Subject
Tobakoff & Miss Condor's jungle smile in Ada
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The passengers of Admiral Tobakoff include a mulatto girl whom Lucette dubs
“Miss Condor” and who gives Van a big jungle smile:
Simultaneously, a tall splendid creature with trim ankles and repulsively
fleshy thighs, stalked past the Veens, all but treading on Lucette's
emerald-studded cigarette case. Except for a golden ribbon and a bleached
mane, her long, ripply, beige back was bare all the way down to the tops of
her slowly and lusciously rolling buttocks, which divulged, in alternate
motion, their nether bulges from under the lamé loincloth. Just before
disappearing behind a rounded white corner, the Titianesque Titaness
half-turned her brown face and greeted Van with a loud 'hullo!'
Lucette wanted to know: kto siya pava? (who's that stately dame?)
'I thought she addressed you,' answered Van, 'I did not distinguish her face
and do not remember that bottom.'
'She gave you a big jungle smile,' said Lucette, readjusting her green
helmet, with touchingly graceful movements of her raised wings, and
touchingly flashing the russet feathering of her armpits. (3.5)
'Whom did she [Miss Condor] look like?' asked Lucette. 'En laid et en lard?'
'I don't know,' he lied. 'Whom?'
'Skip it,' she said. 'You're mine tonight. Mine, mine, mine!'
She was quoting Kipling - the same phrase that Ada used to address to Dack.
He cast around for a straw of Procrustean procrastination. (ibid.)
The animals in Kipling’s Jungle Books (1894) include the jackal Tabaqui
(Shere Khan’s stooge). Kondor ("Condor," 1921) is a poem by Bryusov. In
Geroy truda ("The Hero of Toil," 1925), Marina Tsvetaev's memoir essay on
Bryusov, Alya (Ariadna Efron, Marina Tsvetaev's eight-year-old daughter)
compares Bryusov to Shere Khan (the tiger in The Jungle Books) and Bryusov's
mistress Adalis, to a young she-wolf:
Москва, начало декабря 1920 г.
Несколько дней спустя, читая "Джунгли".
― Марина! Вы знаете ― кто Шер-Хан? ― Брюсов!
― Тоже хромой и одинокий, и у него там тоже
Адалис. (Приводит:) ?А старый Шер-Хан ходил
и открыто принимал лесть?… Я так в этом уз
нала Брюсова! А Адалис ― приблуда, из моло
дых волков.
According to Van, Admiral Tobakoff (after whom the Tobago Islands, or the
Tobakoff Islands, are named) had an épée duel with Jean Nicot (2.5). In
Kipling’s novel Captains Courageous (1897) Harvey mentions tabac (which
means in French “tobacco” and “fight”):
"Harmon Rush he said that was the way to rise 'em. Plain United States is
good enough fer me. We're all dretful short on terbakker. Young feller,
don't you speak French?"
"Oh, yes," said Harvey, valiantly; and he bawled: "Hi! Say! Arretez vous!
Attendez! Nous sommes venant pour tabac."
"Ah, tabac, tabac!" they cried, and laughed again.
"That hit 'em. Let's heave a dory over, anyway," said Tom Platt.
"I don't exactly hold no certificates on French, but I know another lingo
that goes, I guess. Come on, Harve, an' interpret." (chapter V)
Btw., pava is feminine of pavlin, “peacock.” Among the animals in The
Jungle Books there is Mao, the Peacock.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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“Miss Condor” and who gives Van a big jungle smile:
Simultaneously, a tall splendid creature with trim ankles and repulsively
fleshy thighs, stalked past the Veens, all but treading on Lucette's
emerald-studded cigarette case. Except for a golden ribbon and a bleached
mane, her long, ripply, beige back was bare all the way down to the tops of
her slowly and lusciously rolling buttocks, which divulged, in alternate
motion, their nether bulges from under the lamé loincloth. Just before
disappearing behind a rounded white corner, the Titianesque Titaness
half-turned her brown face and greeted Van with a loud 'hullo!'
Lucette wanted to know: kto siya pava? (who's that stately dame?)
'I thought she addressed you,' answered Van, 'I did not distinguish her face
and do not remember that bottom.'
'She gave you a big jungle smile,' said Lucette, readjusting her green
helmet, with touchingly graceful movements of her raised wings, and
touchingly flashing the russet feathering of her armpits. (3.5)
'Whom did she [Miss Condor] look like?' asked Lucette. 'En laid et en lard?'
'I don't know,' he lied. 'Whom?'
'Skip it,' she said. 'You're mine tonight. Mine, mine, mine!'
She was quoting Kipling - the same phrase that Ada used to address to Dack.
He cast around for a straw of Procrustean procrastination. (ibid.)
The animals in Kipling’s Jungle Books (1894) include the jackal Tabaqui
(Shere Khan’s stooge). Kondor ("Condor," 1921) is a poem by Bryusov. In
Geroy truda ("The Hero of Toil," 1925), Marina Tsvetaev's memoir essay on
Bryusov, Alya (Ariadna Efron, Marina Tsvetaev's eight-year-old daughter)
compares Bryusov to Shere Khan (the tiger in The Jungle Books) and Bryusov's
mistress Adalis, to a young she-wolf:
Москва, начало декабря 1920 г.
Несколько дней спустя, читая "Джунгли".
― Марина! Вы знаете ― кто Шер-Хан? ― Брюсов!
― Тоже хромой и одинокий, и у него там тоже
Адалис. (Приводит:) ?А старый Шер-Хан ходил
и открыто принимал лесть?… Я так в этом уз
нала Брюсова! А Адалис ― приблуда, из моло
дых волков.
According to Van, Admiral Tobakoff (after whom the Tobago Islands, or the
Tobakoff Islands, are named) had an épée duel with Jean Nicot (2.5). In
Kipling’s novel Captains Courageous (1897) Harvey mentions tabac (which
means in French “tobacco” and “fight”):
"Harmon Rush he said that was the way to rise 'em. Plain United States is
good enough fer me. We're all dretful short on terbakker. Young feller,
don't you speak French?"
"Oh, yes," said Harvey, valiantly; and he bawled: "Hi! Say! Arretez vous!
Attendez! Nous sommes venant pour tabac."
"Ah, tabac, tabac!" they cried, and laughed again.
"That hit 'em. Let's heave a dory over, anyway," said Tom Platt.
"I don't exactly hold no certificates on French, but I know another lingo
that goes, I guess. Come on, Harve, an' interpret." (chapter V)
Btw., pava is feminine of pavlin, “peacock.” Among the animals in The
Jungle Books there is Mao, the Peacock.
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L