While I was drawing parallels between Borges's and Nabokov's "Word,"
Nina Kressova's doctoral thesis came to my mind,* together with some
of Marina Grishakova's articles**. Nina Kressova's article deals
with several affinities between Nabokov and Borges, in relation
to their central themes and interpretations. She considers that,
from the imagetic point of view, both writers have
elected mirrors, labyrinths, blindness and chess, whereas their
recurrent themes are time, memory and reality. She notes
that both were familiar with the British culture and language
since early childhood, at a time when their favorite authors
were: Wells, Doyle, Stevenson. Later both
admired Shakespeare, Joyce and Kafka, professed interest in the
philosophy of Henri Bergson and were influenced by William James. As Nina
Kressova understands it, Borges and Nabokov believe that every moment and
phenomenon is unique but they doubt "reality", "time" and a uniform single
"I" (instead of "serial I(s)." However, while Borges orients his views
to search for universals and platonic archetypes, Nabokov investigates
nature with the tools of a scientist, the energy of a sportsman and the
sensibility of an artist.
Today I'll return to chronophobia's double darkness and a
rocking cradle,# to look at how (and IF !) Nabokov has
influenced Shade's philsophical spurts in "Pale Fire", such as
those we find on lines 122-124 "Outstare the
stars. Infinite foretime and/ Infinite aftertime: above your head/ They close
like giant wings, and you are dead." These verses seem to
be closer in spirit to what Borges, in his personal anthology, chose to
quote as an epigraph to "A New Refutation of Time"(Grove Press,
p.44-64.).than to the twin abysses in "Speak, Memory".
Daniel von Czepko's words in the epigraph: "Vor mir keine Zeit,
nach mir wird keine seyn./ Mit mir gebiert sie sich, mit mir geht sie auch
ein." Sexcenta Monidisticha Sapientum, III,11,
1655. ( "There was no time before I was, and after me it will not
be/ In me alone it is born, and with me it will cease.", wikipedia).
Czepko's disciple, Angelus Silesius, enlarges these verses in the
"Cherubinischer Wandersmann" I, 189:: "
Der Mensch der macht die Zeit/ Du
selber machst die Zeit: das Uhrwerk sind die sinnen/ Hemstu die Unruh nur / so
ist die Zeit von hinnen" ( Man engenders Time/You yourself counts it
in the clock of your senses/ When you inhibit your restlessness/ Time
disappears.) although the verses that were quoted by Borges from "The
Cherubinic Wanderer" are from canticle 263 (1675)"
Freund, es ist au
genug. Im Fall du mehr willst lesen,/ So geh und verde selbst die Schrift und
selbst das Wesen."( in another lame translation: "My friend, that's
enough. Should you desire to read further, you must become text
and being yourself," although this is an idea that
Nabokov also courted at times, through Kinbote (particularly
in his last comments), and Van Veen in "Ada." Cf. also
The quest for God in the work of Borges
:
books.google.com.br/books?isbn=1847060536... Annette U. Flynn. .
............................................................................................................................
# - "The
cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but
a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are
identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than
the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an
hour.)." (Ch.1 -"Speak,
Memory.")
* - "BAJO EL SIGNO
DE PROTEO - ESTUDIO COMPARADO DE TEMAS Y MOTIVOS EN LAS OBRAS DE J. L. BORGES Y
V. NABOKOV "(Under the sign of Proteus - a
comparative study of themes and motives in the works of J.L.Borges and V.
Nabokov).