She [Marina] had
ample time, too, to change for the next scene, which started with a longish
intermezzo staged by a ballet company whose services Scotty had engaged,
bringing the Russians all the way in two sleeping cars from Belokonsk, Western
Estoty. (1.2)
Vivian Darkbloom, 'Notes to Ada:' Belokonsk: the Russian twin of 'Whitehorse' (city in N.W.
Canada).
Just as Bras d'or (on Antiterra, Bras d'Or is an American province in the Northeast of our great and variegated
country: 1.1) is a cognac, White Horse is a whiskey. In his
last visit to Paris Mayakovski, sitting in La Coupole, composed
the lines (quoted by Ilya Ehrenburg and Lilya Brik in their memoir
essays):
Хорошая лошадь «уайт хорс».
Белая грива, белый хвост…
("White Horse" is a good horse.
The white mane, the white tail...)
According to Hodasevich, young lanky Mayakovski in his
unbuttoned shirt resembled a circus horse. Hodasevich's article
on VN's "late namesake" is entitled Dekol'tirovannaya loshad'
("The Horse in a Décoletté Dress,"
1927).
One of Marina's lovers is Baron d'Onsky
(an easy-going, lanky, likeable fellow). His nickname Skonky (anagram of
konsky, "of a horse") suggests that
he is a horse (Onegin's Don stallion).
Kon' and loshad' are
synonyms, the only difference between them being that
kon' is always a male horse while loshad'
can designate both female (kobyla) and male animal. Kon'
means also "knight" (chessman).
Alexey
Sklyarenko