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{{Short description|1969 poetry book}}{{Infobox book
| image             = Poems and Problems.jpg
| author            = [[Vladimir Nabokov]]
| pub_date          = 1969
| publisher         = [[McGraw-Hill]]
| caption           = First edition
}}

{{italic title}}
'''''Poems and Problems''''' ({{ISBN|0-07-045724-7}}) is a book by [[Vladimir Nabokov]] published in 1969. It consists of 39 [[poetry|poems]] originally written in [[Russian language|Russian]] and translated by Nabokov, 14 poems written in [[English language|English]], and 18 [[chess problem]]s.

One of the 39 poems originally written in Russian, "Lilith," in 1928, can be looked at as a foreshadowing of his 1955 novel ''[[Lolita]]''. However, in the author's notes, Nabokov states that "Intelligent readers will abstain from examining this impersonal fantasy for any links with my later fiction," and that the poem was written "...to amuse a friend."

== Table of contents ==
* THIRTY-NINE RUSSIAN POEMS
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!  !! English !! Russian
|-
|1.|| The Rain Has Flown || Дождь пролетел
|-
|2.|| To Liberty || К свободе
|-
|3.|| I Still Keep Mute || Еще безмолвствую и крепну я в тиши
|-
|4.|| Hotel Room || Номер в гостинице
|-
|5.|| Provence || Солнце
|-
|6.|| La Bonne Lorraine
|-
|7.|| The Blazon || Герб
|-
|8.|| The Mother || Мать
|-
|9.|| I Like That Mountain || Люблю я гору
|-
|10.|| The Dream || Сновидение
|-
|11.|| The Snapshot || Снимок
|-
|12.|| In Paradise || В раю
|-
|13.|| The Execution || Расстрел
|-
|14.|| For Happiness the Lover Cannot Sleep || От счастия влюбленному не спится
|-
|15.|| Lilith || Лилит
|-
|16.|| The Muse || К музе
|-
|17.|| Soft Sound || Тихий шум
|-
|18.|| Snow || Снег
|-
|19.|| The Formula || Формула
|-
|20.|| An Unfinished Draft || Неоконченный черновик
|-
|21.|| Evening on a Vacant Lot || Вечер на пустыре
|-
|22.|| The Madman || Безумец
|-
|23.|| How I Love You || Как я люблю тебя
|-
|24.|| L'Inconnue de la Seine
|-
|25.|| At Sunset || На закате
|-
|26.|| We So Firmly Believed || Мы с тобой так верили
|-
|27.|| What Happened Overnight || Что за ночь с памятью случилось
|-
|28.|| The Poets || Поэты
|-
|29.|| To Russia || К России
|-
|30.|| Oculus || Око
|-
|31.|| Fame || Слава
|-
|32.|| The Paris Poem || Парижская поэма
|-
|33.|| No Matter How || Каким бы полотном батальным
|-
|34.|| On Rulers || О правителях
|-
|35.|| To Prince S.M. Kachurin || К князю С.М. Качурину
|-
|36.|| A Day Like Any Other || Был день как день
|-
|37.|| Irregular Iambics || Неправильные ямбы
|-
|38.|| What Is the Evil Deed || Какое сделал я дурное дело
|-
|39.|| From the Gray North || С серого севера
|}
* FOURTEEN ENGLISH POEMS
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!  !! English
|-
| 1|| A Literary Dinner 
|-
| 2|| The Refrigerator Awakes
|-
| 3|| A Discovery
|-
| 4|| The Poem
|-
| 5|| An Evening of Russian Poetry
|-
| 6|| The Room
|-
| 7|| Voluptates Tactionum
|-
| 8|| Restoration
|-
| 9|| The Poplar
|-
|10|| Lines Written in Oregon
|-
|11|| Ode to a Model
|-
|12|| On Translating Eugene Onegin
|-
|13|| Rain
|-
|14|| The Ballad of Longwood Glen
|}

==Quote==
* "Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worthwhile art: originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity."

==External links==
* [http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/epo/nabokov/poems.htm "Nabokov Under Glass"] (New York Public Library)
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20121004162044/http://www.chessville.com/misc/History/PastPawns/NabokovianProblem.htm 18 chess problems from ''Poems and Problems'']}}

{{Vladimir Nabokov}}

[[Category:Poetry by Vladimir Nabokov]]
[[Category:1969 poems]]
[[Category:Chess books]]
[[Category:Chess problems]]