Subject
Goluba University
From
Date
Body
Max Mispel, the poet and critic who discerned in Van's novel Letters from Terra the influence of Osberg and Ben Sirine, is a member of the German Department at Goluba University (Ada, 2.2).
Golub' being Russian for "pigeon, dove", "Goluba University" seems to hint at Columbia University in the City of New York (columbus/columba is Latin for "pigeon, dove").
On the other hand, goluba is a form of golubchik (coll.; as mode of address), "my dear." In Ilf & Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs" (Chapter Eleven, "The Mirror-of-Life Index") Ostap Bender addresses Varfolomey Korobeinikov (the head of the records department in Stargorod) goluba:
-- Голуба,-- пропел Остап,-- ей-богу, клянусь честью покойного батюшки. Рад душой, но нету, забыл взять с текущего счёта.
"My dear," crooned Ostap, "I swear by my late father, I'd be glad to, but I haven't any [money]; I forgot to draw any from my current account."
Herr Mispel, who liked to air his authors... (2.2)
Chapter Eleven "Alfavit* - zerkalo zhizni" ("The Mirror-of-Life Index") of the Ilf & Petrov novel begins:
На второй день компаньоны убедились, что жить в дворницкой больше неудобно. Бурчал Тихон, совершенно обалдевший после того, как увидел барина сначала черноусым, потом зеленоусым, а под конец и совсем без усов. Спать было не на чем. В дворницкой стоял запах гниющего навоза, распространяемый новыми валенками Тихона. Старые валенки стояли в углу и воздуха тоже не озонировали.
The next day the partners saw that it was no longer convenient to live in the caretaker's room. Tikhon** kept muttering away to himself and had become completely stupid, having seen his master first with a black moustache, then with a green one, and finally with no moustache at all. There was nothing to sleep on.The room stank of rotting manure, brought in on Tikhon's new felt boots. His old ones stood in the corner and did not help to purify the air, either.
On the same day Bender and Vorob'yaninov (alias "Konrad Karlovich Michelson") move to "Sorbonne": Последовало быстрое согласие, и концессионеры, не попрощавшись с Тихоном, выбрались на улицу. Остановились они в меблированных комнатах "Сорбонна". (There followed immediate consent, and without saying goodbye to Tikhon, the concessionaires went out into the street. They stopped at the Sorbonne Furnished Rooms.) Sorbonne is the University in Paris (on Antiterra, aka Lute).
His [Van's] new lawyer, Mr Gromwell, whose really beautiful floral name suited somehow his innocent eyes and fair beard... (2.2)
The Russian name of "gromwell" (Lithospermum gen.) is vorobeykink. Like Vorob'yaninov (the name of Ostap Bender's partner), vorobeynik comes from vorobey (sparrow). Btw., the name of Vorob'yaninov's mother-in-law, Mme Petukhov, comes from petukh (cock). Vorobeynik rhymes with korobeynik (obs., pedlar). "Pedlar" rhymes with "medlar". Mispel is German for "medlar": Van toyed with the idea of challenging Mr Medlar (who, he hoped, would choose swords) to a duel at dawn in a secluded corner of the Park whose central green he could see from the penthouse terrace where he fenced with a French coach twice a week, the only exercise, save riding, that he still indulged in; but to his surprise - and relief (for he was a little ashamed to defend his 'novelette' and only wished to forget it, just as another, unrelated, Veen might have denounced - if allowed a longer life - his pubescent dream of ideal bordels) Max Mushmula (Russian for 'medlar') answered Van's tentative cartel with the warm-hearted promise of sending him his next article, 'The Weed Exiles the Flower' (Melville & Marvell). Korobeyniki (Pedlars, 1861) is a celebrated poem by Nekrasov. Gromwell rhymes with Cromwell.
In Van's novel a pretty girl named Theresa sends messages from Terra to an Antiterran Professor. Tereza is a character in Dostoevski's first novel Bednye lyudi (Poor Folk, 1846) written in the epistolary form. It is Tereza, an old servant woman at the Furnished Rooms where Makar Devushkin lives, who brings Makar's letters to Varen'ka Dobrosyolov (who lives in the same appartment house, across the courtyard) and Varen'ka's letters to Makar.***
Father Fyodor's letters to his wife in "The 12 Chairs" are a parody of Dostoevski's letters (signed tvoy vechno muzh Fedya****) to his wife Anna Grigorievna.
