Subject
Mandelshtam's 120th birthday
From
Date
Body
"The Lines on the Unknown Soldier" (1937) by Osip Mandelshtam (1891-1938) end as follows:
Я рождён в ночь с второго на третье
Января в девяносто одном
Ненадёжном году, и столетья
Окружают меня огнём.
I was born on the night of the second and third
Of January, in the ninety-first
Unreliable year, and the fire
Of centuries surrounds me.
Since January 3, OS, corresponds to January 15, NS, today is Mandelshtam's 120th birthday. Like Nabokov, Mandelshtam finished the Tenishev school. Mistranslations from Mandelshtam (who is mentioned by Vivian Darkbloom in his 'Notes to ADA') are important in ADA. I mention OM in several articles on ADA, including "The Red Flower of Evil." Because I failed as yet to find a publisher, may I bring up a relevant excerpt:
The adjective alen'kiy (a diminutive form of alyi, "scarlet") needs but the letter M (in Nabokov's colored alphabet, M also belongs to the red group taking the position between B and V; M is Mandelshtam's initial and ultima[i]) to become malen'kiy, Russian for "little." There is malen'kiy in the title of Chekhov's story "Volodya bol'shoy i Volodya malen'kiy" ("Big Volodya and Little Volodya," 1893), about two lady-killers (the namesakes of Nabokov and his father). One of its characters, Rita, is a spinster who can drink any amount of wine and liquors without being drunk and tells scandalous anecdotes in a languid and tasteless way.
Rita is the name of two female characters in Nabokov's novels. In Lolita, Rita is a never quite sober girl whom Humbert picks up at a darkishly burning bar between Montreal and New York, after Lolita was abducted by Quilty (2.26). In Ada, Rita is a Crimean cabaret dancer, a pretty red-haired girl who is Van's partner in his Mascodagama stunt. Rita sings the tango tune in Russian: Pod znoynym nebom Argentiny ('Neath sultry sky of Argentina), to which Van dances on his hands (1.30). In fact, 'Rita' is not her real name, just as Van uses a stage name when he performs in the variety theatres of Chose and London. Like Marina (the name that means in Latin "of the sea"), Mascodagama (Van's nom de scene that plays on Vasco da Gama, the famous Portuguese navigator, c1460-1524) begins with M.
M is the first letter in French mal ("evil;" there is mal in animal and its Russian anagram, malina, raspberries, mentioned by Mandelshtam in his satire on Stalin; cf. "several merry young gardeners wearing for some reason the garb of Georgian tribesmen were popping raspberries into their mouths:" 1.2; note that only one letter is different in Marina and malina) and English male. Both mal and male are present in malen'kiy.
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[i] I will speak of Mandelshtam, the poet who is important in Ada, in my article "Flowers into Bloomers: Mistranslation as the Original Sin."
alenkiy refers to Alen'kiy tsvetochek ("The Scarlet Flowerlet"), a fairy tale by S. T. Aksakov
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Я рождён в ночь с второго на третье
Января в девяносто одном
Ненадёжном году, и столетья
Окружают меня огнём.
I was born on the night of the second and third
Of January, in the ninety-first
Unreliable year, and the fire
Of centuries surrounds me.
Since January 3, OS, corresponds to January 15, NS, today is Mandelshtam's 120th birthday. Like Nabokov, Mandelshtam finished the Tenishev school. Mistranslations from Mandelshtam (who is mentioned by Vivian Darkbloom in his 'Notes to ADA') are important in ADA. I mention OM in several articles on ADA, including "The Red Flower of Evil." Because I failed as yet to find a publisher, may I bring up a relevant excerpt:
The adjective alen'kiy (a diminutive form of alyi, "scarlet") needs but the letter M (in Nabokov's colored alphabet, M also belongs to the red group taking the position between B and V; M is Mandelshtam's initial and ultima[i]) to become malen'kiy, Russian for "little." There is malen'kiy in the title of Chekhov's story "Volodya bol'shoy i Volodya malen'kiy" ("Big Volodya and Little Volodya," 1893), about two lady-killers (the namesakes of Nabokov and his father). One of its characters, Rita, is a spinster who can drink any amount of wine and liquors without being drunk and tells scandalous anecdotes in a languid and tasteless way.
Rita is the name of two female characters in Nabokov's novels. In Lolita, Rita is a never quite sober girl whom Humbert picks up at a darkishly burning bar between Montreal and New York, after Lolita was abducted by Quilty (2.26). In Ada, Rita is a Crimean cabaret dancer, a pretty red-haired girl who is Van's partner in his Mascodagama stunt. Rita sings the tango tune in Russian: Pod znoynym nebom Argentiny ('Neath sultry sky of Argentina), to which Van dances on his hands (1.30). In fact, 'Rita' is not her real name, just as Van uses a stage name when he performs in the variety theatres of Chose and London. Like Marina (the name that means in Latin "of the sea"), Mascodagama (Van's nom de scene that plays on Vasco da Gama, the famous Portuguese navigator, c1460-1524) begins with M.
M is the first letter in French mal ("evil;" there is mal in animal and its Russian anagram, malina, raspberries, mentioned by Mandelshtam in his satire on Stalin; cf. "several merry young gardeners wearing for some reason the garb of Georgian tribesmen were popping raspberries into their mouths:" 1.2; note that only one letter is different in Marina and malina) and English male. Both mal and male are present in malen'kiy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[i] I will speak of Mandelshtam, the poet who is important in Ada, in my article "Flowers into Bloomers: Mistranslation as the Original Sin."
alenkiy refers to Alen'kiy tsvetochek ("The Scarlet Flowerlet"), a fairy tale by S. T. Aksakov
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/