Each of the six stanzas (each of them consists
of six lines) of Vladislav Khodasevich's The Dactyls (1928)
begins:
Был мой отец
шестипалым...
My father was six-fingered.
Felitsian Khodasevich (the poet's father) had six
children. The youngest of them, Vladislav says in his poem that his father could
deftly hide in his palm the superfluous little minimus:
Вот на отцовской руке старательно я
загибаю
Пальцы один за другим - пять. А
шестой - это я.
Шестеро было детей...
Был мой отец шестипалым. Как
маленький лишний мизинец
Прятать он ловко умел в левой зажатой
руке...
V. D. Nabokov (the writer's father) had five children (Vladimir was the oldest of
them). The assassin who shot him dead wanted to kill another man (P. N.
Milyukov). Similarly, Gradus kills Shade while
assassinating Kinbote. It happens on July 21 (VDN's birthday, if I'm not
mistaken).
Alexey Sklyarenko