Mr Plunkett had been, in the summer of his
adventurous years, one of the greatest shuler's, politely called
'gaming conjurers,' both in England and America. (1.28)
Mr Plunkett brings to mind Balunski, the former
korol' shulerov (king of card-sharps) in Kuprin's story
Uchenik ("The Disciple," 1908):
– Посмотрите, вон тот господин, с седыми усами и с
зелёным шёлковым зонтиком над глазами. Это – Балунский, король
шулеров.
Thanks to Plunkett's lessons Van manages to cheat a
cheater at Chose (Van's University):
Sometime during the winter of 1886-7, at dismally cold
Chose, in the course of a poker game with two Frenchmen and a fellow student
whom we shall call Dick, in the latter's smartly furnished rooms in Serenity
Court, he noticed that the French twins were losing not only because they were
happily and hopelessly tight, but also because milord was that 'crystal cretin'
of Plunkett's vocabulary, a man of many mirrors - small reflecting surfaces
variously angled and shaped, glinting discreetly on watch or signet ring,
dissimulated like female fireflies in the undergrowth, on table legs, inside
cuff or lapel, and on the edges of ashtrays, whose position on adjacent supports
Dick kept shifting with a negligent air - all of which, as any card sharper
might tell you, was as dumb as it was redundant. (1.28)
The main character in Kuprin's story is the student Drzhevetski who
wins a large sum of money playing with several professional card-sharps
onboard a Volgan steamer. Drzhevetski knows all the tricks of card-sharps and
despises them:
Не беспокойтесь, я знаю все ваши старые приёмы.
Накладка, передержка, наколка, краплёные колоды – ведь так?
– Нет, – заметил обидчиво Балунский. – У нас были и
более сложные штучки. Я, например, первый ввёл в употребление атласные
карты.
– Атласные карты? – переспросил студент.
– Ну да. На карту наклеивается атлас. Трением о сукно
ворс пригибается в одну сторону, на нём рисуется валет. Затем, когда краска
высохла, ворс переворачивают в другую сторону и рисуют даму. Если ваша дама
бита, вам нужно только провести картой по столу.
'I have often wondered why the
Russian for it - I think we have a Russian ancestor in common - is the same as
the German for "schoolboy," minus the umlaut' - and while prattling thus, Van
refunded with a rapidly written check the ecstatically astonished
Frenchmen. (1.28)
Schüler (Germ., "schoolboy")
can be translated to Russian as shkol'nik ("schoolboy") and
uchenik ("pupil").
In Uchenik Drzhevetski jokingly calls the mate
"Admiral:"
Студент расстегнул сюртук, достал из бокового
кармана щегольской бумажник из красной кожи с золотой монограммой и вынул из
него две бумажки, по сто рублей каждая.
– Держите, адмирал! Это ваши, – сказал он
внушительно.
Admiral Tobakoff is Van's favorite
liner:
'Tomorrow I have to be in London and on
the third my favorite liner, Admiral Tobakoff, will take me to
Manhattan.' (3.2).
The name Tobakoff comes from tabak (tobacco). The
phrase pod tabak (naut. slang, "dangerous shallow water") occurs
in Kuprin's story:
Пароход проходил узким, мелким местом...
"Шесть... ше-е-сть с половиной!.. Под таба-а-к!" – кричал на носу
водолив.
Incidentally, in his "University Poem" (1927) VN uses the
related verb tabanit' ("to back oars"):
Я затабанил и пристал.
I backed the oars and touched the shore. (XLIV:
14)
She [Lucette] was not
on the Games Deck [of Admiral
Tobakoff] from where he [Van] looked down at some other red-head, in a canvas
chair on the Sun Deck: the girl sat writing a letter at passionate speed and he
thought that if ever he switched from ponderous factitude to light fiction he
would have a jealous husband use binoculars to decipher from where he stood that
outpour of illicit affection. (3.5)
A jealous husband's binoculars bring to mind Dick's monocle magnifying the
mark he makes on a playing card:
'Van,' he cried, 'I've given up all that looking-glass
dung, congratulate me! Listen: the only safe way is to mark 'em! Wait, that's
not all, can you imagine, they've invented a microscopic - and I mean
microscopic - point of euphorion, a precious metal, to insert under your
thumbnail, you can't see it with the naked eye, but one minuscule section of
your monocle is made to magnify the mark you make with it, like killing a flea,
on one card after another, as they come along in the game, that's the beauty of
it, no preparations, no props, nothing! Mark 'em! Mark 'em!' good Dick was still
shouting, as Van walked away. (1.28)
Alexey Sklyarenko