Stan Kelly-Bootle [to JM:
"...Wikipedia on "Latin Profanity" brought me various surprises.
For example, "mentula" (little mind) and variations on the origins of Ada's
wordplay with "on the verge."] There
should be no prolonged surprises over grammatical and biological
gender. Confusion arises with the very word gender which means both
genre/category and sexual orientation. Sadly, we are stuck with grammatical
labels such as masc./fem./neut. Often lacking any biological correlations.
Likewise, masc. and fem. rhymes....Another challenge for the translators?
Speaking of which, Jansy may not know that Russian krasny (red) is also
used colloquially and poetically to mean beautiful.
JM: That's the rub. Nabokov's
musicality allowed him to play with caliphonous and, equally, with cacophonous
wordings. Note Cicero's elegance when warning agains the latter: "cum autem
nobis non dicitur, sed nobiscum?"* I had no idea that Russian krasny could
mean red and beautiful. Perhaps this is why after leaving Soviet Russia Nabokov
seemed (= I'm not sure) to favor beautiful substitutes for "krasny" - as in
"ruby" or "raspberry" ? (an idea
for a future investigation: to find out when and how did VN employ
the words red and "krasny," and how often red indicated something weak or
disgusting (blacks are overcharged with hellish connotations,
too).
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* Perhaps one could also refer to Stan's talents
as "Cunning autem Linguist non dicitur, sed Linguista
Cunning"