Since Mike Marcus pointed out that ulula means "owl" in Latin, which I didn't know, I remembered that Surnia ulula is the scientific name of the Northern Hawk-Owl, which can be called sirin in Russian, as Nabokov said in Strong Opinions.
Here's a post by Matt Roth about another possible owl in Pale Fire.
I'm sorry I didn't give the source, or at least the rest of the line, of the American lyric with "railway" that I quoted. It's from "One Toke Over the Line", by Brewer and Shipley.
Could "myopic shops" be those that are so crowded you have no choice but to look closely at everything?
Jerry Friedman
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