In 1885, having completed his prep-school education, he [Van Veen] went up to Chose University in England, where his fathers had gone, and traveled from time to time to London or Lute (as prosperous but not overrefined British colonials called that lovely pearl-gray sad city on the other side of the Channel). (1.28)
Chose is French for "thing" and quelque chose means "something." According to Pushkin (Eugene Onegin, One: V: 1-2),
§®§í §Ó§ã§Ö §å§é§Ú§Ý§Ú§ã§î §á§à§ß§Ö§Þ§ß§à§Ô§å
§¹§Ö§Þ§å-§ß§Ú§Ò§å§Õ§î §Ú §Ü§Ñ§Ü-§ß§Ú§Ò§å§Õ§î
All of us had a bit of schooling
in something and somehow.
In their accurate prose translation of EO Turgenev and Viardot render these lines as follows:
"Nous avons tous, par petites bribes, appris fort peu de choses et fort mal."
In a letter of January 3, 1899, to A. M. Peshkov (Maxim Gorky) Chekhov asks Gorky if he is samouchka (a self-educated man) and mentions Gorky¡¯s best veshchi (things):
§£§í §ã§Ñ§Þ§à§å§é§Ü§Ñ? §£ §ã§Ó§à§Ú§ç §â§Ñ§ã§ã§Ü§Ñ§Ù§Ñ§ç §Ó§í §Ó§á§à§Ý§ß§Ö §ç§å§Õ§à§Ø§ß§Ú§Ü, §á§â§Ú§ä§à§Þ §Ú§ß§ä§Ö§Ý§Ý§Ú§Ô§Ö§ß§ä§ß§í§Û §á§à-§ß§Ñ§ã§ä§à§ñ§ë§Ö§Þ§å. §£§Ñ§Þ §Þ§Ö§ß§Ö§Ö §Ó§ã§Ö§Ô§à §á§â§Ú§ã§å§ë§Ñ §Ú§Þ§Ö§ß§ß§à §Ô§â§å§Ò§à§ã§ä§î, §£§í §å§Þ§ß§í §Ú §é§å§Ó§ã§ä§Ó§å§Ö§ä§Ö §ä§à§ß§Ü§à §Ú §Ú§Ù§ñ§ë§ß§à. §£§Ñ§ê§Ú §Ý§å§é§ê§Ú§Ö §Ó§Ö§ë§Ú "§£ §ã§ä§Ö§á§Ú" §Ú "§¯§Ñ §á§Ý§à§ä§Ñ§ç" -- §á§Ú§ã§Ñ§Ý §Ý§Ú §ñ §£§Ñ§Þ §à§Ò §ï§ä§à§Þ? §¿§ä§à §á§â§Ö§Ó§à§ã§ç§à§Õ§ß§í§Ö §Ó§Ö§ë§Ú, §à§Ò§â§Ñ§Ù§è§à§Ó§í§Ö, §Ó §ß§Ú§ç §Ó§Ú§Õ§Ö§ß §ç§å§Õ§à§Ø§ß§Ú§Ü, §á§â§à§ê§Ö§Õ§ê§Ú§Û §à§é§Ö§ß§î §ç§à§â§à§ê§å§ð §ê§Ü§à§Ý§å. §¯§Ö §Õ§å§Þ§Ñ§ð, §é§ä§à §ñ §à§ê§Ú§Ò§Ñ§ð§ã§î. §¦§Õ§Ú§ß§ã§ä§Ó§Ö§ß§ß§í§Û §ß§Ö§Õ§à§ã§ä§Ñ§ä§à§Ü -- §ß§Ö§ä §ã§Õ§Ö§â§Ø§Ñ§ß§ß§à§ã§ä§Ú, §ß§Ö§ä §Ô§â§Ñ§è§Ú§Ú. §¬§à§Ô§Õ§Ñ §ß§Ñ §Ü§Ñ§Ü§à§Ö-§ß§Ú§Ò§å§Õ§î §à§á§â§Ö§Õ§Ö§Ý§Ö§ß§ß§à§Ö §Õ§Ö§Û§ã§ä§Ó§Ú§Ö §é§Ö§Ý§à§Ó§Ö§Ü §Ù§Ñ§ä§â§Ñ§é§Ú§Ó§Ñ§Ö§ä §ß§Ñ§Ú§Þ§Ö§ß§î§ê§Ö§Ö §Ü§à§Ý§Ú§é§Ö§ã§ä§Ó§à §Õ§Ó§Ú§Ø§Ö§ß§Ú§Û, §ä§à §ï§ä§à §Ô§â§Ñ§è§Ú§ñ. §£ §Ó§Ñ§ê§Ú§ç §Ø§Ö §Ù§Ñ§ä§â§Ñ§ä§Ñ§ç §é§å§Ó§ã§ä§Ó§å§Ö§ä§ã§ñ §Ú§Ù§Ý§Ú§ê§Ö§ã§ä§Ó§à.
