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Luk, Luke, Luka, Luko...
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Dear Matt:
I make bold as a near-native of Russian to answer your query
re "luk".
Luk in Russian certainly means "onion(s)," and the onion
bulb and also the cupola of a Russian church
is called "lukovitsa". In addition, "luk" means bow, as in
bow and arrow.
A bend, usually in a river is "luka". Among the Gospels, the
one according to Luke is in Church Russian
"ot Luki," meaning that the name is Luka, grammatically
feminine. Craftiness is also implied in the stem "luk,"
such as in "lukavyi," with an implication of cunning, and
can even be used as a noun to mean "The Evil One."
Finally, for most literate Russians, I think, "luk" brings
to mind "lukomor'e," a river bend featured in the opening lines
of Pushkin's early long narrative poem fantasy Ruslan and Liudmilla, in
which a learned tomcat attached to a golden chain
winds himself day and night about a green oak standing at a bend in a
river. Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters speaks the opening lines of L&R
in Act I,
perhaps pointing to her sense of being enchained in a dead marriage.
Possibly in all this there are pointers to Kinbote and thematic lines in
Pale Fire.
Best wishes,
Jerry Katsell
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