Subject
six-fingered
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Date
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Each of the six stanzas (each of them consists of six lines) of Vladislav Khodasevich's The Dactyls (1928) begins:
Был мой отец шестипалым...
My father was six-fingered.
Felitsian Khodasevich (the poet's father) had six children. The youngest of them, Vladislav says in his poem that his father could deftly hide in his palm the superfluous little minimus:
Вот на отцовской руке старательно я загибаю
Пальцы один за другим - пять. А шестой - это я.
Шестеро было детей...
Был мой отец шестипалым. Как маленький лишний мизинец
Прятать он ловко умел в левой зажатой руке...
V. D. Nabokov (the writer's father) had five children (Vladimir was the oldest of them). The assassin who shot him dead wanted to kill another man (P. N. Milyukov). Similarly, Gradus kills Shade while assassinating Kinbote. It happens on July 21 (VDN's birthday, if I'm not mistaken).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Был мой отец шестипалым...
My father was six-fingered.
Felitsian Khodasevich (the poet's father) had six children. The youngest of them, Vladislav says in his poem that his father could deftly hide in his palm the superfluous little minimus:
Вот на отцовской руке старательно я загибаю
Пальцы один за другим - пять. А шестой - это я.
Шестеро было детей...
Был мой отец шестипалым. Как маленький лишний мизинец
Прятать он ловко умел в левой зажатой руке...
V. D. Nabokov (the writer's father) had five children (Vladimir was the oldest of them). The assassin who shot him dead wanted to kill another man (P. N. Milyukov). Similarly, Gradus kills Shade while assassinating Kinbote. It happens on July 21 (VDN's birthday, if I'm not mistaken).
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/