)
>> Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:14:39 +0100 (CET)
>> From: soloviev@irit.fr
>> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
>> <mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
>>
>>
>> I should notice (for all our "amateurs" of acrostichs etc) that
>> in this case the acrostich is not perfect from the point of view
>> of a russian reader - it looks doubtful even that Derzhavin was
>> conscious that it is there. "Ruinu chti" would be more convincing. 1)
>> "Ruina" is not russian word; 2)in the expression "ruina chti"
>> it means rather "ruin read this"; 3) "chtit" ("pochitat") may mean also
>> "honor", and "ruinU chti" may mean "honor the destruction",
>> but then actual "ruina" is not right declination; 4) eight lines
>> is very short poem, and an approximative acrostich with doubtful
>> meaning may very well be accidential.
>>
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(He¹ll be the ruin of us!)
On a linguistic point: although only the plural ruini [fem.] survives in
everyday Russian (presumably meaning both ruin and ruins in context),
there¹s a real case to be made for an original, archaic singular ruina,
quite capable of being resurrected by a playful POET such as Derzhavin. We
must not be slaves to the slovar¹? Most languages have singular [peculiar!]
plurals: trousers, scissors ... KUDOS (as in ³kudos *were not abundant in
the Nemser article.² * one kudo, two kudos! Some insist on two kudoi, others
kudea)
Who will now claim PRIORITY in discovering this NON-acrostic?
³As I was scanning Derzhavin¹s verse, I met an acrostic that wasn¹t there.
³It wasn¹t there again today; I wish to God it would go away.²
CTaH
On 26/02/2009 19:28, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
> Subject:
> Re: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS: Derzhavin's acrostic (was "New Republic" etc)
> From:
> Dmitri Nabokov
>
> Date:
> Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:33:55 +0100
> To:
> Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
> <mailto:NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
>
> "Accidential acrostrich", whether sharp, flat, honored, read, or ruined must
> have been doubtful nightingale even to Derzhavin's ear. Sorry, DN
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] (corrected version of previous mail)
>> Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:14:39 +0100 (CET)
>> From: soloviev@irit.fr
>> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
>> <mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
>>
>>
>> I should notice (for all our "amateurs" of acrostichs etc) that
>> in this case the acrostich is not perfect from the point of view
>> of a russian reader - it looks doubtful even that Derzhavin was
>> conscious that it is there. "Ruinu chti" would be more convincing. 1)
>> "Ruina" is not russian word; 2)in the expression "ruina chti"
>> it means rather "ruin read this"; 3) "chtit" ("pochitat") may mean also
>> "honor", and "ruinU chti" may mean "honor the destruction",
>> but then actual "ruina" is not right declination; 4) eight lines
>> is very short poem, and an approximative acrostich with doubtful
>> meaning may very well be accidential.
>>
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