An interesting observation, -- but to a Russian ear, "seba" (a word impossible and awkwardly sounding in Russian) seems rather far from "sebYA" (the latter also has a clear emphasis on "ya"), or its form, "sebE".
On the other hand, I might throw in a-not-very obvious "matreshka" name here: a famous naturalist Albertus Seba (1665-1736) of Amsterdam, a younger contemporary of John Ray(1627-1705), some of whose collections were purchased by Peter the Great for his Kunstkamera in 1716.
The Russian name version is actually Sevastyan, with "v".
And (this is for Alexey), Sebastian = Sebiastan (The Country of Self" - if "sebia" is Russian "self" and "stan" is Farsi for "country")
Victor Fet.
________________________________________
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [
NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Johnson [
chtodel@COX.NET]
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 2:36 PM
To:
NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDUSubject: [NABOKV-L] Idle note on Sebastian (Knight)
Food for (s)peculation.
"I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I, or perhaps we are both someone neither of us knows"
None of the historical persons or places evoked by the name
seem to be obviously connected to VN's novel (see www below). In an idle moment it ocurred to me that the first syllable of the name echoes the Russian pronoun SEBYA meaning "one's self ." Given the tangled relationship between the narrating half -brother and his brother Sebastain, I wonder if this pseudo-etymology sheds any light on the novel.
Tennis, anyone?