R.S Gwynn mentioned, yesterday, in
relation to rhyme and stresses, how Nabokov would have pronounced the
name "Rabelais".
His conjecture makes sense, for Nabokov's French was
fluent (B.Boyd,perhaps in RY, mentioned that for a time VN even hesitated if his
shift would lead him into becoming an English or a French writer).
However, it is impossible to be certain about how
a word resounds internally or subconsciously under certain
circumstances.
In "Strong Opinions" (Vintage,pg.25) Nabokov wrote:
"Dolores also provided her with another, plainer, more
familiar and infantil diminutive: Dolly, which went nicely with the surname
'Haze,' where Irsih mists blend with a German bunny - I mean, a small
German hare." ( "Hazel" would be even more adequate,
associatively, for it carries with it the affectionate diminutive for
the "Hase," the proliferation of which is also found elsewhere ( Cf.
Alexey Sklyarenko's explanation that Krolik means "rabbit" in Russian and his
forthcoming article, 'The Leporine Family of
Doctors in Ada,' .." ).
Nabokov's association of "Haze" with "Hase" is
very surprising.
The German word sounds very unlike the misty Irish
one. VN's particular synesthesia - related either to shapes and shades
- must have been a determining factor for this approximation - which, for
anyone else, must remain unfathomable.
btw: when Sklyarenko wrote about Gumilov in one of his
last postings, I also remembered a word in German that stands for "eraser" and
that important substance (mentioned in VN's verbal rainbow in relation to the
letter G, I think) which has been insistently referred to in KQK
("gutta-percha") ...but I digress.