Nabokov’s “The University Poem” (1926) marks the decline of a love affair at a punting picnic on the River Cam in Cambridge. In what ought to be a happy scene of lovers on the Cam, a teem rivers full of punts bordered by tawny Gothic buildings and green lawns, and white flowering chestnut tree, the lovers, are carried in turbid water, an allusion to their affair.
The menu of cold cutlets and wine clashes with the ardor of the persona:
Some wine, cold cutlets, and some cushions,
Violet’s patter, her softly breathing languorous breast,
encircled by a silken shawl;
her face, untouched by rouge,
was flaming. The pink chestnut tree
bloomed high above the alder forest.
The breeze was playing with the rushes,
rummaged through the boat, barely ruffled
a humorous review;
then on her palpitating neck
and the dimple of her clavicle
I kissed her, laughing.
I look: upon the colourful cushion
she pensively reclines.
The contrast of the rainbow colorations and the turbid water suggests that his lover, Violet, is conflicted. She has many lovers, something that peeks at him but keeps him at a distance from her.
Featured Image: Nabokov at Cambridge sometime between 1919-1922.
See The poem was written about four years after the affair but not published until 2012 in The London Review of Books (2012), translated by Dmitri Nabokov.