Stan K.-B.: could “left” here
also have an echo of the Latin “sinister?” This meaning persists in
derog. Brit. Slang: “left-hander” (and “left-footer”) applied (rather
irrationally?) to both Roman Catholics AND Homosexuals.
In the last paragraph of my recently published
(in Zembla) article on Chose (the name of Van's University in ADA) I
quote the Russian saying dva sapoga para ("they make a pair";
sapog is Russian for "boot"), about two people who, having something in
common, match well. Reading Skitalets's story Ogarki ("The
Scum", 1906), I belatedly discovered that this saying can be
continued as follows: dva sapoga para i oba na levuyu nogu
(literally: "the two boots that make a pair and both are for the left
foot"). Because I speak in my article of Ilf and Petrov, the two Soviet writers
(and patriots with leftist views) who make a wonderful pair, the full
version of the saying would be even
more appropriate.
Re homosexuality: Gomoseksualizm
("homosexuality") is one of some one hundred and
eighty words that make up Fima Sobak's vocabulary. Fima Sobak is a
character in Ilf & Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs". Compared to
her friend Lyudoedka Ellochka ("Nellie the
Cannibal"), who manages with only thirty words, Fima is
certainly a cultured girl. It is interesting to compare the names
Sobak, Tobak (in ADA, the name of Cordula de Prey's first husband; Van suspects
Cordula of being a lesbian: 1.27) and... Koba (Stalin's nick-name, after the
hero of Kazbegi's novel "The Parricide"). Sobak (accented,
like the word in its singular form, on the second syllable; the
family name Sobak is stressed on the first syllable), is gen. pl. of
sobaka, Russian for "dog".
Mayakovsky (who, like Stalin, comes
from Georgia) is the author of Levyi marsh ("Left
March", 1918).
The phrase seksual'nyi levsha ("a sexually
left-handed person", in the sense "a homosexual") occurs in Nabokov's
Soglyadatay ("The Eye", 1930). A character refers thus of the narrator,
a Russian emigre named Smurov. Vanya Smurov is the hero in Kuzmin's tale
Kryl'ya ("The Wings", 1908). Kuzmin was a notorious gay author. In
Nabokov's story, Vanya (a diminutive form of Ivan) is the affectionate
name of the girl with whom Smurov is in
love.
Sorry to be so laconic. "Brevity is a sister
of talent" (Chekhov).
Alexey Sklyarenko