Are you self-educated? In your stories you are completely an artist and at the same time an ¡°educated¡± man in the truest sense. Nothing is less characteristic of you than coarseness, you are clever and subtle and delicate in your feelings. Your best things are ¡°In the Steppe,¡± and ¡°On the Raft,¡±¡ª did I write to you about that? They are splendid things, masterpieces, they show the artist who has passed through a very good school. I don¡¯t think that I am mistaken. The only defect is the lack of restraint, the lack of grace. When a man spends the least possible number of movements over some definite action, that is grace. One is conscious of superfluity in your expenditure.
Van¡¯s and Ada¡¯s half-sister Lucette was born on January 3, 1876 (1.1). The third part of Gorky¡¯s autobiographical trilogy is entitled Moi universitety (¡°My Universities,¡± 1923). In Chekhov's juvenile P¡¯yesa bez nazvaniya (<The Play without a Title>, 1880-81) Shcherbuk, as he speaks to Triletski, uses the phrase kel¡¯k shoz (quelque chose in Russian spelling):
§ª §Ö§Ù§Õ§Ú§Ý §ê§Ö§ã§ä§î §â§Ñ§Ù §ß§Ö §á§à§ä§à§Þ§å, §é§ä§à §ñ §Ò§à§Ý§Ö§ß §Ò§í§Ý, §Ñ §á§à§ä§à§Þ§å, §é§ä§à §å §Þ§à§Ö§Ô§à §Ñ§â§Ö§ß§Õ§Ñ§ä§à§â§Ñ §Õ§à§é§Ü§Ñ §Ü§Ö§Ý§î§Ü §ê§à§Ù.
And you visited me six times not because I was ill, but because my tenant's daughter is a pretty young thing. (Act One, scene XIV)
On his way back from the picnic on Ada¡¯s sixteenth birthday Van recalls Ada¡¯s lolita (¡°a rather long, but very airy and ample, black skirt, with red poppies and peonies,¡± 1.13) that she wore four years before and mentions ¡°the Chose young things:¡±
He remembered with a pang of pleasure the indulgent skirt Ada had been wearing then, so swoony-baloony as the Chose young things said, and he regretted (smiling) that Lucette had those chaste shorts on today, and Ada, husked-corn (laughing) trousers. (1.39)
Platonov (the main character in Chekhov¡¯s <Play without a Title>) brings to mind Dr Platonov (an elderly gentleman in Cordula¡¯s compartment on whose foot Van accidentally steps):
As he was pushing his unsteady way through one corridor after another, cursing under his breath the window-gazers who did not draw in their bottoms to let him pass, and hopelessly seeking a comfortable nook in one of the first-class cars consisting of four-seat compartments, he saw Cordula and her mother facing each other on the window side. The two other places were occupied by a stout, elderly gentleman in an old-fashioned brown wig with a middle parting, and a bespectacled boy in a sailor suit sitting next to Cordula, who was in the act of offering him one half of her chocolate bar. Van entered, moved by a sudden very bright thought, but Cordula¡¯s mother did not recognize him at once, and the flurry of reintroductions combined with a lurch of the train caused Van to step on the prunella-shod foot of the elderly passenger, who uttered a sharp cry and said, indistinctly but not impolitely: ¡®Spare my gout (or ¡®take care¡¯ or ¡®look out¡¯), young man!¡¯
¡®I do not like being addressed as "young man,"¡¯ Van told the invalid in a completely uncalled-for, brutal burst of voice.
