While nikto is Russian for "nobody",
nekto means "someone". Cf. in Ada (2.2): "nobody knew how far Terra, or other innumerable planets with
cottages and cows, might be situated in outer or inner space: 'inner,' because
why not assume their microcosmic presence in the golden globules ascending
quick-quick in this flute of Moët or in the corpuscles of my, Van Veen's
-
(or
my, Ada Veen's)
- bloodstream, or in the pus of
a Mr Nekto's ripe boil newly lanced in Nektor or
Neckton."
Cf. Nekto v
serom (The person in grey), a character in L. Andreev's play Zhizn'
cheloveka ("Man's Life", 1907) and the title of M. Voloshin's article on
Andreev.
VN's poem Slava ("Fame", 1942)
begins: "И вот как на колёсиках вкатывается ко мне мне
некто - / восковой, поджарый, с копотью в красных ноздрях, / и сижу, и
решить не могу: человек это / или просто так - разговорчивый прах." (see
Poems and Problems for translation) Kolyosiki (little wheels) remind one of
Podkolyosin, the hero of Gogol's Zhenit'ba (who eventually elopes
from his fiancée via the window, finestra), and Anna Karenin (who
perishes pod kolyosami, under the wheels of a train, in Tolstoy's
novel).
nekto = token
Cf. in Ada (1.3): "It was owing, among other things, to this 'scientifically
ungraspable' concourse of divergences that minds bien rangés (not apt
to unhobble hobgoblins) rejected Terra as a fad or a fantom, and deranged minds
(ready to plunge into any abyss) accepted it in support and token of
their own irrationality."
Nektor = kornet = kreton
kornet - Russ.,
cornet; cf. Lermontov: "Он всё отцовское именье / Ещё корнетом
прокутил" ("He [Captain Garin, the hero of "The Tambov Treasurer's Wife"]
squandered all his father's lands while he was still a cornet"); cf. Bunin,
"Дело корнета Елагина" ("The Case of Cornet Elagin",
1925)
kreton - Russ.,
cretonne; cf. Tolstoy: "When they reached the drawing-room, upholstered in pink
cretonne and lighted by a dim lamp, they sat down at the table — she
[Ivan Ilyich's widow] on a sofa and Pyotr Ivanovich
on a low pouffe, the springs of which yielded spasmodically under his
weight." ("The Death of Ivan Ilyich", chapter I)
kreton + nikto = Kriton + nekto
= kretin + tonko
Kriton - Cryton,
one of the three volunteers who accept Cleopatra's challenge in Pushkin's poem
Cleopatra* (1828): "младой мудрец, / Рождённый в рощах Эпикура, / Критон, поклонник и певец / Харит, Киприды и
Амура" (a young sage, who was born in Epicurus's
groves, Cryton, worshipper and bard of the Charites, Cypris and
Cupid)
kretin - Russ., cretin;
idiot
tonko - Russ., thinly;
subtly; cf. Ostrovsky, "Gde tonko, tam i rvyotsya" ("The Thread Breaks
where it is Weakest")
*The poem (included in Pushkin's "Egyptian Nights",
1835) begins: "Chertog siyal..." ("The palace shone..."). Cf.
in Ada (1.24): "most winters [Ada spent] in their Kaluga town home - two upper stories
in the former Zemsky chertog (palazzo)." The name of another
volunteer, Flavius, reminds one of Flavita, the Antiterran
scrabble.
Alexey Sklyarenko