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")
****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