*Alfavit (alphabet) = Flavita (Russian Scrabble, 1.36)
**Tikhon = Khotin = khiton (tunic)
***Makar = karma = marka = ramka = amkar...
****your husband eternally, Theo
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/
Golub' being Russian for "pigeon, dove", "Goluba University" seems to hint at Columbia University in the City of New York (columbus/columba is Latin for "pigeon, dove").
On the other hand, goluba is a form of golubchik (coll.; as mode of address), "my dear." In Ilf & Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs" (Chapter Eleven, "The Mirror-of-Life Index") Ostap Bender addresses Varfolomey Korobeinikov (the head of the records department in Stargorod) goluba:
-- Голуба,-- пропел Остап,-- ей-богу, клянусь честью покойного батюшки. Рад душой, но нету, забыл взять с текущего счёта.
"My dear," crooned Ostap, "I swear by my late father, I'd be glad to, but I haven't any [money]; I forgot to draw any from my current account."
Herr Mispel, who liked to air his authors... (2.2)
Chapter Eleven "Alfavit* - zerkalo zhizni" ("The Mirror-of-Life Index") of the Ilf & Petrov novel begins:
На второй день компаньоны убедились, что жить в дворницкой больше неудобно. Бурчал Тихон, совершенно обалдевший после того, как увидел барина сначала черноусым, потом зеленоусым, а под конец и совсем без усов. Спать было не на чем. В дворницкой стоял запах гниющего навоза, распространяемый новыми валенками Тихона. Старые валенки стояли в углу и воздуха тоже не озонировали.
The next day the partners saw that it was no longer convenient to live in the caretaker's room. Tikhon** kept muttering away to himself and had become completely stupid, having seen his master first with a black moustache, then with a green one, and finally with no moustache at all. There was nothing to sleep on.The room stank of rotting manure, brought in on Tikhon's new felt boots. His old ones stood in the corner and did not help to purify the air, either.
On the same day Bender and Vorob'yaninov (alias "Konrad Karlovich Michelson") move to "Sorbonne": Последовало быстрое согласие, и концессионеры, не попрощавшись с Тихоном, выбрались на улицу. Остановились они в меблированных комнатах "Сорбонна". (There followed immediate consent, and without saying goodbye to Tikhon, the concessionaires went out into the street. They stopped at the Sorbonne Furnished Rooms.) Sorbonne is the University in Paris (on Antiterra, aka Lute).
His [Van's] new lawyer, Mr Gromwell, whose really beautiful floral name suited somehow his innocent eyes and fair beard... (2.2)
The Russian name of "gromwell" (Lithospermum gen.) is vorobeykink. Like Vorob'yaninov (the name of Ostap Bender's partner), vorobeynik comes from vorobey (sparrow). Btw., the name of Vorob'yaninov's mother-in-law, Mme Petukhov, comes from petukh (cock). Vorobeynik rhymes with korobeynik (obs., pedlar). "Pedlar" rhymes with "medlar". Mispel is German for "medlar": Van toyed with the idea of challenging Mr Medlar (who, he hoped, would choose swords) to a duel at dawn in a secluded corner of the Park whose central green he could see from the penthouse terrace where he fenced with a French coach twice a week, the only exercise, save riding, that he still indulged in; but to his surprise - and relief (for he was a little ashamed to defend his 'novelette' and only wished to forget it, just as another, unrelated, Veen might have denounced - if allowed a longer life - his pubescent dream of ideal bordels) Max Mushmula (Russian for 'medlar') answered Van's tentative cartel with the warm-hearted promise of sending him his next article, 'The Weed Exiles the Flower' (Melville & Marvell). Korobeyniki (Pedlars, 1861) is a celebrated poem by Nekrasov. Gromwell rhymes with Cromwell.
In Van's novel a pretty girl named Theresa sends messages from Terra to an Antiterran Professor. Tereza is a character in Dostoevski's first novel Bednye lyudi (Poor Folk, 1846) written in the epistolary form. It is Tereza, an old servant woman at the Furnished Rooms where Makar Devushkin lives, who brings Makar's letters to Varen'ka Dobrosyolov (who lives in the same appartment house, across the courtyard) and Varen'ka's letters to Makar.***
Father Fyodor's letters to his wife in "The 12 Chairs" are a parody of Dostoevski's letters (signed tvoy vechno muzh Fedya****) to his wife Anna Grigorievna.
*Alfavit (alphabet) = Flavita (Russian Scrabble, 1.36)
**Tikhon = Khotin = khiton (tunic)
***Makar = karma = marka = ramka = amkar...
****your husband eternally, Theo
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/