Ved' ('it is, isn't it') sidesplitting
to imagine that 'Russia,' instead of being a quaint synonym of Estoty, the
American province extending from the Arctic no longer vicious Circle to the
United States proper, was on Terra the name of a country, transferred as if by
some sleight of land across the ha-ha of a doubled ocean to the
opposite hemisphere where it sprawled over all of today's Tartary, from Kurland
to the Kuriles! (1.3)
Ved' is a part of ved'ma (witch) and
medved' (bear). In Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (Five: XXIV: 5-9)
ved'ma and medved' are among the words Tatiana looks
up in Martin Zadeck (the interpreter of dreams):
Татьяна в оглавленье кратком
Находит азбучным
порядком
Слова: бор, буря, ведьма, ель,
Еж, мрак, мосток,
медведь, мятель
И прочая.
Tatiana in the brief index
Looks up in alphabetic order
the words: forest, storm, raven,* fir,
hedgehog, gloom, footbridge, bear, snowstorm,
et cetera.
On Demonia (aka Antiterra, Earth's twin planet on which Ada is
set) Viedma (a sea port in Argentina) is also known as Witch:
From
Manhattan, via Mephisto, El Paso, Meksikansk and the Panama Chunnel, the
dark-red New World Express reached Brazilia and Witch (or Viedma, founded by a
Russian admiral). (2.2)
Knowing how fond his sisters were of
Russian fare and Russian floor shows, Van took them Saturday night to 'Ursus,'
the best Franco-Estotian restaurant in Manhattan Major.
(2.8)
The restaurant's name seems to hint at Ursus, a character in
Hugo's L'Homme qui rit (1869). On the other hand, ursus
being Latin for "bear," one recalls Medved', a fashionable
restaurant in St. Petersburg before the Revolution.
According to Martin Zadeck, a small bridge of birch withes... is put together and and
placed under the maiden's pillow. At bedtime she incants: "He who is
my suzhenyi [the one destined me] will help me over the bridge." He
appears to her in a dream and leads her across by the hand.
It will be noted that the bear, Onegin's
chum (Five: XV: 11), who helps Tatiana to cross over in her prophetic dream
(XII: 7-13), foreshadows her future husband, the corpulent general, a relation
of Onegin's. An interesting structural move in the development of Pushkin's
precise composition that blends creative intuition and artistic
foresight. (EO Commentary, II, p. 503)
In 1901, in Paris (on Antiterra, aka Lute), Van meets Greg
Erminin (his playmate who as a child lived in the neighborhood of Ardis, Daniel
Veen's family estate):
'I'm also very fat, yes?'
'What about Grace, I can't imagine her getting
fat?'
'Once twins, always twins. My wife is pretty
portly, too.'
'Tak tï zhenat (so you are married)?
Didn't know it. How long?'
'About two years.'
'To whom?'
'Maude Sween.'
'The daughter of the poet?'
'No, no, her mother is a Brougham.'
Might have replied 'Ada Veen,' had Mr
Vinelander not been a quicker suitor. I think I met a Broom somewhere.
(3.2)
This is a reminiscence of Onegin's dialogue with Prince N.
(Tatiana's husband) in Chapter Eight of EO:
"Так ты женат! не знал я ране!
Давно ли?"
- Около двух лет. -
"На ком?" - На Лариной. -
"Татьяне!"
- Ты ей знаком? - "Я им сосед".
So you are married! Didn't know before.
How long?" "About two years."
"Two whom?" "The Larin girl." "Tatiana!"
"She knows you?" "I'm their neighbor." (XVV: 1-4)
It is after the dinner at 'Ursus' that Van learns the name of
Ada's future husband:
'Turn off the footlights,' said Van. 'I want the
name of that fellow.'
'Vinelander,' she [Lucette] answered. (2.8)
Ved'ma (The Witch, 1886) is a story and
Medved' (The Bear, 1888) an one-act play by Chekhov.
Chekhov is also the author of two monologues O vrede tabaka (On the
Harm of Tobacco, 1886, 1903).** No doubt, it was Admiral Tobakoff (the
ancestor of Cordula's first husband, Ivan Tobak) who founded Witch (or
Viedma). Van's conversation with the Vinelanders (Ada, her husband Andrey
and Andrey's sister Dasha) in Part Three of Ada (3.8) is a parody
of Chekhov's mannerisms (see Vivian Darkbloom's 'Notes to Ada'). Ada's
husband (who dies of tuberculosis, as Chekhov did) is a namesake of Andrey
Andreich, the heroine's fiancé in Chekhov's last story Nevesta (The
Bride, 1903).
*In VN's translation of EO "raven" corresponds to
voron in all three lifetime editions of EO Five. Ved'ma
(witch) appeared only in the Acad 1937 edition (see EO Commentary, II, p.
516). Van and Ada are the children of Demon Veen. In society
he [Demon] was generally known as Raven Veen or
simply Dark Walter to distinguish him from Marina's husband [Lucette's father Daniel Veen], Durak Walter or simply Red
Veen. (1.1) According to Van, Lucette's "firebird" is as fascinating as
Ada's "blue raven:" Simultaneously, without turning her
head, she [Ada] slapped furtive Van away from
her rear, and with her other hand made magic passes over the small but very
pretty breasts, gemmed with sweat, and along the flat palpitating belly of a
seasand nymph, down to the firebird seen by Van once, fully fledged now, and as
fascinating in its own way as his favorite's blue raven. Enchantress!
Acrasia! (2.8)
**Kurit' (Russ., "to smoke") brings to mind Kurland
and the Kurils mentioned by Van (1.3).
Alexey Sklyarenko