A.Sklyarenko: The narrator and
main harlequin in LATH, Vadim Vadimovich is the author of Polnolunie (Plenilune,
1929), a novella in verse, and of a garland of sonnets. Voloshin is the author
of Lunaria (1913), a garland of sonnets.[ ] In her memoir essay on
Voloshin, Zhivoe o zhivom ("A Living Word about a Living Man," 1932), Marina
Tsvetaev expresses satisfaction that Voloshin (who says, in one of his poems,
that he himself is fire) died at noon, in his hour[ ]:According to the
memoirist, noon is an hour as mystical as midnight.[ ] Vadim's first
wife, Iris Black, is associated with irises[ ] . His second wife,
Annette Blagovo, is also linked to flowers (mainly, roses). The society nickname
of Vadim's father, Demon, reminds one of Tsvetaev's "Demon de Midi." In LATH
Vadim mentions Dmitri de Midoff: "The house [of the "Boyan"
publishing firm] had belonged to the Merlin de Malaune family and had been
acquired at the turn of the century by a Russian cosmopolitan, Dmitri de Midoff
who with his friend S. I. Stepanov established there the headquarters of an
antidespotic conspiracy. (2.4)" The name Stepanov brings to mind Stéphane
Mallarmé, the author of L'après-midi d'un faune (1876). .
Jansy Mello:
I was thrilled by A.Sklyarenko's links related to
Victor Hugo (Lute, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Esmeralda). This Romantic
flare led me not to the more emphatic "faune" [Mallarmé, Debussy's ballet
music and VN's omnipresent fascination with Nijinski] , but to
Alain-Fournier and his novel "Le Grand Meaulnes," concerning "Merlin de
Malaune".
May I inquire into the associative welter related to French works and Greek
or latinate terms? Such as
fr.
L plenilunium, fr. plenus full + -i-
+ -lunium (fr. luna
moon)
for "full moon" that AS by chance has associated
more with "flowers" (garlands, Irises) than with poems.
For my part, this comment is mainly related to my pleasure
of having discovered one day that the more usual word for a collection of
poems, an "anthology," is also related to flowers - and to
other deeply felt rememorations. [ Cf. anthology (n.) 1630s, "collection of poetry," from Latin
anthologia, from Greek anthologia "collection of small poems and epigrams by
several authors," literally "flower-gathering," from anthos "a flower" (see
anther) + logia "collection, collecting," from legein "gather" (see lecture
(n.)). Modern sense (which emerged in Late Greek) is metaphoric, "flowers" of
verse, small poems by various writers gathered together.http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=anthology ]
Wikipedia informed me new things about the
"Angelus" (I'm not a Catholic)*, a call for prayers that I
had associated to twilight hours, not only because of its
more common depiction during the sunset (as in Jean-François Millet's
painting), but also because, during my childhood in Rio, almost every radio
in the city was tuned to the six o'clock hour of the Angelus, with Bach or
Schubert's "Ave Maria" ringing from window to window.
Although it's a "mystical hour" for the Christians, its
reverberations must be different from Marina Tsvetaev's interpretation of
the noon hours and midnight.
In this reminiscing trip I was also reminded
(by random words, such as Demon, Anna Karina, Marianne, and not by
VN's novels directly) of "Le Démon de onze heures", later "Pierrot le
Fou" (1965), a movie directed by Jean-Luc Godard in which a
bored parisian Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) leaves a
brilliant party he'd been attending with his wife, and returns
home where a nanny, Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina) was hired to look
after his sleeping children. Later on the two elope for an
adventurous destination close to the Mediterranean. btw: only after I
checked informations related to Godard's movie did I realize that its
"Demon" is linked to the "eleven hours," not to midnight or
midday!
So, our ED Steve Blackwell turned up in the first hours
of our New Year, already brandishing an editor's baby
scythe!
My best cheers and thanks to both VN-L editors.
...........................................................................................................................................................................................
* - The Angelus (Latin
for "angel") is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation [
] practised by reciting as versicle and response three Biblical verses
describing the mystery; alternating with the salutation "Hail Mary!"[ ]The
devotion was traditionally recited in Roman Catholic churches, convents, and
monasteries three times daily: 6:00 am, noon, and 6:00 pm (many churches still
follow the devotion, and some practice it at home). The devotion is also used by
some Anglican and Lutheran churches.The Angelus is usually accompanied by the
ringing of the Angelus bell, which is a call to prayer and to spread good-will
to everyone on Earth. The angel referred to in the prayer is Gabriel, a
messenger of God who revealed to Mary that she would conceive a child to be born
the Son of God.(Luke 1:26-38).