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Re: THOUGHTS: Derzhavin's Acrostic
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Re: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS: Derzhavin's AcrosticAccidental acrostrich is as strange and wonderful a bird, as doubtful asphodel is a flower. But, I confess, I too miss the point of DN's joke (or his serious remark, what do I know?). Does he think that there is an acrostic (or a beginning of the acrostic) in Derzhavin's last poem or that there is none?
Ruina chti meaning "the ruin of glory" is, of course, total nonsense. In its singular, not necessarily archaic, form (which happens to be the word's plural form in Latin), ruina can mean "artificial ruin", a building or monument that was purposedly made to look like a ruin (cf. iskusstvennaya ruina, the two arch-connected towers flanking the road in the Alexandrovskiy Park of Tsarskoe Selo, or ruina of the Gedaechtnis Kirche in Berlin). In the graveyard poetry, ruiny ("ruins") are a symbol of cemetry. Derzhavin was a half-Tartar, who had a peculiar ear for harmony. I think he could have used the word ruina in the sense "tombstone", "graveyard monument". Ruina chti looks to me like a beginning of a phrase. Ostanki Derzhavina ("the remains of Derzhavin") comes most naturally as its continuation, at the same time providing convenient letters to start new lines with them. If I had VN's talent of stylization, I might have attempted to complete Derzhavin's poem myself (but I would have tempted to substitute "Sklyarenko" for "Derzhavina", for my name, written in Cyrillic, also has nine characters, just like the name "Derzhavin" in Genitive).
By the way, there is Ruinen, a town in the Neverlands, in ADA (2.3). Apart from being the German word for "ruins", its name hints at Rouen, Flaubert's home town, and ryuen', the old Russian name of September (see my article on Turgenev in Zembla).
Yesterday, my English (but not me!) nemnogo podgulyal (was kind of tipsy). Sorry. "Was influenced" should be "was inspired" and several other corrections and improvements could be made.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Ruina chti meaning "the ruin of glory" is, of course, total nonsense. In its singular, not necessarily archaic, form (which happens to be the word's plural form in Latin), ruina can mean "artificial ruin", a building or monument that was purposedly made to look like a ruin (cf. iskusstvennaya ruina, the two arch-connected towers flanking the road in the Alexandrovskiy Park of Tsarskoe Selo, or ruina of the Gedaechtnis Kirche in Berlin). In the graveyard poetry, ruiny ("ruins") are a symbol of cemetry. Derzhavin was a half-Tartar, who had a peculiar ear for harmony. I think he could have used the word ruina in the sense "tombstone", "graveyard monument". Ruina chti looks to me like a beginning of a phrase. Ostanki Derzhavina ("the remains of Derzhavin") comes most naturally as its continuation, at the same time providing convenient letters to start new lines with them. If I had VN's talent of stylization, I might have attempted to complete Derzhavin's poem myself (but I would have tempted to substitute "Sklyarenko" for "Derzhavina", for my name, written in Cyrillic, also has nine characters, just like the name "Derzhavin" in Genitive).
By the way, there is Ruinen, a town in the Neverlands, in ADA (2.3). Apart from being the German word for "ruins", its name hints at Rouen, Flaubert's home town, and ryuen', the old Russian name of September (see my article on Turgenev in Zembla).
Yesterday, my English (but not me!) nemnogo podgulyal (was kind of tipsy). Sorry. "Was influenced" should be "was inspired" and several other corrections and improvements could be made.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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/