three gentle nudges...

"however, he had no lack of enchantments, and no cause to regret that it was not the russian knight-errant ruslan but ruslan's occidental brother that had awakened his imagination in childhood. but then, what does it matter whence comes the gentle nudge that jars the soul into motion and sets it rolling, doomed never again to stop."

text:vladimir nabokov, podvig, 1932
images: anonymous snapshots, 1960's