Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011292, Thu, 31 Mar 2005 20:21:51 -0800

Subject
Fw: elm and limes...
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EDNOTE. Pushkin _Eugene Onegin_ (whence the limes, a.k.a. lindens (Tilia) ) predate Schubert's Lied, no?
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
To: don barton johnson
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 6:14 PM
Subject: elm and limes...


Dear Don,

I´m not reading your article line by lime ( I´m only looking for the place where you mention VN´s choice of the BL sound in siblings...).

Now I came across your quotation of Pushkin: "trysts of the children by the old limes" ...

Schubert´s song about a lime tree is "echt Romantik". I´m going to google it to see if I get its translation into English for you.


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The Lime Tree ( Der Lindenbaum)

By the fountain at the gate
there stands a lime tree:
in its shadow I have dreamed
many a sweet dream.

On its bark I have carved
many a loving word.
In joy and sorrow it drew
me to it continually.

Today again I had to walk
past it at dead of night,
and even in the darkness
I closed my eyes.

And its branches rustled
as if they called to me:
"Come here to me, friend,
here you will find your rest".

The chill wind blew
straight in my face:
my hat flew off my head.
I did not turn back.

Now I am many hours
away from that place;
yet still I hear the rustle:
"There you will find rest".


I couldn´t get it thru the google, I copied it from my CD about the cycle " Winterreise" of which this song is a part. The translation somehow misses the "romantic feel" one gets when listening to the music in German...
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