Subject
things are moving (the ice is broken)
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Date
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I belatedly realize that the heroine of Akhmatova's poem (quoted in my previous post) is probably the blacksmith's wife. Anya Gorenko hailed from Ukraine (she was born in Bol'shoy Fontan, in the environs of Odessa*). Ukraine's most famous writer (who wrote in Russian) is N. V. Gogol'. The hero of Gogol's fairy tale "Ночь перед Рождеством" (The Christmas Eve, 1832) is a blacksmith and painter Vakula.** The action in it takes place in the times of the empress Catherine II (1762-96), who is one of the tale's characters. On the other hand, she is mentioned by Gumilyov in "Заблудившийся трамвай" (The Lost Tram), the poem that I also quoted in my previous post:
Машенька, ты здесь жила и пела,
Мне, жениху, ковёр ткала,
Где же теперь твой голос и тело,
Может ли быть, что ты умерла?
Как ты стонала в своей светлице,
Я же с напудренною косой
Шёл представляться к Императрице
И не увиделся вновь с тобой.
Mashenka, you lived here and sang,
You wove me, your betrothed, a carpet,
Where are your voice and body now,
Is it possible that you are dead?
How you groaned in your front chamber,
While I, in a powdered wig,
Went to introduce myself to the Empress
Never to see you again.***
"Машенька" (Mary, 1926) was the title of VN's first Russian novel. In Gumilyov's poem, the name Mashen'ka alludes to Masha Mironov, the heroine of Pushkin's tale "Капитанская дочка" (The Captain's Daughter, 1836).**** The action in it takes place in the years of the Pugachyov riot (1773-75). Заячий тулуп (a hareskin coat) given by the hero to Pugachyov plays a prominent part in the story.
Д-р Зайцев (the name comes from заяц, "hare"), an impostor and bygamist, is the hero of Chekhov's story "Ночь перед судом" (The Night before the Trial, 1886).***** Its title reminds one of Gogol's fairy tale, but also of Blok's poem "Перед Судом" (Before the Judgement Day, 1915) addressed to the poet's wife. Blok's most famous poem (directly alluded to in Ada: 3.3) is "Незнакомка" (Incognita, 1906). There are lines in it:
И пьяницы с глазами кроликов
"In vino veritas" кричат.
And drunks with the eyes of rabbits
Cry out: "In vino veritas!"
In Ada, Dr Krolik is a local entomologist, Ada's teacher of natural history. The names of most other physicians in the novel are also connected with rabbits.
As to the "in vino" axiom, in a letter of November 25, 1892, to Suvorin, Chekhov complains that modern art, and literature in particular, lacks the alcohol that would intoxicate the reader (or spectator, or listener). It's a pity that lack of time and bad English prevent me from translating this interesting letter. Any volunteers (the original can be found here: http://feb-web.ru/feb/chekhov/texts/sp0/pi5/pi5-1322.htm)? I also recommend to the Nabokovians Chekhov's very short but very amusing story "Женщина с точки зрения пьяницы" (Woman from the Point of View of a Drunkard, 1885).****** Note that the word пьяницы (the homonymous nom. pl. form) also occurs in the above-quoted lines by Blok.
Лёд тронулся, господа присяжные заседатели ("Things are moving, gentlemen of the jury"), as Ilf and Petrov's hero used to say.
*Ilf and Petrov's "Chernomorsk" (bol'shoy fontan means "big fountain" in Russian)
** Vakula = V + akula ("shark")
***The full text of Gumilyov's poem and its English translation can be found here: http://web.mmlc.northwestern.edu/~mdenner/Demo/texts/lost_tram.html
****cf. Captain Mayne Reid, author (on Terra) of Headless Horseman
*****I discuss it at length in my new article on doctors in Ada
******it is signed "My brother's brother" (incidentally, Chekhov's brother Aleksandr was an alcoholic); cf. "my sister's sister", as Aqua signed her last note in Ada (1.3); I speak at length of both Chekhov's letter to Suvorin and his story in my Russian 436-page-long in-vino-veritas piece
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Машенька, ты здесь жила и пела,
Мне, жениху, ковёр ткала,
Где же теперь твой голос и тело,
Может ли быть, что ты умерла?
Как ты стонала в своей светлице,
Я же с напудренною косой
Шёл представляться к Императрице
И не увиделся вновь с тобой.
Mashenka, you lived here and sang,
You wove me, your betrothed, a carpet,
Where are your voice and body now,
Is it possible that you are dead?
How you groaned in your front chamber,
While I, in a powdered wig,
Went to introduce myself to the Empress
Never to see you again.***
"Машенька" (Mary, 1926) was the title of VN's first Russian novel. In Gumilyov's poem, the name Mashen'ka alludes to Masha Mironov, the heroine of Pushkin's tale "Капитанская дочка" (The Captain's Daughter, 1836).**** The action in it takes place in the years of the Pugachyov riot (1773-75). Заячий тулуп (a hareskin coat) given by the hero to Pugachyov plays a prominent part in the story.
Д-р Зайцев (the name comes from заяц, "hare"), an impostor and bygamist, is the hero of Chekhov's story "Ночь перед судом" (The Night before the Trial, 1886).***** Its title reminds one of Gogol's fairy tale, but also of Blok's poem "Перед Судом" (Before the Judgement Day, 1915) addressed to the poet's wife. Blok's most famous poem (directly alluded to in Ada: 3.3) is "Незнакомка" (Incognita, 1906). There are lines in it:
И пьяницы с глазами кроликов
"In vino veritas" кричат.
And drunks with the eyes of rabbits
Cry out: "In vino veritas!"
In Ada, Dr Krolik is a local entomologist, Ada's teacher of natural history. The names of most other physicians in the novel are also connected with rabbits.
As to the "in vino" axiom, in a letter of November 25, 1892, to Suvorin, Chekhov complains that modern art, and literature in particular, lacks the alcohol that would intoxicate the reader (or spectator, or listener). It's a pity that lack of time and bad English prevent me from translating this interesting letter. Any volunteers (the original can be found here: http://feb-web.ru/feb/chekhov/texts/sp0/pi5/pi5-1322.htm)? I also recommend to the Nabokovians Chekhov's very short but very amusing story "Женщина с точки зрения пьяницы" (Woman from the Point of View of a Drunkard, 1885).****** Note that the word пьяницы (the homonymous nom. pl. form) also occurs in the above-quoted lines by Blok.
Лёд тронулся, господа присяжные заседатели ("Things are moving, gentlemen of the jury"), as Ilf and Petrov's hero used to say.
*Ilf and Petrov's "Chernomorsk" (bol'shoy fontan means "big fountain" in Russian)
** Vakula = V + akula ("shark")
***The full text of Gumilyov's poem and its English translation can be found here: http://web.mmlc.northwestern.edu/~mdenner/Demo/texts/lost_tram.html
****cf. Captain Mayne Reid, author (on Terra) of Headless Horseman
*****I discuss it at length in my new article on doctors in Ada
******it is signed "My brother's brother" (incidentally, Chekhov's brother Aleksandr was an alcoholic); cf. "my sister's sister", as Aqua signed her last note in Ada (1.3); I speak at length of both Chekhov's letter to Suvorin and his story in my Russian 436-page-long in-vino-veritas piece
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/