Subject
muzhchina & shtany in Lik
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-- Нет, я это всё понимаю,-- сказал Лик,-- только извини, мне нехорошо, я должен идти, скоро нужно в театр.
-- А нет, постой. Я тоже многое понимаю. Странный ты мужчина... Ну, предложи мне что-нибудь... Попробуй! Может быть, всё-таки меня озолотишь, а? Слушай, знаешь что, -- я тебе продам револьвер, тебе очень пригодится для театра, трах -- и падает герой. Он и ста франков не стоит, но мне ста мало, я тебе его за тысячу отдам,-- хочешь?
“No, I understand everything,” said Lik. “Only please excuse me. I don’t feel well, I must be going. I have to be at the theater soon.”
“Oh no. Wait just a minute. I understand a few things myself. You’re a strange fellow. …Come on, make me an offer of some kind. …Try! Maybe, you’ll shower me with gold, after all, eh? Listen, you know what? I’ll sell you a gun – it’ll be very useful to you on the stage: bang, and down goes the hero. It’s not even worth a hundred francs, but I need more than a hundred – I’ll let you have it for a thousand. Want it?”
Koldunov calls Lik strannyi muzhchina (a strange fellow). In his poem Oblako v shtanakh (“A Cloud in Trousers,” 1915) Mayakovski proposes that he will be impeccably tender, ne muzhchina, a oblako v shtanakh (not a man, but a cloud in trousers):
Хотите —
буду от мяса бешеный
— и, как небо, меняя тона —
хотите —
буду безукоризненно нежный,
не мужчина, а — облако в штанах!
Не верю, что есть цветочная Ницца!
Мною опять славословятся
мужчины, залёжанные, как больница,
и женщины, истрёпанные, как пословица. (Introduction)
The author does not believe that there is floral Nice. In Lik the action takes place in a Mediterranean town. The provincial Russian city in which Lik and Koldunov went to the gymnasium was, presumably, Odessa. In Mayakovski’s poem the action takes place in Odessa:
Вы думаете, это бредит малярия?
Это было,
было в Одессе. (Part I)
Koldunov promises to show Lik such talents that he’ll start cooking kompot v shtanakh (applesauce in his pants):
-- У меня, -- сказал Лик,-- у меня случайно оказался... ну, я не знаю,-- небольшой сценический талант, что ли...
-- Талант? -- закричал Колдунов.-- Я тебе покажу талант! Я тебе такие таланты покажу, что ты в штанах компот варить станешь! Сволочь ты, брат. Вот твой талант.
Lik said, “I turned out to have – I happened to have… Oh, I don’t know… a modest dramatic talent, I suppose you could say.”
“Talent?" shouted Koldunov. "I'll show you talent! I'll show you such talent that you'll start cooking applesauce in your pants! You're a dirty rat, chum. That's your only talent.”
Lik, dying of a heart attack, imagines that Koldunov (who tried to sell Lik a gun) shot himself dead. It was VN’s “late namesake” who in April, 1930, shot himself dead. In his last poem (suicide note) Mayakovski plays on the phrase intsident ischerpan (the incident is closed):
Как говорят —
«инцидент исперчен»,
любовная лодка
разбилась о быт.
Я с жизнью в расчёте
и не к чему перечень
взаимных болей,
бед
и обид.
As they say, the incident is closed.
Love’s boat has smashed against the daily routine.
Life and I are quits. Why bother then
To balance mutual sorrows, pains, and hurts.
In his drunken monologue Koldunov mentions odin intsident (a certain incident):
Вот тебе для примера: когда в Лионе, после одного инцидента, меня увели, -- причём я был абсолютно прав и очень жалел, что не пристукнул совсем, -- когда меня, значит, несмотря на мои протесты, ажан повёл,-- знаешь, что он сделал?
Крючочком, вот таким, вот сюда меня зацепил за живую шею, -- что это такое, я вас спрашиваю? -- и вот так ведёт в участок, а я плыву, как лунатик, потому что от всякого лишнего движения чернеет в глазах.
Here’s an example for you: When they were taking me away after a certain incident in Lyon—and I might add that I was absolutely in the right, and am now very sorry I did not finish him off—well, as the police were taking me away, ignoring my protests, you know what they did? They stuck a little hook right here in the live flesh of my neck—what kind of treatment is that, I ask you?—and off the cop led me to the police station, and I floated along like a sleepwalker, because every additional motion made me black out with pain.
