These are the French fencing terms Battez! Rompez! (see the Symposium edition, vol. 3, p. 582). "Вапег! Котрег" would be Battez! Rompez! read as if they were spelled in Slavic cursive, a nice echo of Sebastian Knight's biographer or an instance of computers' inability to distiguish between scripts.
 
Sergey Karpukhin
----- Original Message -----
From: Violeta Stojmenovic
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 3:03 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] rotnpez, battezl

Does anyone know what the word "rotnpez, battezl" from Nabokov's short story "Orache" should  mean? In Russian version it is "Вапег! Котрег!"

Thank you in advance
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Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal" Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.