Subject
ADA's kurva or 'ribbon boule'
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"the violent dance called kurva or 'ribbon boule' in the hilarious program whose howlers almost caused Veen (tingling, and light-loined, and with Prince N.'s rose-red banknote in his pocket) to fall from his seat."
kurva ("whore") = rukav ("sleeve"). Tatarin ("a tartar"), a character in Gorky's At the Bottom, exclaims: Karta rukav soval! ("you've put the card in your sleeve!"), as he accuses Satin of cheating in a card game.
'ribbon boule' hints at "Moscow's ribbon of boulevards," as Lowell mistranslated the phrase kurva-Moskva ("Moscow the whore") in a poem by Mandelshtam, but also at Boule de suif ("Ball-of-Fat"), the prostitute in Maupassant's eponymous story (1880). According to Vivian Darkbloom, Guy de Maupassant (1850-93) doesn't exist on Antiterra. Instead of him, they have on Demonia 'Guillaume de Monparnasse,' as Mlle Larivière, Lucette's governess, signs her stories and novels. During their first ramble in Ardis park, Ada asks Van: "Have you read any of Mlle Larivière's stories? Well, you will. She thinks that in some former Hindooish state she was a boulevardier in Paris; and writes accordingly" (1.8).
Boulevard de Montparnasse is street in Paris. As I pointed out earlier, Montparnasse is also a character (a good-looking bandit) in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. In L'Homme qui rit, Hugo notes that "boulevard" and "billiard" (a game played with hard balls of ivory) are related words: Of bowling-green, a green on which to roll a ball, the French have made "boulingrin." Folks have this green inside their houses nowadays, only it is put on the table, is a cloth instead of turf, and is called billiards.
It is difficult to see why, having boulevard (boule-vert), which is the same word as bowling-green, the French should have adopted "boulingrin." It is surprising that a person so grave as the Dictionary should indulge in useless luxuries. (Book the Third. Chapter I: "The Tadcaster Inn").
It is surprising that a writer as grave as Mlle Larivière should adopt the rather immodest pen-name Monparnasse (the leaving out of the 't' should make it more intime). I may return to Hugo, and the adjective vert ("green") later.
Boule means "ball" in French. The Russian word for boule is shar (which also means "sphere," globe"). Shar + ada = sharada ("charade"). I suspect, I managed to solve Nabokov's difficult charade in Ada.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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kurva ("whore") = rukav ("sleeve"). Tatarin ("a tartar"), a character in Gorky's At the Bottom, exclaims: Karta rukav soval! ("you've put the card in your sleeve!"), as he accuses Satin of cheating in a card game.
'ribbon boule' hints at "Moscow's ribbon of boulevards," as Lowell mistranslated the phrase kurva-Moskva ("Moscow the whore") in a poem by Mandelshtam, but also at Boule de suif ("Ball-of-Fat"), the prostitute in Maupassant's eponymous story (1880). According to Vivian Darkbloom, Guy de Maupassant (1850-93) doesn't exist on Antiterra. Instead of him, they have on Demonia 'Guillaume de Monparnasse,' as Mlle Larivière, Lucette's governess, signs her stories and novels. During their first ramble in Ardis park, Ada asks Van: "Have you read any of Mlle Larivière's stories? Well, you will. She thinks that in some former Hindooish state she was a boulevardier in Paris; and writes accordingly" (1.8).
Boulevard de Montparnasse is street in Paris. As I pointed out earlier, Montparnasse is also a character (a good-looking bandit) in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. In L'Homme qui rit, Hugo notes that "boulevard" and "billiard" (a game played with hard balls of ivory) are related words: Of bowling-green, a green on which to roll a ball, the French have made "boulingrin." Folks have this green inside their houses nowadays, only it is put on the table, is a cloth instead of turf, and is called billiards.
It is difficult to see why, having boulevard (boule-vert), which is the same word as bowling-green, the French should have adopted "boulingrin." It is surprising that a person so grave as the Dictionary should indulge in useless luxuries. (Book the Third. Chapter I: "The Tadcaster Inn").
It is surprising that a writer as grave as Mlle Larivière should adopt the rather immodest pen-name Monparnasse (the leaving out of the 't' should make it more intime). I may return to Hugo, and the adjective vert ("green") later.
Boule means "ball" in French. The Russian word for boule is shar (which also means "sphere," globe"). Shar + ada = sharada ("charade"). I suspect, I managed to solve Nabokov's difficult charade in Ada.
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/