Subject
konskie deti
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With glowing cheekbones and that glint of copper showing from under her tight rubber cap on nape and forehead, she [Lucette] evoked the Helmeted Angel of the Yukonsk Ikon whose magic effect was said to change anemic blond maidens into konskie deti, freckled red-haired lads, children of the Sun Horse. (Ada, Part Three, 5)
"The Sun Horse" clearly hints at Hors, the Slavic sun god mentioned in "The Song of Igor's Campaign." The hero of Slovo, Prince Igor', famously says to his men (lines 108-110):
"with you, sons of Rus, I wish
either to lay down my head
or drink helmetful of the Don."
On the other hand, the Helmeted Angel of the Yukonsk Ikon reminds one of the lines from two poems by Blok. In Unizhenie ("Humiliation," 1911) a golden icon is mentioned and the girl is compared to an angel:
Tol'ko guby s zapyoksheisya krov'yu
Na ikone tvoey zolotoy...
(Only lips with clotted blood
on your golden icon)
...Tak vonzay zhe moy angel vcherashniy
V serdtse - ostryi frantsuzskiy kabluk!
(My yesterday's angel, thrust into my heart
the sharp French heel of your shoe)
The picture hat of Neznakomka (shlyapa s traurnymi per'yami) becomes shlem s traurnymi per'yami (a helmet with mournful plumes) in Tam damy shchegolyayut modami... ("Here the ladies are dressed ultra-fashionably..."), a variation on the Incognita theme (1911):
Pod shlemom s traurnymi per'yami
i ty vinom oglushena?
(You too are stunned by alcohol
Under your helmet with mournful plumes?)
Both the Incognita and the girl in Unizhenie are prostitutes. And so is Katyusha Maslov, the heroine of Tolstoy's Voskresenie ("The Resurrection"). The novel's theme was given to Tolstoy by A. F. Koni, the famous judge and prominent public figure (1844-1927). Koni was a friend of many writers, including Nekrasov (whom K. gave the theme of one of his poems), Dostoevsky and Chekhov (both of whom were also indebted to Koni). In 1921 Koni was chairman and a speaker at the Pushkin Evening, in the company of Blok, Khodasevich and others. Koni means in Russian "horses." Even more curiously, the prototype of Katyusha Maslov was a girl named Rozalia Oni. While Koni = K + Oni (when accented on the ultima, oni means "they"), the name Rozalia brings to mind the aphorism (quoted in Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs") deti - tsvety zhizni ("children are flowers of life"). This aphorism and konskie deti (whoever they might be) make one think of konskie yabloki (dung clots) and, by association, the saying yabloko ot yabloni nedaleko padaet (like mother, like daughter). Yabloko ("apple") has Blok in it.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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"The Sun Horse" clearly hints at Hors, the Slavic sun god mentioned in "The Song of Igor's Campaign." The hero of Slovo, Prince Igor', famously says to his men (lines 108-110):
"with you, sons of Rus, I wish
either to lay down my head
or drink helmetful of the Don."
On the other hand, the Helmeted Angel of the Yukonsk Ikon reminds one of the lines from two poems by Blok. In Unizhenie ("Humiliation," 1911) a golden icon is mentioned and the girl is compared to an angel:
Tol'ko guby s zapyoksheisya krov'yu
Na ikone tvoey zolotoy...
(Only lips with clotted blood
on your golden icon)
...Tak vonzay zhe moy angel vcherashniy
V serdtse - ostryi frantsuzskiy kabluk!
(My yesterday's angel, thrust into my heart
the sharp French heel of your shoe)
The picture hat of Neznakomka (shlyapa s traurnymi per'yami) becomes shlem s traurnymi per'yami (a helmet with mournful plumes) in Tam damy shchegolyayut modami... ("Here the ladies are dressed ultra-fashionably..."), a variation on the Incognita theme (1911):
Pod shlemom s traurnymi per'yami
i ty vinom oglushena?
(You too are stunned by alcohol
Under your helmet with mournful plumes?)
Both the Incognita and the girl in Unizhenie are prostitutes. And so is Katyusha Maslov, the heroine of Tolstoy's Voskresenie ("The Resurrection"). The novel's theme was given to Tolstoy by A. F. Koni, the famous judge and prominent public figure (1844-1927). Koni was a friend of many writers, including Nekrasov (whom K. gave the theme of one of his poems), Dostoevsky and Chekhov (both of whom were also indebted to Koni). In 1921 Koni was chairman and a speaker at the Pushkin Evening, in the company of Blok, Khodasevich and others. Koni means in Russian "horses." Even more curiously, the prototype of Katyusha Maslov was a girl named Rozalia Oni. While Koni = K + Oni (when accented on the ultima, oni means "they"), the name Rozalia brings to mind the aphorism (quoted in Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs") deti - tsvety zhizni ("children are flowers of life"). This aphorism and konskie deti (whoever they might be) make one think of konskie yabloki (dung clots) and, by association, the saying yabloko ot yabloni nedaleko padaet (like mother, like daughter). Yabloko ("apple") has Blok in it.
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/