AS: speaking of word-plays and MONDEGREENS*: reading Brian Boyd’s wonderful analysis (Verse & Versions) of Pushkin’s Ya Vas Lyubil and BB’s and VN’s translations (I Loved You), I was reminded of the YELLOW-BLUE VASE pun (Ya lyublyu Vas) in Ada. Very well-known, of course, but perhaps new to some listers.
One thing did strike me about Ya Vas Lyubil, along the lines of “ditching a mistress!” Can any woman TRUST these smooth-talking, male-chauvinist, lying-bastard poets? One thinks of Byron, Pushkin, and esp. his creation Onegin!
* From the Bonnie Earl o’ Murray: “They hae slain the Earl o’ Murray and LAID HIM ON THE GREEN ...” Misheard as LADY MONDEGREEN. A simpler instance: Decca (Jessica Mitford) singing the International’s line “’Tis the final conflict” as “’Tis a fine old conflict.” I’m allowed to call her Decca — we dined together in Marin County, CA a few months before she died!
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 29/01/2009 13:10, "Alexey Sklyarenko" <skylark05@MAIL.RU> wrote:
ADA's Mascodagama is not the first instance in literature when the name Vasco da Gama is played upon. The hero of Skitalets's story Oktava ("The Low Bass," 1900), a possessor of a rare low bass voice who sings in a church choir, mispronounces it as Vas'ka-gde-Gamma ("Basil, where is the gamut?"). //shchnipsky