SB: "It is
probably due to these that JF's earlier message did not come
through..."
JM: Isn't there a copy
of it anywhere to be posted again?
......
JF: A few
minor points, two of which I posted in a note that
got lost with the editor
switch or in some other way...
JM: Dear Jerry, I gather one
of the points we lost was about the cardinal/waxwing distinction. The other
note is more recent, no?( "Rosa dos ventos" in
English is a "wind rose". Since the young Nabokov admired Housman, I feel
obliged to mention that some old ones had 12 rays instead of 16: "From far,
from eve and morning,/ And yon twelve-winded sky..." )
In Brazil Maria Bethania recorded a CD with
her show, Rosa dos Ventos (1971), in which she sang various popular
songs and read poems by Fernando Pessoa ( Portuguese poet associated with the
"wind rose" always pictured in old navigation maps, where I should have
searched for the "wind rose" in the first place...). My particular curiosity is still not assuaged because I've
been looking in vain for a quote in which VN describes a room criss-crossed by
winds ( I'm carrying "The Enchanter" to Rio to re-read while vacationing in
Ipanema beach) with a description suggestive of a wind rose.
In "Pale Fire" we found Kinbote's description of
the priest in contact with God at the center of a rose mosaic.
It is in "Ada", though, that navigational information is even more
necessary ( because of Mascodagama/Vasco da Gama, plus Lisiansky islands,
where Demon's plane - unlike King Alfin's - crashed).
Thank you for the quote about the rose with 12
rays in Housman's poem.
Unfortunately I lent my copy of Dava Sobel's
"Longitude" ( she knew how to tell good stories!) so I couldn't
check other tidbits in it and leave the math aside to the
experts!