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THOUGHTS: Inenubilable: CHW to JF
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In a message dated 28/03/2007 15:11:39 GMT Standard Time, nabokv-l@UTK.EDU
ie JF writes:
Thanks to all for the discussion of "inenubilable". Despite
the conflict with "blue", I think Kinbote may be using it
correctly. He wants a romantic haze for Zembla (starting
with its location), in addition to the precision he gives some
of its details. And blue sky is clear, but blue land is distant
and unclear.
Housman’s blue hills are, agreed, not at all improbably shimmering in the
distance; although my impression is that he envisioned them vividly, and that
they were clear, not clouded. Of course, he was similar to Kinbote, in some
ways. However, it did also occur to me that, if Kinbote was in fact
misunderstanding “inenubilable”, it might mean that “harebreath” (note to l. 347) was
not a misprint after all, but a second instance of the king’s congenital
inability to get things quite straight.
Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
This is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain.
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
Housman’s verse also tends to reinforce the suggestion of a confusion
between inenubilable and inoubliable.
Charles
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