exile

[arabaliozian]

homeland
**************************
while in america
nabokov was so pro-american
that he even supported the war in vietnam.
but as soon as he achieved financial independence,
he went to Switzerland where he lived until he died.
*
my guess is, he found amerikan philistinism as offensive
as russian bolshevism.
*
thomas mann & amerika
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something similar happened to thomas mann.
he reacted to mccarthyism as violently
as to hitler's nazism. he too went to Switzerland...
*
zarian in armenia
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what a book one could write on the subject!
zarian found the regime so unfriendly
that he wanted to get the hell out
but they refused to return his passport.
they went further: they murdered him --
or so he thought until the day he died.
*
charents in armenia
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all writers are perennial exiles.
when they praise their homeland
they speak with a forked tongue.
after composing his celebrated sonnet
"to my sweet armenia," charents committed suicide
by banging his head against the wall of his prison.
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