According to Kinbote, present-day bards look like gorillas or vultures:
John Shade's physical appearance was so little in keeping with the harmonies hiving in the man, that one felt inclined to dismiss it as coarse disguise or passing fashion; for if the fashions of the Romantic Age subtilized a poet's manliness by baring his attractive neck, pruning his profile and reflecting a mountain lake in his oval gaze, present-day bards, owing perhaps to better opportunities of aging, look like gorillas or vultures. (Foreword)
In his memoir essay Muni (1926) Khodasevich says that Muni (who concealed his hollow cheeks with a broad and thick beard) had abnormally long arms and he brandished them like a gorilla or a wrestler:
Муни состоял из широкого костяка, обтянутого кожей. Но он мешковато одевался, тяжело ступал, впалые щеки прикрывал большой бородой. У него были непомерно длинные руки, и он ими загребал, как горилла или борец.
Vultures mentioned by Kinbote bring to mind Grif (“Vulture”), the publishing house founded in 1903 by Sergey Sokolov, a poet who published his stuff under the penname Krechetov. The name Sokolov comes from sokol (falcon), the name Krechetov comes from krechet (gyrfalcon). Shade’s parents were ornithologists. In his obituary essay Pamyati Sergeya Krechetova (“In Memory of Sergey Krechetov,” 1936) Khodasevich points out that the publishing house Grif has brought out the first edition of Innokentiy Annenski’s collection of poetry Kiparisovyi larets (“The Cypress Casket,” 1909) and mentions Annenski’s penname Nik. T-o (“Mr. Nobody”):
Этого мало: в том же самом "Перевале" начали появляться стихи автора, который незадолго до того, под скромным псевдонимом "Ник. Т-о", выпустил никем не замеченную книжечку "Тихие песни". Этот автор был Иннокентий Анненский. Впоследствии "Гриф" выпустил первое издание его "Кипарисового ларца": заслуга огромная, неоспоримая, неотъемлемая, которой одной хватило бы на то, чтобы с избытком покрыть все издательские промахи Кречетова.
Pereval (“The Pass”), a review edited by Krechetov in which Annenski’s poems appeared, brings to mind Kinbote’s passion for alpinism (that helps him to escape from Zembla):
Frankly I too never excelled in soccer and cricket; I am a passable horseman, a vigorous through unorthodox skier, a good skater, a tricky wrestler, and an enthusiastic rock-climber. (note to Line 130)
According to Kinbote, at a party he demonstrated several amusing holds employed by Zemblan wrestlers:
Well did I know that among certain youthful instructors whose advances I had rejected there was at least one evil practical joker; I knew it ever since the time I came home from a very enjoyable and successful meeting of students and teachers (at which I had exuberantly thrown off my coat and shown several willing pupils a few of the amusing holds employed by Zemblan wrestlers) and found in my coat pocket a brutal anonymous note saying: “You have hal. . . . .s real bad, chum,” meaning evidently “hallucinations,” although a malevolent critic might infer from the insufficient number of dashes that little Mr. Anon, despite teaching Freshman English, could hardly spell. (note to Line 62)
nikto + grob + rifma/firma + Sirin = Botkin + grif + norma/roman + iris
nikto – nobody
grob – coffin (by “the cypress casket” Annenski means coffin)
rifma – rhyme
firma – firm
Sirin – bird of Russian fairy tales and VN’s Russian pseudonym; publishing house mentioned by Khodasevich at the beginning of his essay on Bryusov
Botkin – Shade’s, Kinbote’s and Gradus’ “real” name; an American scholar of Russian descent, Professor Vsevolod Botkin went mad and became Shade, Kinbote and Gradus after the suicide of his daughter Nadezhda (Hazel Shade of her father’s poem); Nadezhda was the name of Bryusov’s sister who married Muni and of Bryusov’s mistress who committed suicide
grif – vulture (a large carrion-eating bird of prey); gryphon; finger-board (of string instruments); seal, stamp; grip (in wrestling)
norma – norm
roman – novel; romance; male given name; cf. Roman Bogdanovich, a character in VN’s story Soglyadatay (“The Eye,” 1930); cf. Roman, Cincinnatus’ lawyer in VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935)
iris – contractile, circular diaphragm forming the colored portion of the eye; flower of a plant of the iris family; female given name; cf. Iris Acht, celebrated Zemblan actress, favourite of Thurgus the Third (K.’s grandfather who liked to bicycle in the park)
Acht is German for “eight.” In his poem ∞ Annenski compares the infinity symbol ∞ to 8 toppled over:
Девиз Таинственной похож
На опрокинутое 8:
Она — отраднейшая ложь
Из всех, что мы в сознаньи носим.
The symbol ∞ is sometimes called a “lemniscate.” In Canto One of his poem Shade mentions “the miracle of a lemniscate” left upon wet sand by a bicyclist:
In sleeping dreams I played with other chaps
But really envied nothing--save perhaps
The miracle of a lemniscate left
Upon wet sand by nonchalantly deft
Bicycle tires. (ll. 135-139)
In his poem Pokrova Mayi potayonnoy (“The cover of the secret maya…” 1922) Khodasevich mentions ognya efirnogo pylanye (the glow of ethereal fire) and compares the bright cosmos under the vacillating cover of his love’s eyelashes to zvezda velosipednykh spits (the star of bicycle spokes):
Покрова Майи потаённой
Не приподнять моей руке,
Но чуден мир, отображённый
В твоём расширенном зрачке.
