Esmeralda - a character in Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris (1831); Van and Ada call Lucette "our Esmeralda and mermaid" (2.8); the butterfly in VN's poem "Lines Written in Oregon" (1953)
navsegda - Russ., for ever, for good; VN's "Lines Written in Oregon" end: Esmeralda, immer, immer.
The link between Hugo and Ada, now there's a theme to conjure with. Hugo was perhaps a more interesting water colorist than novelist, and his biography is the stuff of legend. In an image I posted to the List many moons ago, you can see
that V H's rendition of his own monogram could very well have served as the model for the Vaniada monogram described in Ada.
Esmeralda, immer immer of course refers to the color, the stone and the girl. As Alexey says, this is the final line from a glorious poem written in Oregon. It is a gorgeous thing. Let me just quote the last two stanzas:
And I rest where I awoke
In the sea shade – l’ombre glauque –
Of a legendary oak;
Where the woods get ever dimmer,
Where the Phantom Orchids glimmer –
Esmeralda, immer, immer.
Many will
recall Pale Fire's Gerald Emerald, too, of course. I'm not sure if he has ever been discussed on the List.
Carolyn
p.s. Alexey! which is that 'legendary oak'? a learned cat goes to and fro, no? And why the sea shade? Kitezh perhaps?? How about that 'immer, immer' - Heine perhaps? or Goethe?