Gary Lipon: He's enumerated four such invertible pairings in
the space of three rhymed iambic lines, which pretty well establishes that Hazel enjoyed word
games....
"She twisted words: pot, top,/ Spider, redips. And “powder” was
“red wop.”/ She called you a didactic katydid."
JM: Gary, it seems that Hazel not only
enjoyed word games but used them to express some of her 'un-twisted', either
fair or unfair, ideas. Twisting words, in itself, is a kind of "camouflage"
(& the task of translation may be, sometimes, another kind of 'mimicry,'
too*)
For example, her calling John Shade "a didactic kaytid" could
reflect the way she saw her father. Someone camuflaged as a teacher, an adept at
the art of deception. We know Nabokov was particularly interested in insect
mimicry: perhaps his introduction of an innofensive grass-hopper was not as
innocent as it seems at first look.
At least, this is what I gathered after I searched after
"deception" in connection to "katydid" ( at: rainforests.mongabay.com/0306.htm) "A
completely different approach for deception is camouflage, whereby animals seek
to look inanimate or inedible to avoid detection by predators and prey. There
are many examples of rainforest species which are cryptically colored to match
their surroundings. For example, the Uroplatus geckos of Madagascar are
incredible masters of disguise and are practically unnoticeable to the
passer-by. An even more amazing group is the katydids, a group of
grasshopper-like insects found worldwide. Katydids are nocturnal insects which
use their cryptic coloration to remain unnoticed during the day when they are
inactive. They remain perfectly still, often in a position that makes them blend
in even better. Katydids have evolved to the point where their body coloring and
shape matches leaves,including half-eaten leaves, dying leaves, and leaves with
bird droppings, sticks, twigs, and tree bark. Other well-known camouflage
artists include beetles, mantids, caterpillars, moths, snakes, lizards, and
frogs. Some species appear to have conspicuous coloration when they are not in
the proper surroundings. For example, among the brilliant butterflies of the
forest, the magnificent electric blue Morpho, has iridescent blue upper wings
and a seven-inch wingspan. However, because the underwings are dark, when the
Morpho flies through the flickering light of the forest or even out in broad
daylight, it seems to disappear. Other forest species, especially mammals, have
spots or stripes to help break up the animal's outline. In the shade created by
the canopy, large mammals like leopards, jaguars, ocelots, and okapi are
surprisingly difficult to see with their disruptive
coloration."
...................................................................
* Checking how Hazel's word-twisters fared in another language, at
first I searched in Dieter Zimmer's "Fahles
Feuer" (p.53;p444)
"...Sie verdrehte Wörter:,< Rebe. -[,Eber.. / Und
<Ton> zu <Not>. Aus <lese> wurde <Esel>,/ Sie nannte
dich didaktische - was? - Catydide."
In the Brazilian edition of "Fogo Pálido" the words were
actually not rendered ("Quando passou três noites pesquisando/
Luzes e sons num silo abandonado./ Quase nunca sorria, e se o fazia/ Era em
sinal de dor. Nos criticava...")