Subject
Re: kot or in Pale Fire
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Date
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AS: Cat-a-mite might just point to PF¹s queer common-tater. Tater is slang
for potato = Rabelais¹s peut-e^tre. The poet¹s anagram Ali Sabre leads us
inexorably to the Cru-Sade, literally a ViNtage cruel monster. Who else but
VlaDEEMir* Nabokov, the irreDEEMable imPALEr?
* VN¹s own playful pronuciation guide: ³rhymes with Redeemer.² (quoted in
VN¹s NY Times obituary)
PS: the Greek prep kata- (cata-) has dozens of helpful meanings and has
spawned thousands of words in many languages. allusional potential is hugely
inviting. À la Chasse!
PPS: Your correction¹ is useful but not essential: the dative can be
described as a prepositional¹ case in many languages, inc. German.
Skb
On 04/04/2009 20:13, "Alexey Sklyarenko" <skylark05@MAIL.RU> wrote:
> from Alexey Sklyarenko:
>
> Kot or, Zemblan for "what is the time" (see Kinbote's note to l. 149), is
> clearly a play on the Russian phrase kotoryi chas ("what is the time"). While
> Zemblan word for "hour" appears to be a homograph of both the English
> conjunction "or" and the French word for "gold", kot (apparently, Zemblan for
> "which" or "what") is Russian for "he-cat". Can there be a connection to the
> cat that Kinbote inherited with the house from his landlord, judge Goldsworth,
> and to Hodge, Samuel Johnson's cat mentioned in the epigraph to the novel?
> Btw., note that there is cat (as well as du, German for "you") in "ducat", the
> gold piece that the grateful King leaves on the mantlepiece in the
> mountain-side house where he spent the night following his escape from the
> palace. One remembers that the King Louis XVI (whose escape to Varennes is
> mentioned in Speak, Memory, Chapter Three, 1) was recognized because his
> profile was on every French golden coin, louis[d'or], and wonders if there is
> on the ducat the King's profile? However that may be, Karl the Beloved is not
> recognized by his hosts, despite even the fact that there stands on the same
> mantlepiece an old color print representing him as a young man with his young
> wife.
> I don't know if this is of any importance, but kot = kto (who) = tok
> (current), kot + or = otrok (boy) = rokot (roar, rumble) = rotok (little
> mouth).
>
> a correction re Graden (in one of my previous posts): "prepositional case"
> (that doesn't exist in German) should be "Dative plural".
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for potato = Rabelais¹s peut-e^tre. The poet¹s anagram Ali Sabre leads us
inexorably to the Cru-Sade, literally a ViNtage cruel monster. Who else but
VlaDEEMir* Nabokov, the irreDEEMable imPALEr?
* VN¹s own playful pronuciation guide: ³rhymes with Redeemer.² (quoted in
VN¹s NY Times obituary)
PS: the Greek prep kata- (cata-) has dozens of helpful meanings and has
spawned thousands of words in many languages. allusional potential is hugely
inviting. À la Chasse!
PPS: Your correction¹ is useful but not essential: the dative can be
described as a prepositional¹ case in many languages, inc. German.
Skb
On 04/04/2009 20:13, "Alexey Sklyarenko" <skylark05@MAIL.RU> wrote:
> from Alexey Sklyarenko:
>
> Kot or, Zemblan for "what is the time" (see Kinbote's note to l. 149), is
> clearly a play on the Russian phrase kotoryi chas ("what is the time"). While
> Zemblan word for "hour" appears to be a homograph of both the English
> conjunction "or" and the French word for "gold", kot (apparently, Zemblan for
> "which" or "what") is Russian for "he-cat". Can there be a connection to the
> cat that Kinbote inherited with the house from his landlord, judge Goldsworth,
> and to Hodge, Samuel Johnson's cat mentioned in the epigraph to the novel?
> Btw., note that there is cat (as well as du, German for "you") in "ducat", the
> gold piece that the grateful King leaves on the mantlepiece in the
> mountain-side house where he spent the night following his escape from the
> palace. One remembers that the King Louis XVI (whose escape to Varennes is
> mentioned in Speak, Memory, Chapter Three, 1) was recognized because his
> profile was on every French golden coin, louis[d'or], and wonders if there is
> on the ducat the King's profile? However that may be, Karl the Beloved is not
> recognized by his hosts, despite even the fact that there stands on the same
> mantlepiece an old color print representing him as a young man with his young
> wife.
> I don't know if this is of any importance, but kot = kto (who) = tok
> (current), kot + or = otrok (boy) = rokot (roar, rumble) = rotok (little
> mouth).
>
> a correction re Graden (in one of my previous posts): "prepositional case"
> (that doesn't exist in German) should be "Dative plural".
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/