Mayakovski’s lyubovnaya lodka (love’s boat) has smashed against byt (the daily routine). There is byt in sobytie (event). Sobytie (“The Event,” 1938) is a play VN. Mayakovski’s Oblako v shtanakh has the subtitle “A Tetraptych.” Like Sobytie and Oblako, ozero, bashnya (“Cloud, Castle, Lake,” 1937), Lik seems to be a part of VN’s “heptaptych” (a work that consists of seven parts). Bashnya (tower) in the Russian title of VN’s story brings to mind Marina Tsvetaev’s memoir essay Bashnya v plyushche (“Tower in the Ivy,” 1933). Marina Tsvetaev is the author of Mayakovskomu (“To Mayakovski,” 1930), a cycle of seven poems. The cycle’s sixth poem is the sepulchral dialogue between Mayakovski and Esenin (the poet who had committed suicide four and a half years before). Esenin’s last poem (suicide note) begins: Do svidan’ya, drug moy, do svidan’ya (“Good-bye, my friend, good-bye”). Dosvidania is one of the two Russian locutions used by Igor (a character in Suire’s play The Abyss whom Lik plays):
Правда, надо автору отдать справедливость, что, кроме этого "velika voïna" и скромного "dosvidania", он не злоупотребляет знакомством с русским языком, довольствуясь указанием, что "славянская протяжность придаёт некоторую прелесть разговору Игоря".
In all fairness to the author, it is true that, except for this “velika voïna” and one modest “dosvidania,” he does not abuse his acquaintance with the Russian language, contenting himself with stage direction “Slavic singsong lends a certain charm to Igor’s speech.”
Incidentally, in his letters Anton Chekhov called his elder brother Aleksandr (the father of Mikhail Chekhov, the famous actor and stage director) “shtany.” In The Event the name and patronymic of Lyubov’s and Vera’s mother, Antonina Pavlovna, clearly hints at Chekhov. The portrait painter Troshcheykin (Antonina Pavlovna’s son-in-law) is a namesake of Chekhov’s friend Gorky (Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov). Koldunov could be a character in Gorky’s play Na dne (“At the Bottom,” 1902).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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-- А нет, постой. Я тоже многое понимаю. Странный ты мужчина... Ну, предложи мне что-нибудь... Попробуй! Может быть, всё-таки меня озолотишь, а? Слушай, знаешь что, -- я тебе продам револьвер, тебе очень пригодится для театра, трах -- и падает герой. Он и ста франков не стоит, но мне ста мало, я тебе его за тысячу отдам,-- хочешь?
“No, I understand everything,” said Lik. “Only please excuse me. I don’t feel well, I must be going. I have to be at the theater soon.”
“Oh no. Wait just a minute. I understand a few things myself. You’re a strange fellow. …Come on, make me an offer of some kind. …Try! Maybe, you’ll shower me with gold, after all, eh? Listen, you know what? I’ll sell you a gun – it’ll be very useful to you on the stage: bang, and down goes the hero. It’s not even worth a hundred francs, but I need more than a hundred – I’ll let you have it for a thousand. Want it?”
Koldunov calls Lik strannyi muzhchina (a strange fellow). In his poem Oblako v shtanakh (“A Cloud in Trousers,” 1915) Mayakovski proposes that he will be impeccably tender, ne muzhchina, a oblako v shtanakh (not a man, but a cloud in trousers):
Хотите —
буду от мяса бешеный
— и, как небо, меняя тона —
хотите —
буду безукоризненно нежный,
не мужчина, а — облако в штанах!
Не верю, что есть цветочная Ницца!
Мною опять славословятся
мужчины, залёжанные, как больница,
и женщины, истрёпанные, как пословица. (Introduction)
The author does not believe that there is floral Nice. In Lik the action takes place in a Mediterranean town. The provincial Russian city in which Lik and Koldunov went to the gymnasium was, presumably, Odessa. In Mayakovski’s poem the action takes place in Odessa:
Вы думаете, это бредит малярия?
Это было,
было в Одессе. (Part I)
Koldunov promises to show Lik such talents that he’ll start cooking kompot v shtanakh (applesauce in his pants):
-- У меня, -- сказал Лик,-- у меня случайно оказался... ну, я не знаю,-- небольшой сценический талант, что ли...
