Vladimir Nabokov

Anagrams in the Forewords?

By William Dane, 28 July, 2018

Has anyone already mined the last sentence of each translated-Russian Foreword for, for instance, anagrams? The last sentence in each case is usually a little off in some way. For instance, looking at the last line in the Foreword to The Gift, "The epilogic poem mimicks an Onegin stanza," could have easily been conflated with the sentence before it. Trying to find anagrams, one possible start is "I am happiest seeking zoologic..." with macenim still left.

If this work has already been done, would someone mind pointing me in the right direction? I couldn't find anything in the Listserve archive or a regular Google search.

MARYROSS

5 years 7 months ago

Will - you actually have a word left there  (actually two) -  "a mnemic"

 

"I am happiest seeking a zoologic mnemic" (with "a" left over). Although this is a bit more off than the original grammatically, it would certainly suggest VN's passion for mimicry in lepidoptera!

What an interesting idea - good luck!

 

From online Meriam-Webster:

Medical Definition of mneme

the persistent or recurrent effect of past experience of the individual or of the race

— 

mnemic

 play \-mik\ adjective