Subject
Learned cats and their tales
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Date
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[Carolyn Kunin sends the following messages. I suggest that we end this
thread with this message -- I think it's stretched as far as it can go. -
SES]
Alexey,
How can the cat be chained? he walkspo tsepi krugom - I translate that as
"he
walks along the chain around [the oak tree].
How do you understand it? He is tethered to the tree and walks as far as the
chain will allow him in either direction? who has chained him? or what? Baba
Yaga?
In your post below (May 4) you say "he is not chained and can go wherever he
wants" -- I am confused. Oh, ok, I see you are disagreeing with Mary
Efremov.
Mary, are you a native speaker? I am not, but Alexey is.
By the way, can"kot" refer to male and/or female, or strictly the tom? When
I
visited the CCCP in (I had to check with Wikipedia - I was there in August
just
following The United States' Apollo 11, the first manned mission landed on
the
Moon, on 20 July 1969.[
there were no tame cats to speak of - at least not in the environs of
Leningrad
where we stayed as students. There were feral cats under the apartment
buildings, but they hissed at you if your tried to offer them food or milk
(god,
did we get any milk? I remember one day we got an egg! that was quite an
event).
Someone told me that we could not have been there for the belyie nochi, but
I
distinctly remember them, and on the longest day of the year, we stayed up
to
watch the sun dip below the horizon for a few minutes and re-emerge a few
degrees to the north. How could I have invented that? I also have seen the
aurora borealis in Los Angeles once during an electric storm - theoretically
also impossible, I am told.
None of the Soviets we met believed a word of that moon landing story, by
the
way. And they all believed that Svetlana Allilyueva was dead, that her
father,
Stalin, was great and so on. So much for Soviet "realism"!
Carolina Elisaveta, as I then was - for six bloody weeks.
*
**
I am still waiting to hear in what way Chteaubriand influenced ASP? and
what of
his should I read to understand what is so wonderful about him? assuming
that VN
also felt the same way about Chat. I do read French, should have tried him
in
English? maybe he was just too difficult for me?
Hold on - maybe I do have something of his I like - did he not write Le
Dernier
Abcerage? I never finished it, but I have a beautifully illustrated edition
(Francois-Louis Schmied) and I was rawther enjoying it. Still, cawn't say I
was
gaga.*
Carolyn
Happy Greek Easter, y'all - and Cinco de Mayo too * ¡Desde luego!
*Completely absorbed, infatuated, or excited: They were gaga over the rock
group's new album. 3. Senile; doddering. [French, old fool, gaga, of
imitative
origin.] ...
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thread with this message -- I think it's stretched as far as it can go. -
SES]
Alexey,
How can the cat be chained? he walkspo tsepi krugom - I translate that as
"he
walks along the chain around [the oak tree].
How do you understand it? He is tethered to the tree and walks as far as the
chain will allow him in either direction? who has chained him? or what? Baba
Yaga?
In your post below (May 4) you say "he is not chained and can go wherever he
wants" -- I am confused. Oh, ok, I see you are disagreeing with Mary
Efremov.
Mary, are you a native speaker? I am not, but Alexey is.
By the way, can"kot" refer to male and/or female, or strictly the tom? When
I
visited the CCCP in (I had to check with Wikipedia - I was there in August
just
following The United States' Apollo 11, the first manned mission landed on
the
Moon, on 20 July 1969.[
there were no tame cats to speak of - at least not in the environs of
Leningrad
where we stayed as students. There were feral cats under the apartment
buildings, but they hissed at you if your tried to offer them food or milk
(god,
did we get any milk? I remember one day we got an egg! that was quite an
event).
Someone told me that we could not have been there for the belyie nochi, but
I
distinctly remember them, and on the longest day of the year, we stayed up
to
watch the sun dip below the horizon for a few minutes and re-emerge a few
degrees to the north. How could I have invented that? I also have seen the
aurora borealis in Los Angeles once during an electric storm - theoretically
also impossible, I am told.
None of the Soviets we met believed a word of that moon landing story, by
the
way. And they all believed that Svetlana Allilyueva was dead, that her
father,
Stalin, was great and so on. So much for Soviet "realism"!
Carolina Elisaveta, as I then was - for six bloody weeks.
*
**
I am still waiting to hear in what way Chteaubriand influenced ASP? and
what of
his should I read to understand what is so wonderful about him? assuming
that VN
also felt the same way about Chat. I do read French, should have tried him
in
English? maybe he was just too difficult for me?
Hold on - maybe I do have something of his I like - did he not write Le
Dernier
Abcerage? I never finished it, but I have a beautifully illustrated edition
(Francois-Louis Schmied) and I was rawther enjoying it. Still, cawn't say I
was
gaga.*
Carolyn
Happy Greek Easter, y'all - and Cinco de Mayo too * ¡Desde luego!
*Completely absorbed, infatuated, or excited: They were gaga over the rock
group's new album. 3. Senile; doddering. [French, old fool, gaga, of
imitative
origin.] ...
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/