Dear Hafid,
Thanks for your comments. I confess, I know
very little about women's habits and peculiarities. Here is the
stanza's rough translation. There are a lot of people on the List who could do
it better and faster and I sort of hoped they would come to my
rescue.
He reached out his hand - the hand
touched the wall; reached out another
and gently felt for the toe of a little shoe.
Then he clasped a little foot, but what kind
of foot it was?!
This foot seemed so
diminutive,
so tender and soft that he
involuntarily wondered,
if he hadn't hurt
it.
In the meantime, his hand is
traveling upwards,
Here is a round little
knee... and here,
Here - but why do you laugh
beforehand? -
Here it found itself on the twin hill...
It is interesting to compare the manipulations
described in this stanza to those in the debauche à trois
scene in Ada (2.8).
As to Carolyn's quiz, my guess is Bunin.
Btw., an oriole (ivolga) also appears in one of his poems (like VN, I
prefer Bunin's poetry to his "velvet" prose).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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