Alexey Sklyarenko: Again, one is
reminded of Pyotr Annibal's words in Tynyanov's "Pushkin:"Я
возвожу в известный градус крепости. Чтоб вишня, горечь, чтоб
сад был во рту."I achieve a certain alcohol percentage. To
taste cherries, bitterness, a garden in my mouth." (a very loose
translation)
JM: In a former posting
Sklyarenko wrote: "According to Bulgarin, Pushkin's
great-grandfather, Ibrahim (Abram) Gannibal was acquired for a bottle of
rum. Bulgarin's coarse article in Northern Bee provoked Pushkin to compose Moya
rodoslovnaya ("My Pedigree," 1830). A hundred years later, G. Ivanov in his
Chisla review of Sirin's novels rudely called VN kukharkin syn ("son of a
[female] cook"). Vivian Calmbrood responded with the poem Nochnoe
puteshestvie ("Night Journey," 1931), in which he attacked Ivanov as
'Johnson.'
I couldn't understand the meaning in
AS's final sentence: did Vivian Calmbrood attack Ivanov assuming
the role of Johnson, or did he address Ivanov as Johnson?