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Responses to query on VN and synesthesia (Rimbaud)
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Dear Editors and List,
May I be the first one to mention Arthur Rimbaud's "Voyelles" sonnet? As
I remember, Arthur also saw the French "Ah" sound as black. I bet
Holabird covers him -- it must be a fascinating book. There's also a
rumour somewhere about eager young poets trying to establish an
experimental set of rules for linking sounds and colours, based on
"Voyelles." Which amused Arthur no end when he heard; he's been off in
Ethiopia gun-running, so they say.
I'd quote the sonnet (and even attempt a translation) but my copy of
Rimbaud has been in the basement since I moved a year ago. I reckon VN
must have known it, but the only reference by him to R that I can
remember is Quilty's joke of swopped adjectives in motel registers: "Le
Bateau Bleu" and "L'Oiseau Ivre". (Rimbaud's "Le Bateau Ivre" -- "The
Drunken Boat" and Maeterlinck's "L'Oiseau Bleu" "The Blue Bird")
Regards,
Tom (Rymour)
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May I be the first one to mention Arthur Rimbaud's "Voyelles" sonnet? As
I remember, Arthur also saw the French "Ah" sound as black. I bet
Holabird covers him -- it must be a fascinating book. There's also a
rumour somewhere about eager young poets trying to establish an
experimental set of rules for linking sounds and colours, based on
"Voyelles." Which amused Arthur no end when he heard; he's been off in
Ethiopia gun-running, so they say.
I'd quote the sonnet (and even attempt a translation) but my copy of
Rimbaud has been in the basement since I moved a year ago. I reckon VN
must have known it, but the only reference by him to R that I can
remember is Quilty's joke of swopped adjectives in motel registers: "Le
Bateau Bleu" and "L'Oiseau Ivre". (Rimbaud's "Le Bateau Ivre" -- "The
Drunken Boat" and Maeterlinck's "L'Oiseau Bleu" "The Blue Bird")
Regards,
Tom (Rymour)
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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