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Fw: Fw: Amis quoting Nabokov
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Date
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Sergej Aksenov" <sa354@cam.ac.uk>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (56
lines) ------------------
> Hello,
>
> It seems to me that Amis's passage below echos a fragment from Nabokov's
> letter to his wife, dated February 20, 1937:
>
> "My dear love, vse Iriny mira bessilny... Vostochnaya storona kazhdoi moey
> minuty uzhe osveshena svetom nashei priblizhayusheysya vstrechi".
>
> My lame translation
>
> "My dear love, all Irinas of the world are powerless... The eastern side
of
> my every minute is already lit by the light of our approaching meeting".
>
> Source: Vladimir Nabokov. Selected Letters: 1940-1977. Ed. by D. Nabokov
> and M.J. Bruccoli. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Bruccoli Clark
> Layman, 1989, P. 19.
>
> This letter is probably translated into English in the above volume... I
> shamelessly copied the passage in Russian and reference from Yuri Leving's
> notes to Vesna v Fialte in Simposium's Collected Russian Works, Vol.4,
> P.774. His note is on the following passage from Vesna v Fialte, which he
> thinks is the source for the auto-citation in the letter:
>
> "Doma ya ostavil zhenu, detei: vsegda prisutstvuyushuyu na yasnom severe
> moego estestva, vsegda plyvushuyu ryadom so mnoi, dazhe skvoz menya, a
> vse-taki vne menya, sistemu schastya".
>
> My extremely lame translation
>
> "I left at home my wife, children, the ever present on the serene North of
> my essence, ever floating next to me, even through me, and yet outside of
> me -- system of happiness."
>
> Sergej
>
>
>
> On Jul 5 2003, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
>
> > EDNOTE. Can anyone identify the VN letter evoked below?
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Ludger Tolksdorf
> > To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> > Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 5:21 AM
> > Subject: Amis quoting Nabokov
> >
> >
> > 1) A passage from Martin Amis's Night Train (Jonathan Cape, 1997) seems
> > to remind me of a letter in Nabokov's Collected Letters. "The postmark
> > says Philadelphia, where Trader was attending a two-day conference on
> > 'The Mind and Physical Laws.' It's almost embarrassing: I can hardly
> > bring myself to quote from it. 'Already the eastern side of every moment
> > of mine is lit by you and the thought of tomorrow ...' I love you. I
miss
> > you. No. Jennifer Rockwell didn't have a problem with this boyfriend.
> > He's perfect. He's everything we all want." (p. 83)
From: "Sergej Aksenov" <sa354@cam.ac.uk>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (56
lines) ------------------
> Hello,
>
> It seems to me that Amis's passage below echos a fragment from Nabokov's
> letter to his wife, dated February 20, 1937:
>
> "My dear love, vse Iriny mira bessilny... Vostochnaya storona kazhdoi moey
> minuty uzhe osveshena svetom nashei priblizhayusheysya vstrechi".
>
> My lame translation
>
> "My dear love, all Irinas of the world are powerless... The eastern side
of
> my every minute is already lit by the light of our approaching meeting".
>
> Source: Vladimir Nabokov. Selected Letters: 1940-1977. Ed. by D. Nabokov
> and M.J. Bruccoli. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Bruccoli Clark
> Layman, 1989, P. 19.
>
> This letter is probably translated into English in the above volume... I
> shamelessly copied the passage in Russian and reference from Yuri Leving's
> notes to Vesna v Fialte in Simposium's Collected Russian Works, Vol.4,
> P.774. His note is on the following passage from Vesna v Fialte, which he
> thinks is the source for the auto-citation in the letter:
>
> "Doma ya ostavil zhenu, detei: vsegda prisutstvuyushuyu na yasnom severe
> moego estestva, vsegda plyvushuyu ryadom so mnoi, dazhe skvoz menya, a
> vse-taki vne menya, sistemu schastya".
>
> My extremely lame translation
>
> "I left at home my wife, children, the ever present on the serene North of
> my essence, ever floating next to me, even through me, and yet outside of
> me -- system of happiness."
>
> Sergej
>
>
>
> On Jul 5 2003, D. Barton Johnson wrote:
>
> > EDNOTE. Can anyone identify the VN letter evoked below?
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Ludger Tolksdorf
> > To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> > Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 5:21 AM
> > Subject: Amis quoting Nabokov
> >
> >
> > 1) A passage from Martin Amis's Night Train (Jonathan Cape, 1997) seems
> > to remind me of a letter in Nabokov's Collected Letters. "The postmark
> > says Philadelphia, where Trader was attending a two-day conference on
> > 'The Mind and Physical Laws.' It's almost embarrassing: I can hardly
> > bring myself to quote from it. 'Already the eastern side of every moment
> > of mine is lit by you and the thought of tomorrow ...' I love you. I
miss
> > you. No. Jennifer Rockwell didn't have a problem with this boyfriend.
> > He's perfect. He's everything we all want." (p. 83)