In my previous post I mentioned farisey
(Pharisee) and serafim ("seraph"). The term "pharisaism"
occurs in the closing lines of Gamlet ("Hamlet"), the first and most
famous of Juri Zhivago's poems in Pasternak's Doctor
Zhivago:
Я один, всё тонет в фарисействе.
Жизнь прожить - не поле перейти.
I'm alone. Everything drowns in the
pharisaism.
Living life is not the same as crossing a
field.
The hero of Pushkin's poem The Prophet
meets at the cross-roads шестикрылый серафим (the six-winged seraph).
"The misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs"* are mentioned by Humbert in the
beginning of Lolita.
Besides, Serafim is a Russian male given name. Lev
and Serafim are two brothers in VN's story Встреча ("The Reunion,"
1932). There is also Serafima, the name's female version. Fima Sobak
(rhymes with Tobak) is a friend of Ella the cannibal in Ilf and Petrov's "The 12
Chairs."
*In the Russian version, Эдгаровы серафимы (E. A.
Poe's seraphs).
Alexey Sklyarenko