Message

The Lichberg sleuthing gets ever more fatuous. So much so, that I thought Mr. Tolksdorf's examples were being given in jest. Perhaps they were, and I have gobbled the bait. If not, let me point out the absurdity of his very first illustration. The mention of Leonardo may ring an instant bell for him, but he should be reminded that the story was written in Russian, and that its original title was "Korolyok" ("kinglet"), a semi-slang term for "forger." When I translated the story into English, an equivalent seemed unavailable. My father and I searched until he made a brilliant find: the humorous, old-fashioned underworld term "leonardo." The furthest thing from his mind was a reference to Lichberg's Gioconda. I shall not bother with Tolksdorf's other examples, for, if he is not joshing, they are similarly inane [the woolfing (sic) down of food and so forth], and the gentleman should have feared to tread before lurching onto bilingual ground.