Poem: 'The Man of To-morrow’s Lament' by Vladimir Nabokov

 

 

 

Beyond its inherently intriguing features – its fresh concept, elaborating on the device of Superman’s inner monologue or “thought bubbles” – the poem is a real gift for the literary scholar. This is the only known work by Nabokov whose source not only can be identified with absolute precision, but also was not concealed by the author. The story (Superman’s ostensible “stream of consciousness” while he is strolling with his beloved), the place of action (a city park), the characters (Clark Kent and Lois Lane), the details (glasses, bronze statue), and even Lois’s words, so amenable to versification – all this is taken from the cover of Superman No. 16. Superman’s words, “Oh, I am sick of loitering here”, refer to his casual strolling in the form of an ordinary human in a respectable suit and hat, and Nabokov singles out a feature of Clark Kent that Superman lacks: his glasses, which he wears not in order to enhance his disguise, Nabokov suggests, but in order to prevent his super-eyes from seeing all the way through his companion (Superman uses his x-ray vision in one of the Issue 16 adventures); Lois’s remark at the poem’s conclusion, as they pass Superman’s statue – “Oh Clark, isn’t he wonderful!?!” – is taken word for word from that same cover, even including the same ecstatic string of punctuation at the end; as in the cover, Nabokov’s Clark keeps looking straight ahead, not turning towards the statue, which looms over him in idiotic triumph; and even the park’s yellow sky does not escape Nabokov’s attention, as his unlucky hero, contemplating his inadequacy, ponders thus: “no matter where I fly, / red-cloaked, blue-hosed, across the yellow sky, / I feel no thrill …”

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Poem: 'The Man of To-morrow’s Lament' by Vladimir Nabokov: