The only real place mentioned in VN's plays Sobytie
("The Event," 1938) and Izobretenie Val'sa ("The Waltz Invention,"
1938) is Barnaul (a city in and the capital of the Altai territory, on the Ob
river):
Любовь. Я знаю, что вы обожаете
развлекаться чужими делами. Шерлок Холмс из Барнаула. (Act
Two)
Lyubov' jokingly calls Ryovshin, who loves to poke his nose
into other people's affairs, "a Sherlock Holmes from Barnaul."
Sobyitie and
izobretenie both have ob in them. And
so does Koba (Stalin's nackname, see anagram
below). According to Troshcheykin, Barbashin is lovok kak
obez'yana (deft as a monkey):
Барбошин. Извините, что ограничиваюсь
полунамёками. Тайна исповеди. Но к делу, к делу. Что вам не нравится в этом
отличном окошке?
Трощейкин. Смотрите: совсем рядом водосточная
труба, и по ней легко можно взобраться.
Барбошин. Контрклиент
может себе сломать шею.
Трощейкин. Он ловок, как обезьяна! (Act
Three)
Barboshin's polunamyoki (subtle hints) bring to mind
the closing lines of Baratynski's poem Blagosloven svyatoe
vozvestivshiy ("Blest is he who announced a holy thing..."
1839):
Благословен святое возвестивший!
Но в
глубине разврата не погиб
Какой-нибудь неправедный изгиб
Сердец людских
пред нами обнаживший.
Две области: сияния и тьмы
Исследовать равно
стремимся мы.
Плод яблони со древа упадает:
Закон небес
постигнул человек!
Так в дикий смысл порока посвящает
Нас иногда один его
намек.
...Thus sometimes only a hint of vice
introduces us into its preposterous meaning.
According to Baratynski, dve oblasti:
siyaniya i t'my / issledovat' ravno stremimsya my ("We equally
attempt to study two realms: that of radiance and that of darkness"). The
title of VN's novel Bend Sinister (1947) is sometimes translated as
"Zloveshchiy izgib," as a possible allusion to nepravednyi
izgib serdets lyudskikh (some iniquitous twist of human
hearts) in Baratynski's poem. A person who
revealed this izgib (bend; twist) of human hearts "did not
perish in the depth of depravity."
At the end of "The Event" Lyubov' mentions
obryv (a precipice)
in her life:
Любовь. Ну, вы не много мне
сказали. Я думала, что вы предскажете мне что-нибудь
необыкновенное, потрясающее... например, что в жизни у меня сейчас обрыв, что
меня ждёт удивительное, страшное, волшебное счастье...
(ibid.)
Obryv ("The Precipice," 1869) is
novel by Goncharov, the author of Obyknovennaya
istoriya ("A Common Story," 1847) and
Oblomov (1859). In a letter of beginning of May,
1889, to Suvorin Chekhov criticizes Oblomov and says
that his play Leshiy ("The Wood Demon" later reworked into Uncle
Vanya, 1890) vytantsovyvaetsya (is coming off). The verb
vytantsovyvat'sya used by Chekhov comes from
tantsevat' (to dance). Troshcheykin's wife Lyubov' is a
daughter of Antonina Pavlovna Opoyashin, the writer whose name and patronymic
hint at Chekhov. The portrait painter Aleksey Maksimovich Troshcheykin is a
namesake of Maxim Gorky (penname of A. M. Peshkov). The author of The
Event and The Waltz Invention is a namesake of V. V. Mayakovski
(1893-1930). In his poem Oblako v shtanakh
("The Trousered Cloud," 1915) VN's "late namesake" mentions Faust gliding
with Mephistopheles in heavenly parquet and says that a nail in
his boot is more nightmarish than a fantasy of Goethe:
Что мне до Фауста,
феерией
ракет
скользящего с Мефистофелем в небесном паркете!
Я знаю -
гвоздь у
меня в сапоге
кошмарней, чем фантазия у Гете!
Barboshin (the private detective hired by Troshcheykin to
protect himself from Barbashin) complains that his shoe troubles him. He
takes it off, finds that a nail sticks out and asks for molotochek (a
little hammer) or something:
Барбошин. Меня этот башмак давно
беспокоит. (Стаскивает его.)... (исследуя башмак). Так и знал: гвоздь
торчит... Молоточек, что-нибудь... Хорошо, дайте это...(Act
Three)
The phrase Khorosho, dayte eto ("Ok, give me this")
hints at two poems by Mayakovski: Khorosho ("Good," 1927) and
Pro eto (About it," 1923). In the latter poem eto (it) is
lyubov' (love).
