Subject
butterflies & souls
From
Date
Body
SEE EDITOR's COMMENT at end
-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 19:54:21 +0800
From: Сергей Карпухин <shrewd@irk.ru>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
There is not only one attractive phrase in Stan. Milkowsky's letter.
This may be implied, but psyche means both butterfly and soul in
Greek. For all I know, there is (or was) a lepidopterist magazine which
has Psyche for title. In a footnote to one of his poems Coleridge says
that 'psyche means both butterfly and soul '. So to point out the
resemblance of soul to a butterfly does not seem so inadequate, at least
as far as ety mology is concerned.
Sergei
------------------
Ed. Note. Yes, there is a lepdopterist journal PSYCHE and VN was well
aware of the analogy. He often used it in his Russian poetry. In
response to a Russian cleric who made the analogy, VN also remarked
that butterflies were attracted to corpses.
-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 19:54:21 +0800
From: Сергей Карпухин <shrewd@irk.ru>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
There is not only one attractive phrase in Stan. Milkowsky's letter.
This may be implied, but psyche means both butterfly and soul in
Greek. For all I know, there is (or was) a lepidopterist magazine which
has Psyche for title. In a footnote to one of his poems Coleridge says
that 'psyche means both butterfly and soul '. So to point out the
resemblance of soul to a butterfly does not seem so inadequate, at least
as far as ety mology is concerned.
Sergei
------------------
Ed. Note. Yes, there is a lepdopterist journal PSYCHE and VN was well
aware of the analogy. He often used it in his Russian poetry. In
response to a Russian cleric who made the analogy, VN also remarked
that butterflies were attracted to corpses.