Барбошин. В двух словах: только пошляки
ходят маятником, а я делаю так (ходит).
(Barboshin. In a word: only vulgar persons walk like a
pendulum, and I do it this way (walks). "The Event," Act Three)
- Доктор, - сказал зоолог, - будьте добры, не
ходите как маятник. У меня от вас мелькает в глазах.
Доктор остановился. Фон Корен стал прицеливаться
в Лаевского.
("Doctor," said the zoologist, "be so good as not to move to
and fro like a pendulum. You make me dizzy."
The doctor stood still. Von
Koren began to take aim at Laevsky. Chekhov, "The Duel,"
chapter XIX).
Unfortunately, Andrey Babikov's article on VN's play, "Только
пошляки ходят маятником: подпись В. Набокова на холсте "События"" ("Only Vulgar
Persons Walk like a Pendulum: V. Nabokov's Signature on the Canvas of The
Event"), is no longer available in Zembla.* I read it ten
years ago and, as far as I remember, Babikov doesn't mention Dr Ustimovich
(a character in Chekhov's story who moves to and fro like a
pendulum).
Incidentally, this Dr Ustimovich has трость, a cane, in his
hand: За ним шли его секунданты, два
очень молодых офицера одинакового роста, Бойко и Говоровский, в белых кителях, и
тощий, нелюдимый доктор Устимович, который в одной руке нес узел с чем-то, а
другую заложил назад; по обыкновению, вдоль спины у него была вытянута
трость. Положив узел на землю и ни с кем не здороваясь, он
отправил и другую руку за спину и зашагал по поляне.
He [von Koren] was followed by his seconds, Boyko and
Govorovsky, two very young officers of the same height, wearing white tunics,
and Ustimovitch, the thin, unsociable doctor; in one hand he had a bag of some
sort, and in the other hand, as usual, a cane which he held behind him. Laying
the bag on the ground and greeting no one, he put the other hand, too, behind
his back and began pacing up and down the glade. ("The Duel," chapter
XIX)
Trost' (cane) and Troshcheykin (the main
character in "The Event") both come from trostit' (obs., "to twist,
wind, twin"). Troshcheykin insists that his name should be written with
yat' (name of old Russian letter Ѣ replaced by e in 1918).
Lyubov' regrets having married TroshchѢikin and says that she had
married letter yat':
Да, вот и выходит, что я вышла
замуж за букву "ять" (Act One).
But Yat' (Ять) is the name of a guest (the
telegraphist) in Chekhov's one-act play "Свадьба" ("The Wedding," 1890).
The bridegroom's name in Chekhov's play is Aplombov. Mme
Vagabundova, whose portrait Troshcheykin is anxious to finish, wonders if
Barbashin has an aplomb to hurl a bomb:
Может быть, метнёт бомбу?
А, - хватит апломбу? (Act
Two)**
*I shall be grateful, if somebody (the author?) kindly sends
me the text of AB's article.
**see also in Topos my Russian article "Barboshin instead
of Barbashin..."
Alexey Sklyarenko