Subject:
ginkgo biloba
From:
Stephen Blackwell <sblackwe@utk.edu>
Date:
Mon, 1 Nov 2010 14:16:42 -0400
To:
<nabokv-l@listserv.ucsb.edu>

It's interesting too that in Ada the ginkgo leaf appears as a symbol of connection--on page 7, when it falls out of Aqua's otherworldly book-gift to Van, The Truth about Terra (she had received the leaf from the Chinese Student?); and when Van despairs of seeing Ada again, via the Maidenhair (=ginkgo) train station on pp. 299-300; and it is part of one of their meetings in part three ch. 8 (p. 522, with thanks to AdaOnline).
Stephen Blackwell

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NABOKV-L] ginkgo biloba
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 00:25:25 +0300
From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark05@MAIL.RU>
Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>


In his Commentary (note to line 49) Kinbote quotes a quatrain from Shade's poem "The Sacred Tree":
 
The ginkgo leaf, in golden hue, when shed,
A muscat grape,
Is an old-fashioned butterfly, ill-spread,
In shape.
 
Here is Goethe's poem "Ginkgo Biloba" from "The West-Eastern Divan":
[. . .]
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