Там в непостижном сочетаньи
Любовь и улица даны:
Огня эфирного пыланье
И просто - таянье весны.
Там светлый космос возникает
Под зыбким пологом ресниц.
Он кружится и расцветает
Звездой велосипедных спиц.
According to Khodasevich, “wondrous is the world reflected in your eye’s enlarged pupil.” In his poem Slava (“Fame,” 1942) VN mentions chreda spitsevidnykh teney (literally, “a series of strobe-like shadows”):
Но воздушным мостом моё слово изогнуто
через мир, и чредой спицевидных теней
без конца по нему прохожу я инкогнито
в полыхающий сумрак отчизны моей.
Я божком себя вижу, волшебником с птичьей
головой, в изумрудных перчатках, в чулках
из лазурных чешуй. Прохожу. Перечтите
и остановитесь на этих строках.
But my word, curved to form an aerial viaduct,
spans the world and across in a strobe-effect spin
of spokes I keep endlessly passing incognito
into the flame-licked night of my native land.
To myself I appear as an idol, a wizard
bird-headed, emerald gloved, dressed in tights
made of bright-blue scales. I pass by. Reread it
and pause for a moment to ponder these lines.
The author’s appearance and exotic costume hint at his Russian nom de plume, Sirin. On the other hand, izumrudnye perchatki (the emerald gloves) bring to mind Izumrudov (one of the greater Shadows, a regicidal organization) and Gerald Emerald, a young instructor at the campus whom Kinbote mentions in his Foreword and Commentary to Shade’s poem.
In his essay Ob Annenskom (“On Annenski,” 1935) Khodasevich compares Annenski to Ivan Ilyich Golovin, the main character in Tolstoy’s story Smert’ Ivana Ilyicha (“The Dearth of Ivan Ilyich,” 1886). In Tolstoy’s story Ivan Ilyich believes that he is not the mortal Caius of Kiesewetter’s famous syllogism and therefore he will not die:
Тот пример силлогизма, которому он учился в логике Кизеветтера: Кай -- человек, люди смертны, потому Кай смертен, -- казался ему во всю его жизнь правильным только по отношению к Каю. То был Кай, человек, вообще человек, и это было совершенно справедливо; но он был не Кай и не вообще человек, а он всегда был совсем, совсем особенное от всех других существо; но он был Ваня, с мамa, с папa, с Митей и Володей, с игрушками, с кучером, с няней, потом с Катенькой, со всеми радостями, горестями, восторгами детства, юности, молодости. Разве для Кая был тот запах кожаного полосками мячика, который так любил Ваня? разве Кай целовал так руку матери и разве для Кая так шуршал шёлк складок платья матери? разве он бунтовал за пирожки в Правоведении? разве Кай так был влюблён? разве Кай так мог вести заседание? И Кай точно смертен, и ему правильно умирать, но мне, Ване, Ивану Ильичу, со всеми моими чувствами, мыслями, -- мне это другое дело. И не может быть, чтобы мне следовало умирать. Это было бы слишком ужасно".
The syllogism he had learnt from Kiesewetter's Logic: "Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal," had always seemed to him correct as applied to Caius, but certainly not as applied to himself. That Caius – man in the abstract – was mortal, was perfectly correct, but he was not Caius, not an abstract man, but a creature quite, quite separate from all others. He had been little Vanya, with a mamma and a papa, with Mitya and Volodya, with the toys, a coachman and a nurse, afterwards with Katenka and will all the joys, griefs, and delights of childhood, boyhood, and youth. What did Caius know of the smell of that striped leather ball Vanya had been so fond of? Had Caius kissed his mother's hand like that, and did the silk of her dress rustle so for Caius? Had he rioted like that at school when the pastry was bad? Had Caius been in love like that? Could Caius preside at a session as he did? "Caius really was mortal, and it was right for him to die; but for me, little Vanya, Ivan Ilych, with all my thoughts and emotions, it's altogether a different matter. It cannot be that I ought to die. That would be too terrible." (Chapter VI)
In Canto Two of his poem Shade seems to repeat Ivan Ilyich’s mistake:
A syllogism: other men die; but I
Am not another; therefore I'll not die.
According to Kinbote, “this may please a boy. Later in life we learn that we are those ‘others’” (note to Lines 214-215). However, describing Shade’s appearance, Kinbote says that the poet was his own cancellation:
My sublime neighbor's face had something about it that might have appealed to the eye, had it been only leonine or only Iroquoian; but unfortunately, by combining the two it merely reminded one of a fleshy Hogarthian tippler of indeterminate sex. His misshapen body, that gray mop of abundant hair, the yellow nails of his pudgy fingers, the bags under his lusterless eyes, were only intelligible if regarded as the waste products eliminated from his intrinsic self by the same forces of perfection which purified and chiseled his verse. He was his own cancellation. (Foreword)
Alexey Sklyarenko