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Re: fires & fireflies in Ada & in Gorky
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Так поступают самки каких-то насекомых
(So do the females of some insects)
Alexey: I see this as Kafka reworking Mozart/da Ponte’s
Cosi Fan Tutte (так что все почитатели)!
This note dedicated in memoriam: Dmitri Nabokov (May 10, 1934 – February 22,
2012). Not here, alas, to sing Don Alfonso. But honouring DN’s translation
of VN’s Подвиг (Glory), I cast Sonia Zilanov as Despina. BTW, the opera’s
cynical title is best left in Italian — not every language has a feminine
form for ‘all’ (tutte). The final ‘tutti’ (all-genders!) ensemble is a
reassuring
‘all’s well that ends well:’
TUTTI
Fortunato l'uom che prende
Ogni cosa per buon verso
E tra i casi e le vicende
Da ragion guidar si fa.
Quel che suole altrui far piangere
Fia per lui cagion di riso
E del mondo in mezzo ai turbini
Bella calma troverà.
Happy is the man who looks
At everything on the right side
And through trials and tribulations
Makes reason his guide.
What always makes another weep
Will be for him a cause of mirth
And amid the tempests of this world
He will find sweet peace.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 02/12/2012 12:22, "Alexey Sklyarenko" <skylark1970@MAIL.RU> wrote:
In Gorky's The Life of Klim Samgin (Part One, chapter 3) Samgin mentally
compares his mistress Nekhaev to a female firefly: Значит, Нехаева только
играла роль человека, заражённого пессимизмом, играла для того, чтоб,
осветив себя необыкновенным светом, привлечь к себе внимание мужчины. Так
поступают самки каких-то насекомых. (It means that Nekhaev was only playing
the part of a person infected with pessimism, in order to attract a man's
attention by illuminating herself with an unusual light. So do the females
of some insect.)
>
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