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Tobakoff: addendum
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In my previous post I mentioned N. A. Aduev, the author of "The Tobacco Captain." Alexander Aduev and his uncle Peter are the two main characters in Ivan Goncharov's novel Obyknovennaya Istoriya ("A Common Story," 1847). On the other hand, Goncharov is the author of "The Frigate Pallada" (1858), a travel book from the journey. There is Ada in Pallada. And there is a sea journey and mention of Alexey Tolstoy in VN's Speak, Memory (Chapter Thirteen, 1):
On the way there [to England], being challenged by my father and Korney Chukovski to rhyme on Afrika, the poet and novelist Alexey Tolstoy (no relation to Count Lyov Nikolaevich) had supplied, though seasick, the charming couplet:
Vizhu pal'mu i Kafrika.
Eto - Afrika.
(I see a palm and a little Kaffir. That's Africa.)
Many naive people believed that Chukovski's Tarakan ("The Cockroach," a nursery tale in verses, 1921) was an audacious satire on Stalin. Anyway, Stalin's tarakanyi usishcha ("cockroach whiskers") are mentioned in Mandelshtam's poem "We live not feeling land beneath us..." (1934). Chto ni kazn' u nego, to malina ("Whatever the execution, it is a raspberry to him") is a line from this poem.
malina = animal = Manila (one of the ports visited by the Frigate Pallada)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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On the way there [to England], being challenged by my father and Korney Chukovski to rhyme on Afrika, the poet and novelist Alexey Tolstoy (no relation to Count Lyov Nikolaevich) had supplied, though seasick, the charming couplet:
Vizhu pal'mu i Kafrika.
Eto - Afrika.
(I see a palm and a little Kaffir. That's Africa.)
Many naive people believed that Chukovski's Tarakan ("The Cockroach," a nursery tale in verses, 1921) was an audacious satire on Stalin. Anyway, Stalin's tarakanyi usishcha ("cockroach whiskers") are mentioned in Mandelshtam's poem "We live not feeling land beneath us..." (1934). Chto ni kazn' u nego, to malina ("Whatever the execution, it is a raspberry to him") is a line from this poem.
malina = animal = Manila (one of the ports visited by the Frigate Pallada)
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/