Subject
adages
From
Date
Body
When Van Veen meets Cordula Tobak (who is bending with baby words of comfort over two unhappy poodlets) in Paris, he tells her:
The Veens speak only to Tobaks
But Tobaks speak only to dogs.
In the dialogue that follows Cordula quotes another "saying:"
'The Veens are much too gay as dogs go.'
'If you collect adages,' persisted Van, 'let me quote an Arabian one. Paradise is only one assbaa south of a pretty girl's sash.' (3.2)
Adages (pogovorki) are also mentioned in V. F. Odoevsky's fairy tale Gorodok v tabakerke ("The Snuff-Box Town," 1834):
- Позвольте мне спросить у вас: зачем вы к каждому слову всё говорите "динь-динь-динь"?
- Уж у нас поговорка такая, - отвечал мальчик-колокольчик.
- Поговорка? - заметил Миша. - А вот папенька говорит, что очень нехорошо привыкать к поговоркам...
...Вот видишь ли, Миша, это тебе урок: вперед не смейся над теми, у которых поговорка дурная; иной и с поговоркою, а больше другого знает, и можно от него кое-чему научиться.
(Apologies, I leave these fragments untranslated. The fairy tale's little hero finds himself inside a piano. It all happens in his dream.)
Odoevsky is a millenium-old name. Odoev, a town in the Province of Tula, was the seat of Princes Odoevsky (who belonged to the House of Rurik). In Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf," Odoev is renamed Udoev (from udoy, "yield of milk, milking"). In the same novel (perhaps even in the same chapter) the group of writers Stal'noe vymya ("udder of steel") is mentioned. No allusion to Stalin intended, although one is tempted to read it in.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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The Veens speak only to Tobaks
But Tobaks speak only to dogs.
In the dialogue that follows Cordula quotes another "saying:"
'The Veens are much too gay as dogs go.'
'If you collect adages,' persisted Van, 'let me quote an Arabian one. Paradise is only one assbaa south of a pretty girl's sash.' (3.2)
Adages (pogovorki) are also mentioned in V. F. Odoevsky's fairy tale Gorodok v tabakerke ("The Snuff-Box Town," 1834):
- Позвольте мне спросить у вас: зачем вы к каждому слову всё говорите "динь-динь-динь"?
- Уж у нас поговорка такая, - отвечал мальчик-колокольчик.
- Поговорка? - заметил Миша. - А вот папенька говорит, что очень нехорошо привыкать к поговоркам...
...Вот видишь ли, Миша, это тебе урок: вперед не смейся над теми, у которых поговорка дурная; иной и с поговоркою, а больше другого знает, и можно от него кое-чему научиться.
(Apologies, I leave these fragments untranslated. The fairy tale's little hero finds himself inside a piano. It all happens in his dream.)
Odoevsky is a millenium-old name. Odoev, a town in the Province of Tula, was the seat of Princes Odoevsky (who belonged to the House of Rurik). In Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf," Odoev is renamed Udoev (from udoy, "yield of milk, milking"). In the same novel (perhaps even in the same chapter) the group of writers Stal'noe vymya ("udder of steel") is mentioned. No allusion to Stalin intended, although one is tempted to read it in.
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/