Thanks to all for the discussion of "inenubilable". Despite
the conflict with "blue", I think Kinbote may be using it
correctly. He wants a romantic haze for Zembla (starting
with its location), in addition to the precision he gives some
of its details. And blue sky is clear, but blue land is distant
and unclear.

Housman’s blue hills are, agreed, not at all improbably shimmering in the distance; although my impression is that he envisioned them vividly, and that they were clear, not clouded. Of course, he was similar to Kinbote, in some ways. However, it did also occur to me that, if Kinbote was in fact misunderstanding “inenubilable”, it might mean that “harebreath” (note to l. 347) was not a misprint after all, but a second instance of the king’s congenital inability to get things quite straight.

Into my heart an air that kills

From yon far country blows:

What are those blue remembered hills,

What spires, what farms are those?

This is the land of lost content,

I see it shining plain.

The happy highways where I went

And cannot come again.

Housman’s verse also tends to reinforce the suggestion of a confusion between inenubilable and inoubliable.

Charles