Кажется, им забавно самое содержание силлогизмов, например: «Все люди смертны, господин N – человек, следственно, г. N – смертен». Слишком простая истина, что г. N – человек, вызвала у Пушкина улыбку. (The very subject matter of syllogisms seems to amuse them, as for example: "All men are mortal, Mr. N is a man, ergo Mr. N is mortal." The too simple fact ["truth"] that Mr. N is a man made Pushkin smile.)

In a discarded variant Shade writes: I like my name: Shade, Ombre, almost 'man' / In Spanish...

Shade is almost man (as his name suggests). Similarly, young Pushkin questions the too simple fact that Mr. N is a man. If Mr. N is not a man, he is not mortal. Perhaps, Shade won't die after all?

In his great mature poem "Ya pamyatnik sebe vozdvig..." ("Exegi Monumentum," 1836) Pushkin claims: Net, ves' ya ne umru. Dusha v zavetnoy lire / moy prakh perezhivyot i tlen'ya ubezhit ("No, I'll not wholly die. My soul in the sacred lyre / is to survive my dust and flee decay"). All men die. But poets like Pushkin and Nabokov are not like all other men. They do not wholly die. At least a part of them survives.

Alexey Sklyarenko