Subject
Pythagorean trousers
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Date
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In one of my previous posts I quoted a passage from Heine's "The Baths of Lucca" (Chapter XI), in which Count Platen is called "a male tribade":
In der Tat, er ist mehr ein Mann von Steiss, als ein Mann von Kopf, der Name Mann ueberhaupt passt nicht fuer ihn, seine Liebe hat einen passiven pythagoraeischen Charakter, er ist in seinen Gedichten ein Pathikos, er ist ein Weib, und zwar ein Weib, das sich an gleich Weibischem ergoetzt, er ist gleichsam eine maennliche Tribade.
The term pythagoraeisch ("pythagorean") points to Pythagoras, Nero's catamite, a namesake of the Greek philosopher, mathematician and religious reformer (6th century B.C.). The latter is famous for his theorem. When Russian school children learn it, they are made to memorize this couplet:
Пифагоровы штаны
на все стороны равны
(All sides of Pythagorean trousers are equal).
Russian poets and writers (most of whom weren't sans-culottes) always had a predilection for the word штаны (trousers). Rosanov famously said that literature was his trousers ("I do in them whatever I want"). Mayakovsky's first long poem is "Облако в штанах" ("The Trousered Cloud", 1916). According to Ostap Bender, the hero of Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs" and "The Golden Calf", all citizens of Rio de Janeiro wear white trousers. Telling Balaganov about the city of his dream, Bender mentions a Charleston "У моей девочки есть одна маленькая штучка" ("My Girl has got One Little Thing") allegedly popular in Rio.
While штучка reminds one of Ada's shtuchki ("little stunts") as imitated by Lucette (2.5) and of Chose (Fr., "thing"), Van's University, the Charleston brings to mind the dancing of the black passengers onboard the ship bound for Rio de Janeiro in Heine's poem Das Sklavenschiff ("The Slave Ship", 1853). The poem's two white characters, the supercargo Mynheer van Koek and Doctor van der Smissen, are Dutch.
Like Swift's Gulliver, van der Smissen is a naval surgeon. It is van der Smissen who suggests that the negro slaves should dance on the deck in order to reduce the death-rate among them. Mynheer van Koek thanks his Wasserfeldscherer for the advice, saying that he is as clever as Aristoteles, Alexander's teacher:
"Der Praesident der Sozietaet
Der Tulpenveredlung in Delfte
Ist sehr gescheit, doch hat er nicht
Von Eurem Verstande die Haelfte.
Musik! Musik! Die Schwarzen solln
Hier auf dem Verdecke tanzen.
Und wer sich beim Hopsen nicht amuesiert,
Den soll die Peitsche kuranzen."
It is interesting to compare Heine's poem to Chekhov's story Gusev, in which the action also takes place onboard a ship (sailing in a different ocean).
Платон + штаны + указ + болото + дог + Аа = панталоны + штука + золото + Бог + Ада
Платон - Plato
указ - decree, edict; cf. Mandelshtam: Как подковы куёт за указом указ, / Кому в пах, кому в лоб, кому в бровь, кому в глаз ([Stalin] forges decrees like horseshoes, / Some gets it in the groin, some in the forehead, some in the brow, some in the eye)
болото - bog
дог - Great Dane
Aa - river in Kurland
панталоны - obs., trousers; cf. Pushkin: Но панталоны, фрак, жилет, / Всех этих слов на русском нет (but "pantaloons," "dress coat," "waistcoat" - / in Russian all these words are not)
штука - thing; trick; piece, item; штука = шутка (joke)
золото - gold
Бог - God
Ада - Ada
Африка = кифара = фрак + аи = факир + а = Карфаген + иней + грехи - Генрих Гейне
Африка - Africa
кифара - kithara
фрак - dress coat; фрак = кафр (Kaffir)
аи - Ay (champagne)
факир - fakir; факир = фиакр (fiacre)
Карфаген - Carthage
иней - hoar-frost, rime
грехи - sins
Генрих Гейне - Heinrich Heine
Alexey Sklyarenko
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In der Tat, er ist mehr ein Mann von Steiss, als ein Mann von Kopf, der Name Mann ueberhaupt passt nicht fuer ihn, seine Liebe hat einen passiven pythagoraeischen Charakter, er ist in seinen Gedichten ein Pathikos, er ist ein Weib, und zwar ein Weib, das sich an gleich Weibischem ergoetzt, er ist gleichsam eine maennliche Tribade.