In The Waltz Invention Waltz listens to the song
of a whore and recognizes his own juvenile verses:
Толстая (начинает вдруг петь, -- на мотив
"Отойди, не гляди").
Темнота и паром,
и вдали огоньки,
и
прощанье навек
у широкой реки... (Act
Three)
On the bank of a wide river the girl parts
forever with her lover, a convict. The wide river in the whore's song is
presumably Ob.
Salvator Waltz's real name seems to be Leonid Barbashin, and
the action of The Waltz Invention seems to take place in
Lyubov's dream that she dreams "in the sleep of death." At the end of
The Event Lyubov' tells Meshaev the Second (the occultist who
reads Lyubov's palm) that she thought he would have predicted to
her a wonderful, terrifying, magical schast'ye
(bliss) awaiting her. In his poem Pora, moy drug,
pora... ('Tis time, my dear, 'tis time... 1834) quoted by Hermann,
the narrator and main character in VN's novel Otchayanie ("Despair,"
1934), Pushkin says: na svete schast'ya net ( there is no bliss on
earth).
Пора, мой друг, пора! покоя сердце просит —
Летят за
днями дни, и каждый час уносит
Частичку бытия, а мы с тобой
вдвоём
Предполагаем жить, и глядь — как раз умрём.
На свете счастья
нет, но есть покой и воля.
Давно завидная мечтается мне доля —
Давно,
усталый раб, замыслил я побег
В обитель
дальную трудов и чистых нег.
'Tis time, my dear, 'tis
time. The heart demands repose.
Day after day flits by, and with each hour there goes
A little bit of life; but meanwhile you and I
Together plan to dwell… yet lo! 'tis then we die.
There is no bliss on earth: there is peace and freedom,
though.
An enviable lot I long have yearned to know:
Long have I, weary slave, been contemplating flight
To a remote abode of work and
pure delight.
Pobeg
(flight) and
obitel' (abode) have
ob
in them.
In The Waltz Invention Waltz wants to rule the world from Palmora
(in the English version, Palmera), a distant island. In The Event
Troshcheykin contemplates flight and mentions "the palms of somnolent
Vampuka:"
Трощейкин. Нам нужно бежать...
Любовь. Да, да,
да!
Трощейкин. ...бежать, -- а мы почему-то медлим под пальмами
сонной Вампуки. Я чувствую, что надвигается...
Любовь. Опасность? Но
какая? О, если б ты мог понять!
Трощейкин. Опасность, столь же реальная,
как наши руки, плечи, щёки. Люба, мы совершенно одни.
Любовь. Да, одни. Но это два одиночества, и оба совсем
круглы. Пойми меня! (Act Two)
"Yes, we are alone. But these are two solitudes, and both are
perfectly round. Try to understand me!" There is ob
in oba (both), the word used by
Lyubov'.
Nabokov + molotok + bal = Oblomov + Kant +
oblako = Molotov + Koba + balkon = obmolot + vobla/obval + konka = moloko +
bolvan + obkat = obman + kolokol + botva = boloto + bokal + amvon +
k
molotok - hammer
bal - ball, dance; narrative
poem (1828) by Baratynski
Kant - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804),
German philosopher
oblako - cloud
Molotov - Soviet statesman (V. M.
Skryabin, 1890-1986), commissar of foreign affairs; former name of Perm; cf.
"Molotov cocktail"
balkon - balcony
obmolot - threshing
vobla - Caspian roach (according to
Waltz, he detests vobla)
obval - falling;
landslip
konka - horse-drawn
tram
moloko - milk
bolvan - blockhead; dummy;
idol
obkat - smoothing out,
etc.
obman - deception;
illusion
kolokol - bell
botva - leafy tops of
root vegetables
boloto - marsh; bog
bokal - glass; goblet; poem
(1835) by Baratynski
amvon - ambo, pulpit
k - to, towards
Btw., the name Opoyashin can also hint at OPOYAZ
(Obshchestvo izucheniya poeticheskogo yazyka),
"Society for the Study of Poetic Language," a prominent group of
linguists and literary critics in St. Petersburg founded in 1916 and dissolved by
the early 1930s. The group included Viktor Shklovsky, Boris Eikhenbaum, Osip
Brik (the husband of Mayakovski's mistress Lilya Brik) and Yuri
Tynyanov.
Alexey Sklyarenko