¡®Has he hurt you, Grandpa?¡¯ inquired the little boy.
¡®He has,¡¯ said Grandpa, ¡®but I did not mean to offend anybody by my cry of anguish.¡¯
¡®Even anguish should be civil,¡¯ continued Van (while the better Van in him tugged at his sleeve, aghast and ashamed).
¡®Cordula,¡¯ said the old actress (with the same apropos with which she once picked up and fondled a fireman¡¯s cat that had strayed into Fast Colors in the middle of her best speech), ¡®why don¡¯t you go with this angry young demon to the tea-car? I think I¡¯ll take my thirty-nine winks now.¡¯
¡®What¡¯s wrong?¡¯ asked Cordula as they settled down in the very roomy and rococo ¡®crumpeter,¡¯ as Kalugano College students used to call it in the ¡®Eighties and ¡®Nineties.
¡®Everything,¡¯ replied Van, ¡®but what makes you ask?¡¯
¡®Well, we know Dr Platonov slightly, and there was absolutely no reason for you to be so abominably rude to the dear old man.¡¯ (1.42)
¡°Spare my gout¡± (Dr Platonov¡¯s cry of anguish) brings to mind chacun ¨¤ son gout, a trite French phrase that Richard Leonard Churchill mistranslates twice in the course of his novel about a certain Crimean Khan:
Van remembered that his tutor's great friend, the learned but prudish Semyon Afanasievich Vengerov, then a young associate professor but already a celebrated Pushkinist (1855-1954), used to say that the only vulgar passage in his author's work was the cannibal joy of young gourmets tearing 'plump and live' oysters out of their 'cloisters' in an unfinished canto of Eugene Onegin. But then 'everyone has his own taste,' as the British writer Richard Leonard Churchill mistranslates a trite French phrase (chacun ¨¤ son gout) twice in the course of his novel about a certain Crimean Khan once popular with reporters and politicians, 'A Great Good Man' - according, of course, to the cattish and prejudiced Guillaume Monparnasse about whose new celebrity Ada, while dipping the reversed corolla of one hand in a bowl, was now telling Demon, who was performing the same rite in the same graceful fashion. (1.38)
Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): Great good man: a phrase that Winston Churchill, the British politician, enthusiastically applied to Stalin.
In a letter of December 3, 1898, to A. M. Peshkov (this is the second letter that Chekhov wrote to Gorky) Chekhov (who lived then in Yalta) compares Gorky¡¯s talent to a big tree growing in the garden and mentions the tastes of the man who is looking at that tree:
§¤§à§Ó§à§â§Ú§ä§î §ä§Ö§á§Ö§â§î §à §ß§Ö§Õ§à§ã§ä§Ñ§ä§Ü§Ñ§ç? §¯§à §ï§ä§à §ß§Ö §ä§Ñ§Ü §Ý§Ö§Ô§Ü§à. §¤§à§Ó§à§â§Ú§ä§î §à §ß§Ö§Õ§à§ã§ä§Ñ§ä§Ü§Ñ§ç §ä§Ñ§Ý§Ñ§ß§ä§Ñ ¡ª §ï§ä§à §Ó§ã§× §â§Ñ§Ó§ß§à, §é§ä§à §Ô§à§Ó§à§â§Ú§ä§î §à §ß§Ö§Õ§à§ã§ä§Ñ§ä§Ü§Ñ§ç §Ò§à§Ý§î§ê§à§Ô§à §Õ§Ö§â§Ö§Ó§Ñ, §Ü§à§ä§à§â§à§Ö §â§Ñ§ã§ä§×§ä §Ó §ã§Ñ§Õ§å; §ä§å§ä §Ó§Ö§Õ§î §Ô§Ý§Ñ§Ó§ß§í§Þ §à§Ò§â§Ñ§Ù§à§Þ §Õ§Ö§Ý§à §ß§Ö §Ó §ã§Ñ§Þ§à§Þ §Õ§Ö§â§Ö§Ó§Ö, §Ñ §Ó§à §Ó§Ü§å§ã§Ñ§ç §ä§à§Ô§à, §Ü§ä§à §ã§Þ§à§ä§â§Ú§ä §ß§Ñ §Õ§Ö§â§Ö§Ó§à. §¯§Ö §ä§Ñ§Ü §Ý§Ú?
