QotD: "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" Sirin ... Happy birthday Vladimir Nabokov (late again)

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.)

- Speak, Memory: A Memoir (1951)

"I confess I do not believe in time ..." Vladimir Nabokov, Speak Memory

I confess I do not believe in time. I like to fold my magic carpet after use, in such a way as to superimpose one part of the pattern upon another. Let visitors trip. And the highest enjoyment of timelessness -- in a landscape selected at random -- is when I stand among rare butterflies and their food plants.
- Vladimir Nabokov, Speak Memory (1966 rev. ed.), p. 139

Just a little quote from V. Sirin (that was) on the occasion of his 114 birthday.

I am the shadow of the waxwing slain ...

2011.04.23-IMG_2463, a photo by martin_kalfatovic on Flickr.

A day late, but happy birthday Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (22 April 1899 - 2 July 1977).

I am the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane:
I was the smudge of ashen fluff -- and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky
- Pale Fire

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.
- Speak, Memory