Eva Hopprnan "The Maur Dormace” Letters of Transit ¥ Reructions ox Exite, Ipenrrry, LaNGuAce, np Loss w Edited by André Aciman Publish in allaboration with ‘The New Yr Public Library1 come to Straus Park to remember Alexandria, leit an unreal Alexandria, an Alexandria that does not exist, that ve invented, or learned to cultiratein Rome asin Paris, so thatin the end the Parisand the Rome I retrieve here are realy the shadow of the shadow of Alexandria, versions of Alexandria, the remanence of Alexandria, infusing Straus Park itself ‘now, reminding me of something thats not just ele- ‘where but thatis perhaps more in me than twas ever ‘Out there, cha itis, afterall, perhaps just me, me that sno lesea figment of me than this cya ge ment of pace. The New Nomads va HetmanIn Speak, Memory Nabokov makes the poetic, or the playful, speculation that Rusian children before the Revolution —and his exile—were bese with asurfeit ofsensual impressions to ‘compensate them for what was to come, Ofcourse, fate doesnt play such premonitory games, but ‘memory can perform retrospective maneuwersto ‘compensate fr fate. Los isa magical preservative. "0m Losin Translation A Lifein a New Language (1989) v