In my previous post I mentioned N. A. Aduev, the author of
"The Tobacco Captain." Alexander Aduev and his uncle Peter are the two main
characters in Ivan Goncharov's novel Obyknovennaya Istoriya ("A
Common Story," 1847). On the other hand, Goncharov is the author of "The
Frigate Pallada" (1858), a travel book from the journey. There is Ada
in Pallada. And there is a sea journey and mention of Alexey
Tolstoy in VN's Speak, Memory (Chapter Thirteen, 1):
On the way there [to
England], being challenged by my father and Korney Chukovski to
rhyme on Afrika, the poet and novelist Alexey Tolstoy (no relation
to Count Lyov Nikolaevich) had supplied, though seasick, the charming
couplet:
Vizhu pal'mu i Kafrika.
Eto - Afrika.
(I see a palm and a little Kaffir. That's
Africa.)
Many naive people believed that Chukovski's Tarakan
("The Cockroach," a nursery tale in verses, 1921) was an audacious
satire on Stalin. Anyway, Stalin's tarakanyi usishcha ("cockroach
whiskers") are mentioned in Mandelshtam's poem "We live not feeling land beneath
us..." (1934). Chto ni kazn' u nego, to malina ("Whatever the
execution, it is a raspberry to him") is a line from this poem.
malina = animal = Manila (one of
the ports visited by the Frigate Pallada)
Alexey Sklyarenko