Shall I speak now of defects? But that is not so easy. To speak of the defects of a talent is like speaking of the defects of a great tree growing in the garden; what is chiefly in question, you see, is not the tree itself but the tastes of the man who is looking at it. Is not that so?
The characters of Chekhov¡¯s <Play without a Title> include Vengerovich p¨¨re and Vengerovich fils. Platonov predicts to Vengerovich p¨¨re (who is about fifty) that he will live another fifty years or even longer and die peacefully:
§£§Ö§ß§Ô§Ö§â§à§Ó§Ú§é 1. §£§í §ß§Ñ§é§Ú§ß§Ñ§Ö§ä§Ö §æ§Ñ§ß§ä§Ñ§Ù§Ú§â§à§Ó§Ñ§ä§î, §®§Ú§ç§Ñ§Ú§Ý §£§Ñ§ã§Ú§Ý§î§Ú§é! (§£§ã§ä§Ñ§×§ä §Ú §ã§Ñ§Õ§Ú§ä§ã§ñ §ß§Ñ §Õ§â§å§Ô§à§Û §ã§ä§å§Ý.)
§±§Ý§Ñ§ä§à§ß§à§Ó. §¯§Ñ §ï§ä§à§Û §Ô§à§Ý§à§Ó§Ö §Ú §Ô§â§à§Þ§à§à§ä§Ó§à§Õ§à§Ó §Ò§à§Ý§î§ê§Ö... §±§â§à§Ø§Ú§Ó§×§ä §á§â§Ö§ã§á§à§Ü§à§Û§ß§à §Ö§ë§× §ã§ä§à§Ý§î§Ü§à §Ø§Ö, §ã§Ü§à§Ý§î§Ü§à §Ú §Ø§Ú§Ý, §Ö§ã§Ý§Ú §ß§Ö §Ò§à§Ý§î§ê§Ö, §Ú §å§Þ§â§×§ä... §Ú §å§Þ§â§×§ä §Ó§Ö§Õ§î §ã§á§à§Ü§à§Û§ß§à! (Act One, scene XV)
According to Platonov, there are more gromootvody (lightning-conductors) on the head of Vengerovich p¨¨re. Describing the family dinner in ¡°Ardis the Second,¡± Van mentions Perun, the unmentionable god of thunder:
Ada ran to the window. From under the anxious magnolias a white-faced boy flanked by two gaping handmaids stood aiming a camera at the harmless, gay family group. But it was only a nocturnal mirage, not unusual in July. Nobody was taking pictures except Perun, the unmentionable god of thunder. (1.38)
After the L disaster in the beau milieu of the 19th century electricity is banned on Antiterra (aka Demonia, Earth¡¯s twin planet on which Ada is set). In the old Russian alphabet the letter L was called lyudi. The second part of Gorky¡¯s autobiographical trilogy is entitled V lyudyakh (¡°Out in the World,¡± 1916). On the other hand, in Gorky¡¯s novel Zhizn¡¯ Klima Samgina (¡°The Life of Klim Samgin,¡± 1925-36) Lyutov makes a pun on zhizn¡¯ (life) and lozh¡¯ (a lie) and mentions bukva ¡°lyudi¡± (the letter L):
§³§Ü§Ý§à§ß§Ú§Ó §Ô§à§Ý§à§Ó§å §Ü §á§Ý§Ö§é§å, §à§ß §á§à§Õ§Þ§Ú§Ô§ß§å§Ý §Ý§Ö§Ó§í§Þ §Ô§Ý§Ñ§Ù§à§Þ §Ú §á§â§à§ê§Ö§á§ä§Ñ§Ý:
¡ª «§¨§Ú§Ù§ß§î §Õ§Ý§ñ §Ý§Ø§Ú§Ù§ß§Ú §ß§Ñ§Þ §Õ§Ñ§ß§Ñ», ¡ª §Ù§Ñ§Þ§Ö§ä§î, §é§ä§à §ï§ä§à§ä §Ü§Ñ§Ý§Ñ§Þ§Ò§å§â§Ú§ê§Ü§à §Õ§à§ã§ä§Ú§Ô§Ñ§Ö§ä§ã§ñ §á§â§Ú§ã§ä§Ñ§Ó§Ü§à§Û §Ü §ã§Ý§à§Ó§å §Ø§Ú§Ù§ß§î §Ò§å§Ü§Ó§í «§Ý§ð§Õ§Ú». §º§ä§å§é§Ü§Ñ?
