A. Sklyarenko: ... 'I refuse to share the ardor of your little canicule with an
apple tree.' ...It seems that dogs (canicule, little dog),
rabbits (Krolik), devils (chort) and female genitalia
are indeed connected and meet again in Kunikulinov and Dan's
cherti sobach'i.
JM: In English, "canicule"
refers to a sudden heat wave or to the "dog days" in August but, using
Portuguese links, the canicule is referred to a surge of heat in
the Northern Hemisphere, to the thin stalks of the sugar-cane and
to the star Sirius. In the French wiki, the connection to Sirius is made
clearer: "En Occident, la canicule était censée survenir au moment
où Sirius, l'étoile la plus brillante de la constellation du Grand Chien,
se lève et se couche en même temps que le Soleil, c'est-à-dire grosso modo, au Moyen
Âge et de nos jours, pendant le mois d'août.
Rather satisfying for my non-too-discriminating tastes:
canicule - heat - constelation of Canis(Dog) Major*. Speaking of
which...
Serge
Soloviev (to Alexey and JM): "and what means in this conexts
'kos-khalva'? In Russia one knows this kind of oriental
sweets".
JM: Relying on the online dics, I got to items as varied
as a "sweet leaf", the "torrón" and the "Turkish Delight" (
Will it take us to Pale Fire's: "So why join in the vulgar laughter?
Why/ Scorn a
hereafter none can verify:/ The Turk’s delight, the future lyres, the
talks/ With
Socrates and Proust in cypress walks,/ The seraph with his six flamingo
wings,/ And
Flemish hells with porcupines and things?" ).
I
must confess that Serge Soloviev's "context" eludes me (was it the
canicule? were they some verbiose confabulations?) (In
VN-controlled "Feu pâle" I find "Les délices du Turc," as it was
originally presented in
VN's unsweetened English.)
.........................................................................................................................................
*Thanks to wiki I learned that this constelation in the
southern hemisphere is variously represented in the Brasilian flag. α CMa, Sirius (Mato Grosso); β CMa, Mirzam
(Amapá); y CMa, Muliphen (Rondonia);δ CMa, Wezen (Roraima); ε CMa, Adhara
(Tocantins). I suppose I should have known this long before
now...