At the airport of the moonlit white town we call Tent, and Tobakov's sailors, who built it, called Palatka, in northern Florida, where owing to engine trouble he had to change planes, Demon made a long-distance call and received a full account of Dan's death from the inordinately circumstantial Dr Nikulin (grandson of the great rodentiologist Kunikulinov - we can't get rid of the lettuce). (2.10)
There is a town in Florida called Palatka. In Russian, palatka means ¡°tent, marquee.¡± In the closing stanza of his poem Net, nikogda nichey ya ne byl sovremennik¡ (¡°No, I never was anybody¡¯s contemporary¡¡± 1924) Mandelshtam mentions palatka (a tent):
§ª §Ó §Ø§Ñ§â§Ü§à§Û §Ü§à§Þ§ß§Ñ§ä§Ö, §Ó §Ü§Ú§Ò§Ú§ä§Ü§Ö §Ú §Ó §á§Ñ§Ý§Ñ§ä§Ü§Ö
§£§Ö§Ü §å§Þ§Ú§â§Ñ§Ö§ä, ¡ª §Ñ §á§à§ä§à§Þ
§¥§Ó§Ñ §ã§à§ß§ß§í§ç §ñ§Ò§Ý§à§Ü§Ñ §ß§Ñ §â§à§Ô§à§Ó§à§Û §à§Ò§Ý§Ñ§ä§Ü§Ö
§³§Ú§ñ§ð§ä §á§Ö§â§Ú§ã§ä§í§Þ §à§Ô§ß§×§Þ.
On the other hand, one is reminded of shyolkovyi shatyor (the silk tent) mentioned by Mandelshtam at the end of his ¡°Ode to Beethoven¡± (1914):
§° §Ó§Ö§Ý§Ú§é§Ñ§Ó§à§Û §Ø§Ö§â§ä§Ó§í §á§Ý§Ñ§Þ§ñ!
§±§à§Ý§ß§Ö§Ò§Ñ §à§ç§Ó§Ñ§ä§Ú§Ý §Ü§à§ã§ä§×§â ¡ª
§ª §è§Ñ§â§ã§Ü§à§Û §ã§Ü§Ú§ß§Ú§Ú §ß§Ñ§Õ §ß§Ñ§Þ§Ú
§²§Ñ§Ù§à§Õ§â§Ñ§ß §ê§×§Ý§Ü§à§Ó§í§Û §ê§Ñ§ä§×§â.
§ª §Ó §á§â§à§Þ§Ö§Ø§å§ä§Ü§Ö §Ó§à§ã§á§Ñ§Ý§×§ß§ß§à§Þ,
§¤§Õ§Ö §Þ§í §ß§Ö §Ó§Ú§Õ§Ú§Þ §ß§Ú§é§Ö§Ô§à,¡ª
§´§í §å§Ü§Ñ§Ù§Ñ§Ý §Ó §é§Ö§â§ä§à§Ô§Ö §ä§â§à§ß§ß§à§Þ
§¯§Ñ §Ò§Ö§Ý§à§Û §ã§Ý§Ñ§Ó§í §ä§à§â§Ø§Ö§ã§ä§Ó§à!
Oh, flame of the majestic sacrifice!
Half of the sky is burning,
and above us the silk tent
of the King¡¯s tabernacle is torn up.
And in an inflamed interval,
where we see nothing,
you pointed at the triumph
of white glory in the throne hall!
Palatka + Nikulin + Pulkovo = palata + Kunikulinov + polk/klop = plitka + Nulin + Akapulkovo
Pulkovo ¨C a village near St. Petersburg, the site of a famous observatory; cf. Fyodor¡¯s poem in The Gift: Love only what is fanciful and rare; what from the distance of a dream steals through; what knaves condemn to death and fools can't bear. To fiction be as to your country true. Now is our time. Stray dogs and cripples are alone awake. Mild is the summer night. A car speeds by: Forever that last car has taken the last banker out of sight. Near that streetlight veined lime-leaves masquerade in chrysoprase with a translucent gleam. Beyond that gate lies Baghdad's crooked shade, and yon star sheds on Pulkovo its beam. Oh, swear to me- (Chapter Three)
palata ¨C chamber; ward; in Kalugano Van gets wounded in a pistol duel with Captain Tapper (a member of the Do-Re-La country club): For half a minute Van was sure that he still lay in the car, whereas actually he was in the general ward of Lakeview (Lakeview!) Hospital, between two series of variously bandaged, snoring, raving and moaning men. When he understood this, his first reaction was to demand indignantly that he be transferred to the best private palata in the place and that his suitcase and alpenstock be fetched from the Majestic. (1.42)
polk ¨C regiment; cf. V kakom polku sluzhili? (¡°In what regiment did you serve?¡±), a question Bender asks Charushnikov in Ilf and Petrov¡¯s ¡°Twelve Chairs¡± (1928); obs., campaign; cf. Slovo o polku Igoreve (¡°The Song of Igor¡¯s Campaign¡±)
klop ¨C bedbug; a comedy (1929) by Mayakovski; Turgenev, Grigorovich and Tolstoy called Chernyshevski klopovonyayushchiy gospodin (the bedbug-stinking gentleman); Demon complained that a birthmark on the back of Marina¡¯s left hand resembled a bedbug (1.17)
plitka ¨C tile, (thin) slab; cf. plitka shokolada (a bar of chocolate)
Nulin ¨C the main character in Pushkin¡¯s poem Graf Nulin (¡°Count Null,¡± 1825)
Akapulkovo ¨C the Antiterran name of Acapulco (a sea port and resort in Mexico); cf. ¡®I offered myself en effet a trip to Akapulkovo,¡¯ answered Demon, needlessly and unwillingly recollecting (with that special concussion of instant detail that also plagued his children) a violet-and-black-striped fish in a bowl, a similarly striped couch, the subtropical sun bringing out the veins of an onyx ashtray on the stone floor, a batch of old, orange-juice-stained Povesa (playboy) magazines, the jewels he had brought, the phonograph singing in a dreamy girl¡¯s voice¡¯ Petit n¨¨gre, au champ qui fleuronne,¡¯ and the admirable abdomen of a very expensive, and very faithless and altogether adorable young Cr¨¦ole. (1.38); cf. The simultaneous association was immediate and complete: she [Mrs. Arfour] had known both families for years and was now interested to learn from chattering (rather than chatting) Ada that Van had happened to be in town just when she, Ada, had happened to return from the West; that Marina was fine; that Demon was in Mexico or Oxmice; and that Lenore Colline had a similar adorable pet with a similar adorable parting along the middle of the back. (2.10)
Alexey Sklyarenko