¡ª §±§Ý§à§ç§à§Û §Ü§Ñ§Ý§Ñ§Þ§Ò§å§â, ¡ª §ã§å§ç§à §ã§Ü§Ñ§Ù§Ñ§Ý §¬§Ý§Ú§Þ.
¡ª §°§ä§Ó§â§Ñ§ä§Ú§ä§Ö§Ý§Ö§ß, ¡ª §ã§à§Ô§Ý§Ñ§ã§Ú§Ý§ã§ñ §§ð§ä§à§Ó. (Part Two)
According to Lyutov, zhizn¡¯ dlya lzhizni nam dana (life is given to us for lying rather than living it). Shtuchka (¡°a little trick¡±) mentioned by Lyutov brings to mind Ada¡¯s shtuchki (little stunts) imitated by Lucette:
¡®I knew it was hopeless,¡¯ she said, looking away. ¡®I did my best. I imitated all her shtuchki (little stunts). I¡¯m a better actress than she but that¡¯s not enough, I know. Go back now, they are getting dreadfully drunk on your cognac.¡¯ (2.5)
Shtuchka is a diminutive of shtuka (item; piece; thing; trick). In Chekhov¡¯s <Play without a Title> Shcherbuk calls Platonov¡¯s late father shtukar¡¯ (a trickster):
§»§Ö§â§Ò§å§Ü. §°§ä§ã§ä§Ñ§ß§î! §¥§à§Ó§à§Ý§î§ß§à! §¯§Ö §â§Ñ§Ù§Õ§â§Ñ§Ø§Ñ§Û §ã§á§ñ§ë§Ö§Ô§à §Ý§î§Ó§Ñ! §®§à§Ý§à§Õ §Ö§ë§×, §Ö§Ý§Ö §Ó§Ú§Õ§Ú§Þ! (§±§Ý§Ñ§ä§à§ß§à§Ó§å.) §ª §à§ä§Ö§è §ä§Ó§à§Û §Ò§í§Ý §Þ§à§Ý§à§Õ§Ö§è! §®§í §ã §ß§Ú§Þ, §ã §á§à§Ü§à§Û§ß§Ú§é§Ü§à§Þ, §Ò§à§Ý§î§ê§Ú§Ö §Õ§â§å§Ù§î§ñ §Ò§í§Ý§Ú. §º§ä§å§Ü§Ñ§â§î §à§ß §Ò§í§Ý! §´§Ö§á§Ö§â§î §ä§Ñ§Ü§Ú§ç §Ú §ß§Ö§ä §á§â§à§Ü§Ñ§Ù§ß§Ú§Ü§à§Ó, §Ü§Ñ§Ü§Ú§Þ§Ú §Þ§í §ã §ß§Ú§Þ §Ò§í§Ý§Ú... §¿§ç§ç. §±§â§à§ê§Ý§à §Ó§â§Ö§Þ§ñ... (§±§Ö§ä§â§Ú§ß§å.) §¤§Ö§â§Ñ§ã§ñ! §±§à§Ò§à§Û§ã§ñ §Ó§ã§Ö§Ó§í§ê§ß§Ö§Ô§à! §®§í §Ù§Õ§Ö§ã§î §Ò§Ö§ã§Ö§Õ§å§Ö§Þ, §Ñ §ä§í §Ó§ã§Ý§å§ç §é§Ú§ä§Ñ§Ö§ê§î! §ª§Þ§Ö§Û §Õ§Ö§Ý§Ú§Ü§Ñ§ä§ß§à§ã§ä§î! (Act One, scene XIV)
In Gorky¡¯s ¡°Life of Klim Samgin¡± Lyutov (whose name comes from lyutyi, ¡°fierce¡±) mentions frantsuzskaya stolitsa Lyutetsiya (the French capital Lut¨¨ce):
§°§Õ§ß§Ñ§Ü§à §³§Ñ§Þ§Ô§Ú§ß §é§å§Ó§ã§ä§Ó§à§Ó§Ñ§Ý, §é§ä§à §§ð§ä§à§Ó §Ú§ã§Ü§â§Ö§ß§ß§à §â§Ñ§Õ §Ó§Ú§Õ§Ö§ä§î §Ö§Ô§à. §£ §Ü§à§â§Ú§Õ§à§â§Ö, §á§à §Õ§à§â§à§Ô§Ö §Ó §Ü§Ñ§Ò§Ú§ß§Ö§ä, §³§Ñ§Þ§Ô§Ú§ß §à§ã§Ó§Ö§Õ§à§Þ§Ú§Ý§ã§ñ: §Ô§Õ§Ö §¡§Ý§Ú§ß§Ñ?
- §¡§Ý§Ú§ß§Ñ? - §ß§Ö§ß§å§Ø§ß§à §á§Ö§â§Ö§ã§á§â§à§ã§Ú§Ý §§ð§ä§à§Ó, - §¡§Ý§Ú§ß§Ñ §á§â§Ö§Ò§í§Ó§Ñ§Ö§ä §Ó§à §æ§â§Ñ§ß§è§å§Ù§ã§Ü§à§Û §ã§ä§à§Ý§Ú§è§Ö §§ð§ä§Ö§è§Ú§Ú §Ú §á§Ú§ê§Ö§ä §Þ§ß§Ö §à§ä§ä§å§Õ§Ñ §Õ§Ý§Ú§ß§ß§í§Ö, §ã§Ó§Ú§â§Ö§á§í§Ö §á§Ú§ã§î§Þ§Ñ, - §æ§â§Ñ§ß§è§å§Ù§í §Ö§Û §ß§Ö §ß§â§Ñ§Ó§ñ§ä§ã§ñ. (Part Three)
On Antiterra Paris is also known as Lute (Darkbloom: ¡°from Lut¨¨ce, ancient name of Paris¡±). As a Chose student, Van traveled from time to time to London or Lute (1.28).
According to Lyutov, Alina (Lyutov¡¯s mistress who became a cabaret diva in Paris) dislikes the French. One of the seconds in Demon¡¯s sword duel with Baron d¡¯Onsky (nicknamed Skonky) is Colonel St. Alin, a scoundrel:
