война + перемирие + циклоп + Троя + Блок = времири + Пенелопа + Троцкий + яблоко = Бриарей + ярмо + облик + венец + тело + пик = Велимир + бойня + Перекоп + кормилица + тритон + гностик + Лолита - орнитолог - Сталин - тик/кит

война – war

перемирие – armistice, truce

циклоп – Cyclops

Троя – Troy

Блок – A. A. Blok (1880-1921), the poet

времири – “timefinches,” Khlebnikov’s neologism derived from vremya (time) and snegir’ (bullfinch)

Пенелопа – Penelope (the wife of Odysseus)

Троцкий – L. D. Trotsky (1879-1940), the Soviet minister of war in 1918-25

яблоко – apple (cf. the apple of discord)

Бриарей – Briareus (a hundred-armed son of Uranus and Gaea mentioned in the Iliad)

ярмо – yoke

облик – look, aspect, appearance

венец – crown

тело – body

пик – peak

Велимир – Velimir Khlebnikov (the penname of Victor Khlebnikov, 1885-1922), the poet and wordsmith

бойня – slaughter-house; slaughter

Перекоп – the Isthmus of Perekop, the narrow strip of land connecting the Crimean peninsula to the mainland; in 1919 VN’s cousin and best friend Yuri Rausch von Traubenberg was killed there while fighting the Reds

кормилица – wet-nurse

тритон – triton (in “The Bronze Horseman” Pushkin compares St. Petersburg after the 1824 flood to a triton)

гностик - Gnostic

Лолита – Lolita

орнитолог – ornithologist

Сталин – I. V. Stalin (1879-1953), the Soviet leader in 1924-53

тик – tic

кит – whale

Alexey Sklyarenko