Alexey Sklyarenko:A couple of anagrams with Veen, just to "divert" folks...Neva is "the legendary river of Old Rus" (2.1); venena is Latin for "poison" (cf. the line from Blok's poem about a Jewish chemist: "And before the cabinet inscribed venena")

JM: A small contribution to your divertissement on Veen and "venena."
I may later try it on "Ada," but right now "Pale Fire" is handier. Veen's venom will be fun to track down...
 
Here are a couple of lines with venena:
(a) (Kinbote) "The thick venom of envy began squirting at me;" (b) (CK) "the narstran, a hellish hall where the souls of murderers were tortured under a constant drizzle of drake venom coming down from the foggy vault"; (c) (CK) "I regard their references to me as a mixture of journalistic callousness and the venom of vipers."
 
There are mentions to poison too (fourteen pretenders were poisoned, a solitary man can be poisonous in words and deeds, a masterbuilder ( and his apprentices Yan,Yonny, and Angeling) died by poisoning. I don't know if I covered all the occurrences.
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.