All his books--including Lolita--should be required reading in high school and college. His writing just flows. I remember a college professor who wanted his class to read Lolita, but was told if he wanted to reach ten year--he would be wise to just let it go. Maybe things have changed? After college, I don't think I would have ever picked up another book of fiction, until I discovered Vladimir Nabokov.

I wonder if the original uses a word closer to "mark" than "label"? As it stands, it kind of reminds me more of the end of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner)" by Dick -- where Deckard finds what he thinks is a wild animal, only to turn it over and discover it's branded and is an artefact after all...

I think that is the original.

Isn't the original in Russian?

[edit: Apparently not, I wasn't aware Nabokov wrote English as well as Russian. Some relevant links:

"On Discovering A Butterfly" by Vladimir Nabokov May 15, 1943:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1943/05/15/1943_05_15_026_T...

[ edit3: sadly behind a paywall ]

A (somewhat inaccurate, but interesting) commentary:

http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.no/2004/04/on-discovering...

edit2: Almost forgot: clearly the original uses "label" intentionally. Funny how the verse in isolation seems to more directly reference nature (along the lines of Blake's Tyger! Tyger! -- while clearly that's not the (main/only) intended reading. ]

Wow! Subliminal eternal poem indeed!