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Annensky and Heine
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As I mentioned earlier, Annensky's penname was Nik. T-o (nikto is Russian for "nobody"). One of Annensky's articles in Vtoraya kniga otrazheniy ("The Second Book of Reflections", 1909) is Geyne prikovannyi ("Bedridden Heine"*).
Heine, who spent the last twenty five years of his life (the last eight of them the poet was bedridden) in Paris, writes in his Memorien: "Hier in Frankreich ist mir gleich nach meiner Ankunft in Paris mein Deutscher Name "Heinrich" in "Henry" uebersetzt worden, und ich musste mich darin schicken und auch endlich hierzulande selbst so zu nennen, da das Wort Heinrich dem franzoesischen Ohr nicht zusagte und ueberhaupt die Franzosen sich alle Dinge in der Welt recht bequem machen. Auch den Namen "Henri Heine" haben sie nie recht aussprechen koennen, und bei den meisten heisse ich Mr. Enri Enn; von vielen wird dieses in Enrienne zusammengezogen, und einige nannten mich Mr. Un rien.**"
Un rien = Ruinen (cf. in Ada: "His [David van Veen's] nephew and heir, an honest but astoundingly stuffy clothier in Ruinen (somewhere near Zwolle, I'm told), with a large family and a small trade, was not cheated out of the millions of guldens, about the apparent squandering of which he had been consulting mental specialists during the last ten years or so." 2.3) = reunion - o
In his Memorien Heine tells that he had received his name Harry (he was baptised and became Heinrich only much later) in honor of his father's friend and business partner in Liverpool. Heine's father was a Jewish merchant in Duesseldorf who sold, among other things, velveteen (Mr. Harry knew the best factories in Liverpool and Manchester*** that produced velveteen).
Velveteen + v = velvet + Veen (cf. about David van Veen's nephew and heir: "A tattling tabloid reported, around 1890, that out of curiosity 'Velvet' Veen traveled once - and only once - to the nearest floramor with his entire family", 2.3)
David van Veen = divan [Dvina] + dva + even (dva - Russ., two; Dvina - Western Dvina, Daugava, and Northern Dvina, rivers in Kurland and Russia)
Btw., I notice that the maiden name of Heine's wife Augustine (whom the poet called Mathilde) was Mirat. Cf. Marat, who was stabbed by Charlotte Corday, and Murat, on Antiterra, the Navajo chieftain who was shot by Cora Day
*a play on Prometey prikovannyi ("Prometheus Bound", a tragedy by Aeschylus)
**"Mr. Nothing"
***There is liver in Liverpool and man in Manchester; an eagle daily tore at Prometheus's liver until he was finally released by Hercules (btw., in Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf", the secret Soviet millionaire Koreyko is a modest employee in Gerkules, a Chernomorsk firm that deals in woods, les, having nothing to do with the hero of Greek myths; one remembers famillionaer, one of several portmanteau words in Heine's Die Baeder von Lucca)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Heine, who spent the last twenty five years of his life (the last eight of them the poet was bedridden) in Paris, writes in his Memorien: "Hier in Frankreich ist mir gleich nach meiner Ankunft in Paris mein Deutscher Name "Heinrich" in "Henry" uebersetzt worden, und ich musste mich darin schicken und auch endlich hierzulande selbst so zu nennen, da das Wort Heinrich dem franzoesischen Ohr nicht zusagte und ueberhaupt die Franzosen sich alle Dinge in der Welt recht bequem machen. Auch den Namen "Henri Heine" haben sie nie recht aussprechen koennen, und bei den meisten heisse ich Mr. Enri Enn; von vielen wird dieses in Enrienne zusammengezogen, und einige nannten mich Mr. Un rien.**"
Un rien = Ruinen (cf. in Ada: "His [David van Veen's] nephew and heir, an honest but astoundingly stuffy clothier in Ruinen (somewhere near Zwolle, I'm told), with a large family and a small trade, was not cheated out of the millions of guldens, about the apparent squandering of which he had been consulting mental specialists during the last ten years or so." 2.3) = reunion - o
In his Memorien Heine tells that he had received his name Harry (he was baptised and became Heinrich only much later) in honor of his father's friend and business partner in Liverpool. Heine's father was a Jewish merchant in Duesseldorf who sold, among other things, velveteen (Mr. Harry knew the best factories in Liverpool and Manchester*** that produced velveteen).
Velveteen + v = velvet + Veen (cf. about David van Veen's nephew and heir: "A tattling tabloid reported, around 1890, that out of curiosity 'Velvet' Veen traveled once - and only once - to the nearest floramor with his entire family", 2.3)
David van Veen = divan [Dvina] + dva + even (dva - Russ., two; Dvina - Western Dvina, Daugava, and Northern Dvina, rivers in Kurland and Russia)
Btw., I notice that the maiden name of Heine's wife Augustine (whom the poet called Mathilde) was Mirat. Cf. Marat, who was stabbed by Charlotte Corday, and Murat, on Antiterra, the Navajo chieftain who was shot by Cora Day
*a play on Prometey prikovannyi ("Prometheus Bound", a tragedy by Aeschylus)
**"Mr. Nothing"
***There is liver in Liverpool and man in Manchester; an eagle daily tore at Prometheus's liver until he was finally released by Hercules (btw., in Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf", the secret Soviet millionaire Koreyko is a modest employee in Gerkules, a Chernomorsk firm that deals in woods, les, having nothing to do with the hero of Greek myths; one remembers famillionaer, one of several portmanteau words in Heine's Die Baeder von Lucca)
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/