Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001367, Thu, 24 Oct 1996 17:12:32 -0700

Subject
Cakewalk (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. Christine Raguet-Bouvard, the originator of the item=20
below, is, inter alia, editor of the recent special Nabokov issue of the=20
journal EUROPE.=20

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 10:45:08 +0200
From: OLLIER Nicole - Pays Anglophones <ollier@montaigne.u-bordeaux.fr>


Sorry for being so late in the cakewalk discussion. This is a
familiar word in French, of course from Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk, but
probably other sources. You might be interested to know that such writers a=
s
Blaise Cendrars used it and Raymond Queneau (who read LOLITA for Gallimard
and initiated its publication in France). In 1943, he wrote in PIERROT MON
AMI (Paris, Gallimard, 1943, p. 43) : A cette epoque-la, Leonie et moi on
etait intimes. On dansait ensemble le Kekouok =E0 la Boite a Dix Sous pres =
de
la Republique.
He transcribes the pronunciation, which brigns us back to the Russian
"spelling" too.=20
Why not also consider that pale blue was traditionally worn by baby boys an=
d
pink by baby girls? Thus forming a couple that may also be dancing the
cakewalk...
=09=09=09=09=09Christine Raguet-Bouvard