No need to remind most of you of this, but today
(July 2) is the 30th anniversary of Nabokov's death. Not knowing how to
commemorate the event, I decided to reread a few poems from the plump volume
Stikhotvoreniia i poemy ("Poems and Long Poems", Moscow, 1991). I
opened the book at random and saw the poem Godovshchina ("The
Anniversary," 1926, "V te dni, dai Bog, ot kraiu i do kraiu..."), in which
the lines occur:
The transient poets, we shall sleep;
I, for instance, who in a
chance combat was touched by an angel
and have returned to the home
dust,
shall sleep perfectly.
Please excuse the poor translation.
Alexey Sklyarenko