Subject
Mr. Nekto
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While nikto is Russian for "nobody", nekto means "someone". Cf. in Ada (2.2): "nobody knew how far Terra, or other innumerable planets with cottages and cows, might be situated in outer or inner space: 'inner,' because why not assume their microcosmic presence in the golden globules ascending quick-quick in this flute of Moet or in the corpuscles of my, Van Veen's -
(or my, Ada Veen's)
- bloodstream, or in the pus of a Mr Nekto's ripe boil newly lanced in Nektor or Neckton."
Cf. Nekto v serom (The person in grey), a character in L. Andreev's play Zhizn' cheloveka ("Man's Life", 1907) and the title of M. Voloshin's article on Andreev.
VN's poem Slava ("Fame", 1942) begins: "И вот как на колёсиках вкатывается ко мне мне некто - / восковой, поджарый, с копотью в красных ноздрях, / и сижу, и решить не могу: человек это / или просто так - разговорчивый прах." (see Poems and Problems for translation) Kolyosiki (little wheels) remind one of Podkolyosin, the hero of Gogol's Zhenit'ba (who eventually elopes from his fiancee via the window, finestra), and Anna Karenin (who perishes pod kolyosami, under the wheels of a train, in Tolstoy's novel).
nekto = token
Cf. in Ada (1.3): "It was owing, among other things, to this 'scientifically ungraspable' concourse of divergences that minds bien ranges (not apt to unhobble hobgoblins) rejected Terra as a fad or a fantom, and deranged minds (ready to plunge into any abyss) accepted it in support and token of their own irrationality."
Nektor = kornet = kreton
kornet - Russ., cornet; cf. Lermontov: "Он всё отцовское именье / Ещё корнетом прокутил" ("He [Captain Garin, the hero of "The Tambov Treasurer's Wife"] squandered all his father's lands while he was still a cornet"); cf. Bunin, "Дело корнета Елагина" ("The Case of Cornet Elagin", 1925)
kreton - Russ., cretonne; cf. Tolstoy: "When they reached the drawing-room, upholstered in pink cretonne and lighted by a dim lamp, they sat down at the table - she [Ivan Ilyich's widow] on a sofa and Pyotr Ivanovich on a low pouffe, the springs of which yielded spasmodically under his weight." ("The Death of Ivan Ilyich", chapter I)
kreton + nikto = Kriton + nekto = kretin + tonko
Kriton - Cryton, one of the three volunteers who accept Cleopatra's challenge in Pushkin's poem Cleopatra* (1828): "младой мудрец, / Рождённый в рощах Эпикура, / Критон, поклонник и певец / Харит, Киприды и Амура" (a young sage, who was born in Epicurus's groves, Cryton, worshipper and bard of the Charites, Cypris and Cupid)
kretin - Russ., cretin; idiot
tonko - Russ., thinly; subtly; cf. Ostrovsky, "Gde tonko, tam i rvyotsya" ("The Thread Breaks where it is Weakest")
*The poem (included in Pushkin's "Egyptian Nights", 1835) begins: "Chertog siyal..." ("The palace shone..."). Cf. in Ada (1.24): "most winters [Ada spent] in their Kaluga town home - two upper stories in the former Zemsky chertog (palazzo)." The name of another volunteer, Flavius, reminds one of Flavita, the Antiterran scrabble.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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(or my, Ada Veen's)
- bloodstream, or in the pus of a Mr Nekto's ripe boil newly lanced in Nektor or Neckton."
Cf. Nekto v serom (The person in grey), a character in L. Andreev's play Zhizn' cheloveka ("Man's Life", 1907) and the title of M. Voloshin's article on Andreev.
VN's poem Slava ("Fame", 1942) begins: "И вот как на колёсиках вкатывается ко мне мне некто - / восковой, поджарый, с копотью в красных ноздрях, / и сижу, и решить не могу: человек это / или просто так - разговорчивый прах." (see Poems and Problems for translation) Kolyosiki (little wheels) remind one of Podkolyosin, the hero of Gogol's Zhenit'ba (who eventually elopes from his fiancee via the window, finestra), and Anna Karenin (who perishes pod kolyosami, under the wheels of a train, in Tolstoy's novel).
nekto = token
Cf. in Ada (1.3): "It was owing, among other things, to this 'scientifically ungraspable' concourse of divergences that minds bien ranges (not apt to unhobble hobgoblins) rejected Terra as a fad or a fantom, and deranged minds (ready to plunge into any abyss) accepted it in support and token of their own irrationality."
Nektor = kornet = kreton
kornet - Russ., cornet; cf. Lermontov: "Он всё отцовское именье / Ещё корнетом прокутил" ("He [Captain Garin, the hero of "The Tambov Treasurer's Wife"] squandered all his father's lands while he was still a cornet"); cf. Bunin, "Дело корнета Елагина" ("The Case of Cornet Elagin", 1925)
kreton - Russ., cretonne; cf. Tolstoy: "When they reached the drawing-room, upholstered in pink cretonne and lighted by a dim lamp, they sat down at the table - she [Ivan Ilyich's widow] on a sofa and Pyotr Ivanovich on a low pouffe, the springs of which yielded spasmodically under his weight." ("The Death of Ivan Ilyich", chapter I)
kreton + nikto = Kriton + nekto = kretin + tonko
Kriton - Cryton, one of the three volunteers who accept Cleopatra's challenge in Pushkin's poem Cleopatra* (1828): "младой мудрец, / Рождённый в рощах Эпикура, / Критон, поклонник и певец / Харит, Киприды и Амура" (a young sage, who was born in Epicurus's groves, Cryton, worshipper and bard of the Charites, Cypris and Cupid)
kretin - Russ., cretin; idiot
tonko - Russ., thinly; subtly; cf. Ostrovsky, "Gde tonko, tam i rvyotsya" ("The Thread Breaks where it is Weakest")
*The poem (included in Pushkin's "Egyptian Nights", 1835) begins: "Chertog siyal..." ("The palace shone..."). Cf. in Ada (1.24): "most winters [Ada spent] in their Kaluga town home - two upper stories in the former Zemsky chertog (palazzo)." The name of another volunteer, Flavius, reminds one of Flavita, the Antiterran scrabble.
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/