The term pythagoraeisch ("pythagorean") points to Pythagoras, Nero's catamite, a namesake of the Greek philosopher, mathematician and religious reformer (6th century B.C.). The latter is famous for his theorem. When Russian school children learn it, they are made to memorize this couplet:
Пифагоровы штаны
на все стороны равны
(All sides of Pythagorean trousers are equal).
Russian poets and writers (most of whom weren't sans-culottes) always had a predilection for the word штаны (trousers). Rosanov famously said that literature was his trousers ("I do in them whatever I want"). Mayakovsky's first long poem is "Облако в штанах" ("The Trousered Cloud", 1916). According to Ostap Bender, the hero of Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs" and "The Golden Calf", all citizens of Rio de Janeiro wear white trousers. Telling Balaganov about the city of his dream, Bender mentions a Charleston "У моей девочки есть одна маленькая штучка" ("My Girl has got One Little Thing") allegedly popular in Rio.
While штучка reminds one of Ada's shtuchki ("little stunts") as imitated by Lucette (2.5) and of Chose (Fr., "thing"), Van's University, the Charleston brings to mind the dancing of the black passengers onboard the ship bound for Rio de Janeiro in Heine's poem Das Sklavenschiff ("The Slave Ship", 1853). The poem's two white characters, the supercargo Mynheer van Koek and Doctor van der Smissen, are Dutch.
Like Swift's Gulliver, van der Smissen is a naval surgeon. It is van der Smissen who suggests that the negro slaves should dance on the deck in order to reduce the death-rate among them. Mynheer van Koek thanks his Wasserfeldscherer for the advice, saying that he is as clever as Aristoteles, Alexander's teacher:
"Der Praesident der Sozietaet
Der Tulpenveredlung in Delfte
Ist sehr gescheit, doch hat er nicht
Von Eurem Verstande die Haelfte.
Musik! Musik! Die Schwarzen solln
Hier auf dem Verdecke tanzen.
Und wer sich beim Hopsen nicht amuesiert,
Den soll die Peitsche kuranzen."
It is interesting to compare Heine's poem to Chekhov's story Gusev, in which the action also takes place onboard a ship (sailing in a different ocean).
Платон + штаны + указ + болото + дог + Аа = панталоны + штука + золото + Бог + Ада
Платон - Plato
указ - decree, edict; cf. Mandelshtam: Как подковы куёт за указом указ, / Кому в пах, кому в лоб, кому в бровь, кому в глаз ([Stalin] forges decrees like horseshoes, / Some gets it in the groin, some in the forehead, some in the brow, some in the eye)
болото - bog
дог - Great Dane
Aa - river in Kurland
панталоны - obs., trousers; cf. Pushkin: Но панталоны, фрак, жилет, / Всех этих слов на русском нет (but "pantaloons," "dress coat," "waistcoat" - / in Russian all these words are not)
штука - thing; trick; piece, item; штука = шутка (joke)
золото - gold
Бог - God
Ада - Ada
Африка = кифара = фрак + аи = факир + а = Карфаген + иней + грехи - Генрих Гейне
Африка - Africa
кифара - kithara
фрак - dress coat; фрак = кафр (Kaffir)
аи - Ay (champagne)
факир - fakir; факир = фиакр (fiacre)
Карфаген - Carthage
иней - hoar-frost, rime
грехи - sins
Генрих Гейне - Heinrich Heine
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/