‘Leur chute est lente,’ said Van,
‘on peut les suivre du regard en
reconnaissant — that paraphrastic touch of "chopper" and "mud" is, of
course, pure Lowden (minor poet and translator, 1815–1895). (1.20)
Lowden was born in 1815. In 1815 Delvig wrote his poem
To Pushkin ("He - a swan born in blooming Ausonia...") and Napoleon
lost the battle of Waterloo.
Lowden died in 1895. 1895 is the year of d'Anthès' death.
D'Anthès was born in 1812, the year of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. In
1837 Lermontov (the author of Smert' poeta, "The Poet's Death," 1837)
wrote Borodino. Like Pushkin (1799-1837), Lermontov (1814-41) was
killed in a duel.
According to VN, mistranslation of innocent dead poets was
their second murder.
Alexey Sklyarenko