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Les Enfants Maudits (Darkbloom: “the accursed children”) seems to blend les enfants terribles with Les poetes maudits (1884), by Paul Verlaine. On the other hand, the aphorism "children are flowers of life" (quoted by the hero of Ilf & Petrov's "The 12 Chairs") reminds one of Les fleurs du mal, by another "accursed poet."
Boyd: that Vere de Vere: "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" was "The title and heroine of a poem (1842) by Tennyson.
Romantically inclined handmaids, whose reading consisted of Gwen de Vere and Klara Mertvago, adored Van, adored Ada, adored Ardis's ardors in arbors. (2.7)
The opening poem of The Poems of Yuri Zhivago (in Pasternak's novel, Lara Antipov is Zhivago's mistress) is Gamlet ("Hamlet"). Gamlet is a half-Russian village near Ardis (1.5). On the other hand, Ophelia and Claudius are mentioned in this chapter (1.32).
'But let's be serious, I still don't see how and why his wife - I mean the second guy's wife - accepts the situation (polozhenie).'
Vronsky spread his fingers and toes.
'Prichyom tut polozhenie (situation-shituation)?' (1.32)
Vronsky (who was Marina's lover in 1871, before leaving her for another long-lashed Khristosik) is perplexed, because polozhenie (situation) also means "pregnancy" (and one of the guests, Elsie Rack, is pregnant). The interesting phrase interesnoe polozhenie occurs earlier in Ada:
Marina arrived in Nice a few days after the duel, and tracked Demon down in his villa Armina, and in the ecstasy of reconciliation neither remembered to dupe procreation, whereupon started the extremely interesnoe polozhenie ('interesting condition') without which, in fact, these anguished notes could not have been strung. (1.2)
Boyd: kok: Russian, “Coca-Cola,” with pun on English vulgar “cock.”
Kok is Russian for "ship's cook" and "quiff" (a lock or curl of hair brought forward over the forehead). It does not mean "Coca-Cola" (which we call simply kola to distinguish it from pepsi).
Boyd: Doc Ecksreher: Dr X-rayer. Cf. 369.20: “Dr. V.V. Sector.”
None of Ada's Russian translators (except this one) was able to see the allusion to X-rays. Btw., their discoverer, W. K. Roentgen (1845-1923) had a friend, Professor F. S. Ecksner (1849-1926), and an assistant, Professor Max Wien (1866-1939). When in the Kalugano hospital Van Veen visits Philip Rack, the latter addresses him "Baron von Wien" (1.42). Of course, Wien is the German name of Vienna,* the city where Mozart died (the composer was convinced that he had been poisoned - not by Salieri though). Rack, too, was poisoned (by his wife Elsie, according to Ada).
Boyd: Forestday—after tomorrow: Darkbloom:“Rack’s pronunciation of ‘Thursday,’ ” and his unidiomatic (from Germanic ubermorgen) version of “the day after tomorrow” (which Nabokov himself usually rendered unidiomatically in English as simply “after tomorrow”).
Van is soon to fight a duel with Captain Tapper in the Kalugano Forest (1.42).
"After tomorrow" - Russ., poslezavtra. On the other hand, posle dozhdichka v chetverg ("on Thursday, after the rain") means "never."
*Vena (Russian name of Vienna) is an anagram of Neva ("the legendary river of Old Rus:" 2.1).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Boyd: that Vere de Vere: "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" was "The title and heroine of a poem (1842) by Tennyson.
Romantically inclined handmaids, whose reading consisted of Gwen de Vere and Klara Mertvago, adored Van, adored Ada, adored Ardis's ardors in arbors. (2.7)
The opening poem of The Poems of Yuri Zhivago (in Pasternak's novel, Lara Antipov is Zhivago's mistress) is Gamlet ("Hamlet"). Gamlet is a half-Russian village near Ardis (1.5). On the other hand, Ophelia and Claudius are mentioned in this chapter (1.32).
'But let's be serious, I still don't see how and why his wife - I mean the second guy's wife - accepts the situation (polozhenie).'
Vronsky spread his fingers and toes.
'Prichyom tut polozhenie (situation-shituation)?' (1.32)
Vronsky (who was Marina's lover in 1871, before leaving her for another long-lashed Khristosik) is perplexed, because polozhenie (situation) also means "pregnancy" (and one of the guests, Elsie Rack, is pregnant). The interesting phrase interesnoe polozhenie occurs earlier in Ada:
Marina arrived in Nice a few days after the duel, and tracked Demon down in his villa Armina, and in the ecstasy of reconciliation neither remembered to dupe procreation, whereupon started the extremely interesnoe polozhenie ('interesting condition') without which, in fact, these anguished notes could not have been strung. (1.2)
Boyd: kok: Russian, “Coca-Cola,” with pun on English vulgar “cock.”
Kok is Russian for "ship's cook" and "quiff" (a lock or curl of hair brought forward over the forehead). It does not mean "Coca-Cola" (which we call simply kola to distinguish it from pepsi).
Boyd: Doc Ecksreher: Dr X-rayer. Cf. 369.20: “Dr. V.V. Sector.”
None of Ada's Russian translators (except this one) was able to see the allusion to X-rays. Btw., their discoverer, W. K. Roentgen (1845-1923) had a friend, Professor F. S. Ecksner (1849-1926), and an assistant, Professor Max Wien (1866-1939). When in the Kalugano hospital Van Veen visits Philip Rack, the latter addresses him "Baron von Wien" (1.42). Of course, Wien is the German name of Vienna,* the city where Mozart died (the composer was convinced that he had been poisoned - not by Salieri though). Rack, too, was poisoned (by his wife Elsie, according to Ada).
Boyd: Forestday—after tomorrow: Darkbloom:“Rack’s pronunciation of ‘Thursday,’ ” and his unidiomatic (from Germanic ubermorgen) version of “the day after tomorrow” (which Nabokov himself usually rendered unidiomatically in English as simply “after tomorrow”).
Van is soon to fight a duel with Captain Tapper in the Kalugano Forest (1.42).
"After tomorrow" - Russ., poslezavtra. On the other hand, posle dozhdichka v chetverg ("on Thursday, after the rain") means "never."
*Vena (Russian name of Vienna) is an anagram of Neva ("the legendary river of Old Rus:" 2.1).
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/