The challenge was accepted; two native seconds were chosen; the Baron plumped for swords; and after a certain amount of good blood (Polish and Irish ¡ª a kind of American ¡®Gory Mary¡¯ in barroom parlance) had bespattered two hairy torsoes, the whitewashed terrace, the flight of steps leading backward to the walled garden in an amusing Douglas d¡¯Artagnan arrangement, the apron of a quite accidental milkmaid, and the shirtsleeves of both seconds, charming Monsieur de Pastrouil and Colonel St Alin, a scoundrel, the latter gentlemen separated the panting combatants, and Skonky died, not ¡®of his wounds¡¯ (as it was viciously rumored) but of a gangrenous afterthought on the part of the least of them, possibly self-inflicted, a sting in the groin, which caused circulatory trouble, notwithstanding quite a few surgical interventions during two or three years of protracted stays at the Aardvark Hospital in Boston ¡ª a city where, incidentally, he married in 1869 our friend the Bohemian lady, now keeper of Glass Biota at the local museum. (1.2)
Lyutov¡¯s mistress is a namesake of knyazhna Alina (Princess Alina), in Pushkin's EO the Moscow cousin of Praskovia Larin (Tatiana's and Olga's mother). The latter has the same first name as Praskovia de Prey (born Lanskoy), Percy de Prey¡¯s mother in Ada. According to Demon (Van¡¯s and Ada¡¯s father), Praskovia¡¯s husband was killed in a pistol duel with Moses de Vere:
'At the races, the other day, I was talking to a woman I preyed upon years ago, oh long before Moses de Vere cuckolded her husband in my absence and shot him dead in my presence - an epigram you've heard before, no doubt from these very lips -'(1.38)
Marina (Van¡¯s, Ada¡¯s and Lucette¡¯s mother) believes that she was a dancing girl in India long before Moses or anybody was born in the lotus swamp:
'It's not a very old religion, anyway, as religions go, is it?' said Marina (turning to Van and vaguely planning to steer the chat to India where she had been a dancing girl long before Moses or anybody was born in the lotus swamp). (1.14)
In the same conversation in ¡°Ardis the First¡± Marina mentions Mesopotamian history that was taught practically in the nursery:
'When I was a little girl,' said Marina crossly, 'Mesopotamian history was taught practically in the nursery.'
