Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010426, Thu, 14 Oct 2004 07:53:51 -0700

Subject
Fwd: RE: Query: ADA's "velvet side-loop"
Date
Body
To answer Tomasz's query, though he won't really need all this detail for
translating, it would be most probably a cylindrical loop, with brass
end-fittings at both ends, attached to a brass fitting in the carriage wall.

BB

-----Original Message-----
From: Donald B. Johnson [mailto:chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Thursday, 14 October 2004 7:57 a.m.
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Query: ADA's "velvet side-loop"

EDNOTE. Dear Tomasz....Never hesitate to ask NABOKV-L any question re VN's
work. It is why NABOKV-L and ZEMBLA exist. In answer to your qestion...
niether "side-loop" nor "armloop" are in Websters II nor in the OED. See
Boyd's listing at ZEMBLA (www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/ada/index.htm).
33.22-29: his train . . . to Ardis . . . velvet side-loop . . .: cf.
470.20-22:
"Rocking along softly, . . . his arm in an armloop, he recalled his first
railway journey to Ardis. . . . "
My guess is that the term refers to a strap for the passenger to hold on
to either for stability or comfort. It is attached high up on the side or,
in a subway car, from the roof.


----- Forwarded message from tcyba@prast.pl -----
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 14:48:47 +0200
From: Tomasz Cyba <tcyba@prast.pl>
Reply-To: Tomasz Cyba <tcyba@prast.plTomasz Cyba <tcyba@prast.pl>>
Subject: velvet side-loop
To: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>

Dear Donald,

In this letter here I dare to ask you one more question (in order not to
litter up the NABOKOV-L):

What is the the "velvet side-loop", that makes Van feel "very much a man of
the world" in the "first-class compartment"
of the Ardis-bound train (Ada, I.4. 33.28-30)?
How does it look like? One doesn't really see such a thing in the
contemporary trains, I suppose. At least here, in Poland.

I'd like to be precise with this one.

Hope I don't cause much of a trouble.

Tomasz

----- End forwarded message -----

----- End forwarded message -----