In one of my previous posts I quoted a passage from
Heine's "The Baths of Lucca" (Chapter XI), in which Count Platen is
called "a male tribade":
In der Tat, er ist mehr ein Mann von Steiss, als ein Mann von Kopf,
der Name Mann ueberhaupt passt nicht fuer ihn, seine Liebe hat einen passiven
pythagoraeischen Charakter, er ist in seinen Gedichten ein
Pathikos, er ist ein Weib, und zwar ein Weib, das sich an gleich Weibischem
ergoetzt, er ist gleichsam eine maennliche Tribade.
The term pythagoraeisch ("pythagorean")
points to Pythagoras, Nero's catamite, a namesake of the Greek
philosopher, mathematician and religious reformer (6th century B.C.). The latter
is famous for his theorem. When Russian school
children learn it, they are made to memorize this
couplet:
Пифагоровы штаны
на все стороны равны
(All sides of Pythagorean trousers are
equal).
Russian poets and writers (most of whom weren't
sans-culottes) always had a predilection for the word штаны
(trousers). Rosanov famously said that literature was his trousers ("I do in
them whatever I want"). Mayakovsky's first long poem is "Облако в штанах" ("The
Trousered Cloud", 1916). According to
Ostap Bender, the hero of Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs" and "The Golden
Calf", all citizens of Rio de Janeiro wear white trousers. Telling Balaganov
about the city of his dream, Bender mentions a Charleston "У моей девочки есть
одна маленькая штучка" ("My Girl has got One Little Thing") allegedly
popular in Rio.
While штучка reminds one of
Ada's shtuchki ("little stunts") as imitated by Lucette (2.5) and
of Chose (Fr., "thing"), Van's University, the Charleston brings to
mind the dancing of the black passengers onboard the ship bound
for Rio de Janeiro in Heine's poem Das Sklavenschiff ("The Slave
Ship", 1853). The poem's two white characters, the supercargo Mynheer van
Koek and Doctor van der Smissen, are Dutch.
Like Swift's Gulliver, van der Smissen is a naval
surgeon. It is van der Smissen who suggests that the negro slaves
should dance on the deck in order to reduce the death-rate among
them. Mynheer van Koek thanks his Wasserfeldscherer for the
advice, saying that he is as clever as Aristoteles, Alexander's
teacher:
"Der Praesident der
Sozietaet
Der Tulpenveredlung in
Delfte
Ist sehr gescheit, doch hat er
nicht
Von Eurem Verstande die
Haelfte.
Musik! Musik! Die Schwarzen
solln
Hier auf dem Verdecke
tanzen.
Und wer sich beim Hopsen nicht
amuesiert,
Den soll die Peitsche
kuranzen."
It is interesting to compare Heine's poem to
Chekhov's story Gusev, in which the action also takes place onboard a
ship (sailing in a different ocean).
Платон + штаны + указ + болото + дог
+ Аа = панталоны + штука + золото + Бог + Ада
Платон -
Plato
указ - decree, edict;
cf. Mandelshtam: Как подковы куёт за указом указ, / Кому в
пах, кому в лоб, кому в бровь, кому в глаз ([Stalin]
forges decrees like horseshoes, / Some gets it in the groin, some in the
forehead, some in the brow, some in the eye)
болото - bog
дог - Great
Dane
Aa - river in
Kurland
панталоны - obs., trousers; cf. Pushkin: Но
панталоны, фрак, жилет, / Всех этих слов на русском нет (but
"pantaloons," "dress coat," "waistcoat" - / in Russian all these words are
not)
штука - thing; trick;
piece, item; штука = шутка (joke)
золото -
gold
Бог - God
Ада - Ada
Африка = кифара = фрак + аи =
факир + а = Карфаген + иней + грехи - Генрих Гейне
Африка -
Africa
кифара -
kithara
фрак - dress coat; фрак = кафр (Kaffir)
аи - Ay
(champagne)
факир - fakir; факир = фиакр (fiacre)
Карфаген -
Carthage
иней - hoar-frost,
rime
грехи -
sins
Генрих Гейне - Heinrich
Heine
Alexey Sklyarenko