'Not all little girls can learn what they are taught,' observed Ada.
'Are we Mesopotamians?' asked Lucette.
'We are Hippopotamians,' said Van. 'Come,' he added, 'we have not yet ploughed today.'
A day or two before, Lucette had demanded that she be taught to hand-walk. Van gripped her by her ankles while she slowly progressed on her little red palms, sometimes falling with a grunt on her face or pausing to nibble a daisy. Dack barked in strident protest. (ibid.)
Dack is a dackel and brings to mind Chekhov¡¯s dachshunds Quina and Brom, the grandparents of Box II (the Nabokovs¡¯ dachshund that followed them into exile).
Marina + Alina = Arina + malina
Arina ¨C Arina Rodionovna, Pushkin¡¯s beloved nurse
malina ¨C raspberry
In Four Sisters (as Chekhov¡¯s play ¡°The Three Sisters,¡± 1901, is known on Antiterra) Sister Varvara (the garrulous originalka, ¡®odd female,¡¯ whom Marina played in a film version) calls Irina (whom Ada played in a stage version) Arinushka (a diminutive of both Arina and Irina):
"Ten years and one have gone by-abye since I left Moscow"¡¯ ¡ª (Ada, now playing Varvara, copied the nun¡¯s ¡®singsongy devotional tone¡¯ (pevuchiy ton bogomolki, as indicated by Chekhov and as rendered so irritatingly well by Marina). ¡®"Nowadays, Old Basmannaya Street, where you (turning to Irina) were born a score of yearkins (godkov) ago, is Busman Road, lined on both sides with workshops and garages (Irina tries to control her tears). Why, then, should you want to go back, Arinushka? (Irina sobs in reply)." Naturally, as would-every fine player, mother improvised quite a bit, bless her soul. And moreover her voice ¡ª in young tuneful Russian! ¡ª is substituted for Lenore¡¯s corny brogue.¡¯ (2.9)
In his satire on Stalin, My zhivyom, pod soboyu ne chuya strany¡ (¡°We live, not feeling land beneath us¡¡± 1934), Mandelshtam mentions malina:
chto ni kazn' u nego, to malina
whatever the execution, it's a raspberry to him.
In ¡°Eugene and Lara¡± (a performance watched by Demon in which Marina played the heroine) several merry young gardeners wearing the garb of Georgian tribesmen popped raspberries into their mouths:
In a splendid orchard several merry young gardeners wearing for some reason the garb of Georgian tribesmen were popping raspberries into their mouths, while several equally implausible servant girls in sharovars (somebody had goofed ¡ª the word ¡®samovars¡¯ may have got garbled in the agent¡¯s aerocable) were busy plucking marshmallows and peanuts from the branches of fruit trees. At an invisible sign of Dionysian origin, they all plunged into the violent dance called kurva or ¡®ribbon boule¡¯ in the hilarious program whose howlers almost caused Veen (tingling, and light-loined, and with Prince N.¡¯s rose-red banknote in his pocket) to fall from his seat. (1.2)
Alexey Sklyarenko