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[NABOKOV-L] Continuation: Khodasevich, Pale Fire, Monkeys
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Still related to Hafid's link to http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/fraz1.htm (A Note on Pale Fire and Khodasevich's "Ballada" by Kevin Frazier) and still intrigued by a recollection of its "sky made of stucco, at a sixty-watt sun in that sky,"as having re-appeared in another context, I investigated what might have been the reference I had in mind.
VN's poem, "The Room," from "The New Yorker" archives ( May 13, 1950) carries no stuccoed sky and electric suns in it, although there's a dialogue with a dead poet and a room with mirror. The search must go on and help is welcome.
I reproduce again "The Room's" first, and some additional lines:
The room a dying poet took......
.........................
It had a mirror and a chair,
it had a window and a bed,
its ribs let in the darkness where
rain glistened and a shop sign bled.
..........................
Soon afterward the room was mine.
A similar striped cageling, I
groped for the lamp and found the line
"Alone, unknown, unloved, I die"
In pencil, just above the bed.
It had a false quotation air.
........................................
Perhaps my text is incomplete.
A poet's death is, after all,
a question of technique, a net
enjambement, a melodic fall...
Kevin Frazier wrote that the translation of 'Ballada' "appeared along with his translations of two other Khodasevich poems in New Directions in Prose and Poetry. Contrary to his later practice, Nabokov wrote a relatively free rhyming translation of "Ballada." He switched the English title of the poem, for instance, to "Orpheus" and changed the meaning of the original poem in many small ways throughout."
Its first lines are:
Brightly lit from above I am sitting
in my circular room; this is I--
looking up at a sky made of stucco,
at a sixty-watt sun in that sky.
All around me, and also lit brightly,
all around me my furniture stands,
chair and table and bed--and I wonder
sitting there what to do with my hands.
The closing lines are:
And the sixty-watt sun has now vanished,
and away the false heavens are blown:
on the smoothness of glossy black boulders
this is Orpheus standing alone.
Frazier compares "Ballada" and "Pale Fire" because he finds they share certain traits: a. Both poems begin in rooms with artificial skies. b. Both artificial skies suggest an entry to death or some form of afterlife. c. Both poems make the room furniture part of the pattern of the artificial entry to the other world. d. Both poems blend images of snow, frost, or glass playing off of each other. Frazier adds that "More importantly, lines 146-156 of Pale Fire expand on Khodasevich's description of the poet growing out of himself " and he sees that such similarities "involve the possibility of a ghost or spirit from the afterworld or another realm communicating with a writer... In "Ballada," the poet begins to talk with himself in verse. This brings about a visit from another world."
For Frazier, "the theme of the dead communicating with the living is a large part of Pale Fire, and the references to "Ballada" are part of this theme." For him, the "use of "Ballada" in Pale Fire suggests that "in some ways the literary relationship between Shade and Kinbote might be a parody of the literary relationship between Khodasevich and Nabokov [and] the Kinbote-Shade connection might burlesque the (largely unknown) way that Khodasevich and Nabokov felt about each other." Frazier notes that "Nabokov had already described a fictional literary relationship that was in some ways inspired by his relationship with Khodasevich, in the form of the (imaginary) conversations between Koncheyev and Fyodor in The Gift." and quotes Nabokov's Strong Opinons (p.226) "I find it odd myself that in this article, in this rapid inventory of thoughts prompted by Hodasevich's death, I seem to imply a vague non-recognition of his genius and engage in vague polemics with such phantoms as would question the enchantment and importance of his poetry." Nabokov, "On Hodasevich."
To complete the associations bt. Khodasevich and Nabokov, or emphasizing the theme of "translation/monkey," once again, here are a few lines from Nabokov's poem which he dedicated to Pushkin:
"What is translation? On a platter
A poet's pale and glaring head.
A parrot's screech, a monkey's chatter,
And profanation of the dead."
NB: All the quotes are available at their source, often in the Nab-L archives too. I simply placed them on view, side by side, for the Nab-Lister's comfort.
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Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
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VN's poem, "The Room," from "The New Yorker" archives ( May 13, 1950) carries no stuccoed sky and electric suns in it, although there's a dialogue with a dead poet and a room with mirror. The search must go on and help is welcome.
I reproduce again "The Room's" first, and some additional lines:
The room a dying poet took......
.........................
It had a mirror and a chair,
it had a window and a bed,
its ribs let in the darkness where
rain glistened and a shop sign bled.
..........................
Soon afterward the room was mine.
A similar striped cageling, I
groped for the lamp and found the line
"Alone, unknown, unloved, I die"
In pencil, just above the bed.
It had a false quotation air.
........................................
Perhaps my text is incomplete.
A poet's death is, after all,
a question of technique, a net
enjambement, a melodic fall...
Kevin Frazier wrote that the translation of 'Ballada' "appeared along with his translations of two other Khodasevich poems in New Directions in Prose and Poetry. Contrary to his later practice, Nabokov wrote a relatively free rhyming translation of "Ballada." He switched the English title of the poem, for instance, to "Orpheus" and changed the meaning of the original poem in many small ways throughout."
Its first lines are:
Brightly lit from above I am sitting
in my circular room; this is I--
looking up at a sky made of stucco,
at a sixty-watt sun in that sky.
All around me, and also lit brightly,
all around me my furniture stands,
chair and table and bed--and I wonder
sitting there what to do with my hands.
The closing lines are:
And the sixty-watt sun has now vanished,
and away the false heavens are blown:
on the smoothness of glossy black boulders
this is Orpheus standing alone.
Frazier compares "Ballada" and "Pale Fire" because he finds they share certain traits: a. Both poems begin in rooms with artificial skies. b. Both artificial skies suggest an entry to death or some form of afterlife. c. Both poems make the room furniture part of the pattern of the artificial entry to the other world. d. Both poems blend images of snow, frost, or glass playing off of each other. Frazier adds that "More importantly, lines 146-156 of Pale Fire expand on Khodasevich's description of the poet growing out of himself " and he sees that such similarities "involve the possibility of a ghost or spirit from the afterworld or another realm communicating with a writer... In "Ballada," the poet begins to talk with himself in verse. This brings about a visit from another world."
For Frazier, "the theme of the dead communicating with the living is a large part of Pale Fire, and the references to "Ballada" are part of this theme." For him, the "use of "Ballada" in Pale Fire suggests that "in some ways the literary relationship between Shade and Kinbote might be a parody of the literary relationship between Khodasevich and Nabokov [and] the Kinbote-Shade connection might burlesque the (largely unknown) way that Khodasevich and Nabokov felt about each other." Frazier notes that "Nabokov had already described a fictional literary relationship that was in some ways inspired by his relationship with Khodasevich, in the form of the (imaginary) conversations between Koncheyev and Fyodor in The Gift." and quotes Nabokov's Strong Opinons (p.226) "I find it odd myself that in this article, in this rapid inventory of thoughts prompted by Hodasevich's death, I seem to imply a vague non-recognition of his genius and engage in vague polemics with such phantoms as would question the enchantment and importance of his poetry." Nabokov, "On Hodasevich."
To complete the associations bt. Khodasevich and Nabokov, or emphasizing the theme of "translation/monkey," once again, here are a few lines from Nabokov's poem which he dedicated to Pushkin:
"What is translation? On a platter
A poet's pale and glaring head.
A parrot's screech, a monkey's chatter,
And profanation of the dead."
NB: All the quotes are available at their source, often in the Nab-L archives too. I simply placed them on view, side by side, for the Nab-Lister's comfort.
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/