The two engravings by Raoul Dufy are part of a
series of images, included in Guillaume Apollinaire's poems: "Le
Bestiaire ou Cortège d' Orphée" (1911).
In June I posted a note about him in the Nab-L, in
connection to Mlle Montparnasse (Ada). This time, the link is with
Nabokov's Russian pen-name, V.Sirin.
The illustrations are presented together with his
poems "Les Sirènes" and "Orphée". His sirens have wings and
sphynxlike claws.
"N'oyez pas ces oiseaux maudits,/Mais les Anges
du paradis." ( don't listen to these cursed birds/but to the Angels in
paradise), he warns but he also compares himself with their "machinating
voices" and, his verses, to singing ships.
Nabokov's pen-name only sounds like the word "siren,"
for it is applied to an avian figure of Russian folklore. Although
Wiki information links them to the sirens, their song is mostly happy and
heard only by a privileged few.* ( a meaning equally hinted at by Apollinaire's
lines).
* wiki: Sirin is a
mythological creature of Russian legends, with the head and chest of a beautiful
woman and the body of a bird (usually an owl). According to myth, the Sirins
lived "in Indian lands" near Eden or around the Euphrates River. These
half-women half-birds are directly based on the Greek myths and later folklore
about sirens.They were usually portrayed wearing a crown or with a nimbus.
Sirins sang beautiful songs to the saints, foretelling future joys. For mortals,
however, the birds were dangerous. Men who heard them would forget everything on
earth, follow them, and ultimately die. People would attempt to save themselves
from Sirins by shooting cannons, ringing bells and making other loud noises to
scare the bird off. Later (17-18th century), the image of Sirins changed and
they started to symbolize world harmony (as they live near paradise). People in
those times believed only really happy people could hear a Sirin, while only
very few could see one because she is as fast and difficult to catch as human
happiness. She symbolizes eternal joy and heavenly
happiness.