Prince Ivan Temnosiniy... Van could not help
feeling esthetically moved by the velvet background he was able to distinguish
as a comforting, omnipresent summer sky through the black foliage of the
family tree. (Ada, 1.1)
Nabokov's poem "Поэты" (The
Poets, 1939), signed Vasiliy Shishkov in the magazine
publication, begins:
Из комнаты в сени свеча переходит
и гаснет. Плывёт отпечаток в
глазах,
пока очертаний своих не находит
беззвёздная ночь в тёмно-синих
ветвях.
From room to hallway a candle passes
and is extinguished. Its imprint swims in one's
eyes,
until, among the blue-black branches,
a starless night its contours finds.
Vasiliy Shishkov (the eponymous hero of a story by Sirin) is a
namesake of Vasiliy Travnikov (the poet invented by Khodasevich) and
Vasiliy Tyomnyi* (Blind), the Grand Prince of Moscow (1415-62) who was blinded
by Dmitri Shemyaka. In Ada there are three blind
characters.
*in modern Russian tyomnyi means "dark;" the name
Shishkov comes from shishka (cone); as for shish, see
Ivan Kalita
Alexey Sklyarenko