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Bryusov in ADA
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There is in ADA an incidental character, Mrs Tapirov: "A few blocks from the schoolgrounds, a widow, Mrs Tapirov, who was French but spoke English with a Russian accent, had a shop of objets d'art and more or less antique furniture" (1.4). As a boy of thirteen, Van was secretly in love with Mrs Tapirov's daughter (whom he never spoke to).
The widow's name comes from tapir, "any of several large, stout, three-toed ungulates of the family Tapiridae, of Central and South America, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra, somewhat resembling a swine and having a long, flexible snout." This exotic animal is mentioned by Valeriy Bryusov's in his 1911 poem "Весёлый зов весенней зелени..." ("The merry call of the vernal green..."):
От тяжкой поступи тапира
До лёгких трепетов стрекоз
From a tapir's heavy gait
To dragon-flies' light trepidations.
These lines are quoted by the critic Yuliy Aikhenval'd (who was VN's friend in the emigration) in his devastating essay on Bryusov. Aikhenwald notes that this tapir, artificially called for from such far-away land only for the rhyme's sake, tramples down with its heavy gait the entire poem. The critic wonders, if it is not owing to this animal's awkward presense that the poem's last line is so difficult to recite:
Блеск дня, чернь ночи, вёсны, зимы ("The day's brightness, the night's blackness, springs, winters"; no "scuds" in the original's iambic line beginning with two spondees).
Another, more melodious, line of Bryusov's poem reads:
Цветок шиповника в расселине ("A wild rose's flower in the cleft").
Mrs Tapirov's daughter used to put a bunch of real roses among the fake ones pour attraper le client. Years later Van, standing before a shop-window with vased flowers on consoles, recalls his first love and wonders if the girl's name wasn't Rose or Roza. On the other hand, the name of Ada's headmisstress at Brownhill is Miss Cleft (1.27). About the erotic connotations of the names of some of Ada's characters and those of Van's and Ada's schools, see my essay on Chose (the name of Van's University) in Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/sklyarenko7.doc.
Bryusov's contemporaries (Khodasevich, Sadovskoy et al.) laid the blame on him when Nadezhda L'vov, a young poetess who was Bryusov's mistress, committed a suicide. It was Bryusov who gave her the revolver from which she shot herself dead (see also my article "Russian Poets & Potentates as Scots & Scandinavians in Ada", Part Two, in The Nabokovian #57). Nadya L'vov's family name comes from лев, Russian for "lion." This animal is present in Ardelion, the name of Daniel Veen's father.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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The widow's name comes from tapir, "any of several large, stout, three-toed ungulates of the family Tapiridae, of Central and South America, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra, somewhat resembling a swine and having a long, flexible snout." This exotic animal is mentioned by Valeriy Bryusov's in his 1911 poem "Весёлый зов весенней зелени..." ("The merry call of the vernal green..."):
От тяжкой поступи тапира
До лёгких трепетов стрекоз
From a tapir's heavy gait
To dragon-flies' light trepidations.
These lines are quoted by the critic Yuliy Aikhenval'd (who was VN's friend in the emigration) in his devastating essay on Bryusov. Aikhenwald notes that this tapir, artificially called for from such far-away land only for the rhyme's sake, tramples down with its heavy gait the entire poem. The critic wonders, if it is not owing to this animal's awkward presense that the poem's last line is so difficult to recite:
Блеск дня, чернь ночи, вёсны, зимы ("The day's brightness, the night's blackness, springs, winters"; no "scuds" in the original's iambic line beginning with two spondees).
Another, more melodious, line of Bryusov's poem reads:
Цветок шиповника в расселине ("A wild rose's flower in the cleft").
Mrs Tapirov's daughter used to put a bunch of real roses among the fake ones pour attraper le client. Years later Van, standing before a shop-window with vased flowers on consoles, recalls his first love and wonders if the girl's name wasn't Rose or Roza. On the other hand, the name of Ada's headmisstress at Brownhill is Miss Cleft (1.27). About the erotic connotations of the names of some of Ada's characters and those of Van's and Ada's schools, see my essay on Chose (the name of Van's University) in Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/sklyarenko7.doc.
Bryusov's contemporaries (Khodasevich, Sadovskoy et al.) laid the blame on him when Nadezhda L'vov, a young poetess who was Bryusov's mistress, committed a suicide. It was Bryusov who gave her the revolver from which she shot herself dead (see also my article "Russian Poets & Potentates as Scots & Scandinavians in Ada", Part Two, in The Nabokovian #57). Nadya L'vov's family name comes from лев, Russian for "lion." This animal is present in Ardelion, the name of Daniel Veen's father.
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/