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malina
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Boyd as quoted by JM: "Stalin, a Georgian, admired Georgian folklore and here seems to be imagining the sweet raspberry taste of each execution and puffing out his chest as if it proves himself once again a Georgian hero."
Although Stalin's nickname was Koba (after the hero of Kazbeghi's novel "The Patricide"), Dzhugashvili (whose assumed name comes from stal', "steel") desired to be not a Georgian, but Russian hero. Btw., Koba + t = Tobak.
True, malina is Russian for "raspberry". But it can also mean "[to be] in clover". Mandelshtam's line "Chto ni kazn' u nego, to malina" merely suggests that Stalin ("The Kremlin high-lander") is "in clover" regardless of the terror that surrounds him. He doesn't need to imagine the sweet taste of raspberry each time some of his enemies/servants/slaves is executed.
The word kazn' ("execution") also occurs in the title of VN's novel Priglashenie na kazn' ("Invitation to a Beheading")* and in Mandelshtam's line Chasto pishetsya - kazn', a chitaetsya pravil'no - pesn' (The written word "execution" often correctly reads "song"), from his "The Verses in Memory of Andrey Bely" (1934).
Now, in Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (Canto Three, XXXIX, 7-14), in the scene travestied in Ada (1.2), girl servants picking berries are singing in chorus, so as their sly mouths wouldn't not eat in secret the seignioral berry. They also mention raspberries in their song.
One of the two seconds in Demon's duel with d'Onsky is Colonel St Alin, a scoundrel (1.2). There is alin in malina. Alin = nail; malina = animal = Manila = lamina; malina + stvol = Stalin + molva; Stalin + krem + r = star + Kremlin (stvol - Russ., tree trunk; firearm barrel; molva - Russ., rumor, talk; krem - Russ., cream)
*In Invitation to a Beheading malina is a game played by children: "Играли в мяч, в свинью, в карамору, в чехарду, в малину, в тычь...".
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Although Stalin's nickname was Koba (after the hero of Kazbeghi's novel "The Patricide"), Dzhugashvili (whose assumed name comes from stal', "steel") desired to be not a Georgian, but Russian hero. Btw., Koba + t = Tobak.
True, malina is Russian for "raspberry". But it can also mean "[to be] in clover". Mandelshtam's line "Chto ni kazn' u nego, to malina" merely suggests that Stalin ("The Kremlin high-lander") is "in clover" regardless of the terror that surrounds him. He doesn't need to imagine the sweet taste of raspberry each time some of his enemies/servants/slaves is executed.
The word kazn' ("execution") also occurs in the title of VN's novel Priglashenie na kazn' ("Invitation to a Beheading")* and in Mandelshtam's line Chasto pishetsya - kazn', a chitaetsya pravil'no - pesn' (The written word "execution" often correctly reads "song"), from his "The Verses in Memory of Andrey Bely" (1934).
Now, in Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (Canto Three, XXXIX, 7-14), in the scene travestied in Ada (1.2), girl servants picking berries are singing in chorus, so as their sly mouths wouldn't not eat in secret the seignioral berry. They also mention raspberries in their song.
One of the two seconds in Demon's duel with d'Onsky is Colonel St Alin, a scoundrel (1.2). There is alin in malina. Alin = nail; malina = animal = Manila = lamina; malina + stvol = Stalin + molva; Stalin + krem + r = star + Kremlin (stvol - Russ., tree trunk; firearm barrel; molva - Russ., rumor, talk; krem - Russ., cream)
*In Invitation to a Beheading malina is a game played by children: "Играли в мяч, в свинью, в карамору, в чехарду, в малину, в тычь...".
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/