-- Талант? -- закричал Колдунов.-- Я тебе покажу талант! Я тебе такие таланты покажу, что ты в штанах компот варить станешь! Сволочь ты, брат. Вот твой талант.
Lik said, “I turned out to have – I happened to have… Oh, I don’t know… a modest dramatic talent, I suppose you could say.”
“Talent?" shouted Koldunov. "I'll show you talent! I'll show you such talent that you'll start cooking applesauce in your pants! You're a dirty rat, chum. That's your only talent.”
Lik, dying of a heart attack, imagines that Koldunov (who tried to sell Lik a gun) shot himself dead. It was VN’s “late namesake” who in April, 1930, shot himself dead. In his last poem (suicide note) Mayakovski plays on the phrase intsident ischerpan (the incident is closed):
Как говорят —
«инцидент исперчен»,
любовная лодка
разбилась о быт.
Я с жизнью в расчёте
и не к чему перечень
взаимных болей,
бед
и обид.
As they say, the incident is closed.
Love’s boat has smashed against the daily routine.
Life and I are quits. Why bother then
To balance mutual sorrows, pains, and hurts.
In his drunken monologue Koldunov mentions odin intsident (a certain incident):
Вот тебе для примера: когда в Лионе, после одного инцидента, меня увели, -- причём я был абсолютно прав и очень жалел, что не пристукнул совсем, -- когда меня, значит, несмотря на мои протесты, ажан повёл,-- знаешь, что он сделал?
Крючочком, вот таким, вот сюда меня зацепил за живую шею, -- что это такое, я вас спрашиваю? -- и вот так ведёт в участок, а я плыву, как лунатик, потому что от всякого лишнего движения чернеет в глазах.
Here’s an example for you: When they were taking me away after a certain incident in Lyon—and I might add that I was absolutely in the right, and am now very sorry I did not finish him off—well, as the police were taking me away, ignoring my protests, you know what they did? They stuck a little hook right here in the live flesh of my neck—what kind of treatment is that, I ask you?—and off the cop led me to the police station, and I floated along like a sleepwalker, because every additional motion made me black out with pain.
Mayakovski’s lyubovnaya lodka (love’s boat) has smashed against byt (the daily routine). There is byt in sobytie (event). Sobytie (“The Event,” 1938) is a play VN. Mayakovski’s Oblako v shtanakh has the subtitle “A Tetraptych.” Like Sobytie and Oblako, ozero, bashnya (“Cloud, Castle, Lake,” 1937), Lik seems to be a part of VN’s “heptaptych” (a work that consists of seven parts). Bashnya (tower) in the Russian title of VN’s story brings to mind Marina Tsvetaev’s memoir essay Bashnya v plyushche (“Tower in the Ivy,” 1933). Marina Tsvetaev is the author of Mayakovskomu (“To Mayakovski,” 1930), a cycle of seven poems. The cycle’s sixth poem is the sepulchral dialogue between Mayakovski and Esenin (the poet who had committed suicide four and a half years before). Esenin’s last poem (suicide note) begins: Do svidan’ya, drug moy, do svidan’ya (“Good-bye, my friend, good-bye”). Dosvidania is one of the two Russian locutions used by Igor (a character in Suire’s play The Abyss whom Lik plays):
Правда, надо автору отдать справедливость, что, кроме этого "velika voïna" и скромного "dosvidania", он не злоупотребляет знакомством с русским языком, довольствуясь указанием, что "славянская протяжность придаёт некоторую прелесть разговору Игоря".
In all fairness to the author, it is true that, except for this “velika voïna” and one modest “dosvidania,” he does not abuse his acquaintance with the Russian language, contenting himself with stage direction “Slavic singsong lends a certain charm to Igor’s speech.”
Incidentally, in his letters Anton Chekhov called his elder brother Aleksandr (the father of Mikhail Chekhov, the famous actor and stage director) “shtany.” In The Event the name and patronymic of Lyubov’s and Vera’s mother, Antonina Pavlovna, clearly hints at Chekhov. The portrait painter Troshcheykin (Antonina Pavlovna’s son-in-law) is a namesake of Chekhov’s friend Gorky (Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov). Koldunov could be a character in Gorky’s play Na dne (“At the Bottom,” 1902).
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L