From Shakespeare's
Timon of Athens IV.iii.436-40:
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;
The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears.
Professor Charles Kinbote's re-translation of the passage from a Zemblan edition:
The sun is a thief: she lures the sea
and robs it. The moon is a thief:
he steals his silvery light from the sun.
The sea is a thief. it dissolves the moon.
I'm very much enjoying Nabokov's
Pale Fire on my second trip through.
Lolita might be the more artful/significant work (who am I to say?), but
Pale Fire hits the sweet spot between it and what I've read of
Pnin.
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