Pearls by V. Nabokov-Sirin: Words and Images

The article deals with the early lyrics of V. V. Nabokov, mainly the texts included in the 1923 collections “Gorny Put’” (engl. “The Mountain Way”) and “Grozd”. It particularly emphasizes the importance of the word pearl/pearls (both as noun and as adjective) in Nabokov-Sirin's poetics. The article argues, for the synesthetic artist like Nabokov, pearl is not just clearly different from white, but also contrasts with it (“Christ walked with his disciples...”). The use of pearly color helps the author create the images of what is gone (“Romance”) and what might have been (“The Drunken Knight”), of the fragile poetic soul (“Poets”) and reverential admiration for the nature (“Cypresses”). Furthermore, the article points out how rarely “pearl” is used in Nabokov's poems in its literal meaning — a precious stone, a luxury item (“In the Wild North”, “The Land of Poets”). More often, it is portrayed as the equivalent of the intangible values. The article goes on to conclude that having appeared already his pivotal poem “The Rain Has Flown”, a pearl (a raindrop — the center of the universe) becomes one of the most eloquent metaphors by Nabokov. The metaphor is played up in the way common for the world literature, when an outlandish stone raised by incredible efforts from the bottom of the sea, symbolizes a spiritual search (“The Pearls”), but also, notably, in the context of biblical symbolism (“The Last Supper”, “Christ walked with his disciples...”); includes numerous allusions and reminiscences (Nizami, Gethe, Blok, Gumilev, Mayakovsky).