JM: So there’s a poem by Nik. T-o (Nobody) with the infinite as its title. It gives an additional intricacy to the pattern when we remember include PF’s actress Iris Acht (Acht: eight,8…attention), as it’s been discussed in the past.

In fact, at the beginning of his poem ∞ Annenski (Nik. T-o) compares the infinity symbol to 8 (in German, acht) toppled over:

Девиз Таинственной похож
На опрокинутое 8:
Она — отраднейшая ложь
Из всех, что мы в сознаньи носим.

According to Annenski, of all the lies that we keep in our consciousness infinity is the most comforting one.

Iris Acht was a celebrated actress. The characters of Annenski’s Famira kifared. Vakkhicheskaya drama (“Thamyras Cytharoede: A Bacchic Drama,” 1906) include Irida (i. e. Iris, a messenger of the gods, regarded as the goddess of the rainbow). Iris Acht was the mistress of Thurgus the Third, K.’s grandfather who liked to bicycle in the park (Index to PF).

Iris + nikto + svet + Lolita = Sirin + svitok + leto + tail/lait

nikto – nobody

svet – light; world; in Sirin’s novel Otchayanie (“Despair,” 1932) Hermann (Felix’s “double”) quotes Pushkin’s poem Na svete schast’ya net… (“There is no bliss in the world…” 1835)

svitok – roll, scroll; in his wonderful poem Vospominanie (“Reminiscence,” 1828) Pushkin mentions dlinnyi svitok (a lengthy roll) that his memory unfolds

leto – summer; Shade composes his poem in July

lait – Fr., milk

Alexey Sklyarenko