'Oh, Van, how lovely of you,' said
Lucette, slowly entering her room, with her bemused eyes scanning the
fascinating flyleaf, his name on it, his bold flourish, and his own wonderful
drawings in ink - a black aster (evolved from a blot), a doric column
(disguising a more ribald design), a delicate leafless tree (as seen from a
classroom window), and several profiles of boys (Cheshcat, Zogdog, Fancytart,
and Ada-like Van himself). (1.23)
Hodasevich is the author of Puti i pereput'ya ("Roads and
Cross-Roads," 1920-21?), an epigram on Bryusov (whose first volume of Collected
Poems was entitled Puti i pereput'ya):
Без мыла нынче трудно жить
Литературным ветеранам -
Решился Брюсов проложить
Свой путь ad gloriam per anum.
Without soap it is difficult to live
for literary veterans these days.
Bryusov has resolved to make his way
ad gloriam per anum.
The Latin phrase in the last line is a play on the saying per
aspera [ardua] ad astra (through hardships to the
stars). Astra is plural of astrum (Lat., heavenly
body) and
Russian for "aster" (the flower on the flyleaf of Van's
anthologia).
In a draft of his letter to Demon Van mentions Riverlane, Captain Tapper (a
pederast with whom Van has a pistol duel in Kalugano) and the washroom
attendant, veteran of the first Crimean War:
In 1884, during my first summer at Ardis, I seduced
your daughter, who was then twelve. Our torrid affair lasted till my return to
Riverlane; it was resumed last June, four years later. That happiness has been
the greatest event in my life, and I have no regrets. Yesterday, though, I
discovered she had been unfaithful to me, so we parted. Tapper, I think, may be
the chap who was thrown out of one of your gaming clubs for attempting oral
intercourse with the washroom attendant, a toothless old cripple, veteran of the
first Crimean War. Lots of flowers, please! (1.42)