Lady Mathilde, a character in Heine's Die
Baeder von Lucca, exclaims: "wenn Sie vielleicht
zweihundert Jahre frueher gelebt haetten, wie es mir mit meinem Freunde Michael
de Cervantes Saavedra begegnet, oder gar wenn Sie hundert Jahre spaeter auf die
Welt gekommen waeren als ich, wie ein anderer intimer Freund von mir, dessen
Namen ich nicht einmal weiss, eben weil er ihn erst by seiner Geburt, Anno 1900,
erhalten wird!" (Kapitel I).
VN was born in 1899, a year too early to be
Mathilde's intimate friend, but he shares with the author of Don
Quixote his birthday (April 23).*
Btw., Doctor, the narrator of Die Baeder
von Lucca to whom the above words of Lady Mathilde are
addressed, affirms that he was born in the New Year's night,
1800. This allows his friend, Marquis Gumpelino, to joke
that he, Doctor, is "one of the first men of our
century" (Kapitel VI). Many a VN character, including Lolita and Van Veen,
were born on January 1.
Unless I'm deceived by memory, VN says
somewhere that his education in Cambridge was paid for with his
mother's jewels. In his Memorien Heine
says that his mother, who paid for her son's education, das Geld nicht liebte, sondern nur schaetzte (valued money, without being fond of it). And a little
further: "Ich war
uebrigens nicht der erste in unserer Familie, der auf der Universitaet
Edelsteine aufgegessen und Perlen verschlueckt hatte. Der Vater meiner Mutter,
wie diese mir einst erzaehlte, erprobte dasselbe Kunststueck. Die Jewelen,
welche das Gebetbuch seiner verstorbenen Mutter verzierten, musten die Kosten
seines Aufenthalts auf der Universitaet bestreiten, als sein Vater, der alte
Lazarus de Geldern... in grosse Armut geraten war".
Cf. Marquis Gumpelino's words in Die Baeder von
Lucca (Kapitel III): "Was ist Geld? Geld ist rund
und rollt weg, aber die Bildung bleibt" (what is money? Money is
round and rolls away, but the education remains).
Geld (money) and Geldern were in
my earlier anagrams: Heine + England + Geld + real = Heiland + legend +
general; Naechtliche Fahrt +
Geldern + e = gefaehrliche Nacht + Eltern + d
Here are
several new equations:
Mathilde + Cervantes + intime =
almeh + Cid + Van + interest + time
Cervantes + dar = servant +
cedar
Mathilde - female
given name; the name of Heine's French wife
intime - Fr.,
intimate
Cid - a legendary
Spanish soldier, hero of the wars against the Moors
dar - Russ.,
gift
A minor correction: neige
+ land + h (in my earlier Heine +
gland anagram) should be changed to hygiene +
land - y
*according to a different version, Cervantes
(b. 1547) died on April 23, 1616
Alexey Sklyarenko