Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014232, Fri, 1 Dec 2006 02:01:29 +0300

Subject
Re: "C" "K" "S" in PF solution (tongue-twisters)
Date
Body
There is also strangely PF-relevant (and Zemblan-sounding) Russian tongtwister: "Karl u Klary ukral korally" (Karl stole Klara's corals)...crown jewels?
Victor Fet


By a remarkable coincidence, I just began to read a Russian translation of "Philosophie der Mystik" (1885) by Carl du Prel, a German author (1839-1899) who was very popular in the Russia of VN's youth and who interests me in connection with Ada. Note the unusual (for a German) spelling of his first name and the fact that "Prel" is an anagram of perl (Russian for "pearl"). Now, if we pick out from the middle of the English word the superfluous "a" and add it to the writer's last name, we'll get aprel (Russian for "April"), the month in which Du Prel (and also VN) was born. Besides, prel' is Russian for "rot" and "Carl du Prel" means in Russo-French something like "the rotten Karl."

Alexey Sklyarenko


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