Subject
Re: bars: a correction
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On 23/06/2008 15:09, "Alexey Sklyarenko" <skylark05@MAIL.RU> wrote:
> As Victor Fet pointed out to me (and as I had vaguely suspected myself), bars
> in Lermontov's poem "Mtsyri" is not a snow leopard (Uncia uncia, not found in
> Caucasus) but a leopard (Panthera pardus that was once found there). Thanks to
> Victor for his correction! Curiously that, in English, bars is the plural of
> "bar."
>
> To return to 'gory Mary': If I didn't knew that this phrase was coined by
> Nabokov, I would have looked for it not in Joyce (as Joseph Aisenberg
> suggests), but in Mayne Reid (the American writer of Irish descent who, in The
> Headless Horseman, describes a duel in a saloon). I would also think of Joseph
> Conrad (the English writer of Polish descent), but I confess I didn't read
> him.
>
> To return to the Arzni water: Mandelstam calls it kolyuchaya, sukhaya / i
> samaya pravdivaya voda ("the prickly, dry / and most truthful water," whatever
> that meant) in another surviving excerpt of his "Destroyed Verses."
> Another interesting word that has the same consonants as Arzni is zurna, the
> Georgian musical instrument, a kind of bagpipes, mentioned in Lermontov's
> "Demon" (VI): Zvuchit zurna, i l'iutsya viny ("A zurna plays, and wines are
> poured").
>
> Alexey Sklyarenko
> ------
> Alexey: even curioser curiosities: French 'bistro' is Russian 'fast'; English
> 'fast' is 'giving up food.'
> Also, but to be avoided in Irish bars, a 'Virgin Mary' gets you a neat tomato
> juice (with optional sauces and celery sticks) sans the vodka.
>
> skb
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> As Victor Fet pointed out to me (and as I had vaguely suspected myself), bars
> in Lermontov's poem "Mtsyri" is not a snow leopard (Uncia uncia, not found in
> Caucasus) but a leopard (Panthera pardus that was once found there). Thanks to
> Victor for his correction! Curiously that, in English, bars is the plural of
> "bar."
>
> To return to 'gory Mary': If I didn't knew that this phrase was coined by
> Nabokov, I would have looked for it not in Joyce (as Joseph Aisenberg
> suggests), but in Mayne Reid (the American writer of Irish descent who, in The
> Headless Horseman, describes a duel in a saloon). I would also think of Joseph
> Conrad (the English writer of Polish descent), but I confess I didn't read
> him.
>
> To return to the Arzni water: Mandelstam calls it kolyuchaya, sukhaya / i
> samaya pravdivaya voda ("the prickly, dry / and most truthful water," whatever
> that meant) in another surviving excerpt of his "Destroyed Verses."
> Another interesting word that has the same consonants as Arzni is zurna, the
> Georgian musical instrument, a kind of bagpipes, mentioned in Lermontov's
> "Demon" (VI): Zvuchit zurna, i l'iutsya viny ("A zurna plays, and wines are
> poured").
>
> Alexey Sklyarenko
> ------
> Alexey: even curioser curiosities: French 'bistro' is Russian 'fast'; English
> 'fast' is 'giving up food.'
> Also, but to be avoided in Irish bars, a 'Virgin Mary' gets you a neat tomato
> juice (with optional sauces and celery sticks) sans the vodka.
>
> skb
Search archive with Google:
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/