Subject
Query: Nabokov Chess Sonnet & "Djuser"
Date
Body
My question regards Nabokov's chess sonnets (in Rul' 1924) and refers to the
first of these sonnets where a chess game is mentioned that takes place
between Philidor, the well-known chess player and composer, and another
person unknown to me, whose name I need to identify. "Tam Filidor
srazhalsja i Djuser..."
Because of the ambiguous Cyrillic spelling, I was unable to find the correct
Latin spelling. The Russian version would be transliterated as Djuser or
Diuser. The context suggests that it might be a Spanish name but it sounds
not unlike a German name (Düser) or possibly French (du Sire).
Since I am about to publish Nabokov's sonnets in translation (in the context
of a publication about 'combinatorial' literature and the the sonnet as a
'combinatorial' genre) I have to identify the name correctly.
Thus I would appreciate it very much if you could answer me or pass this
letter to an appropriate addressee. Hopefully there are people knowing
enough about Nabokov's idiosyncrasies and/or chess history.
Thank you very much!
Erika Greber
********************************
University of California - Irvine
Dept. of English & Comparative Literature
Irvine, CA 92697-2650
Fax (949) 854-2039
********************************
home address:
Prof. Dr. Erika Greber
Universität München
Institut f. Komparatistik
Schellingstr. 3
D-80799 München
e.greber@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
********************************
first of these sonnets where a chess game is mentioned that takes place
between Philidor, the well-known chess player and composer, and another
person unknown to me, whose name I need to identify. "Tam Filidor
srazhalsja i Djuser..."
Because of the ambiguous Cyrillic spelling, I was unable to find the correct
Latin spelling. The Russian version would be transliterated as Djuser or
Diuser. The context suggests that it might be a Spanish name but it sounds
not unlike a German name (Düser) or possibly French (du Sire).
Since I am about to publish Nabokov's sonnets in translation (in the context
of a publication about 'combinatorial' literature and the the sonnet as a
'combinatorial' genre) I have to identify the name correctly.
Thus I would appreciate it very much if you could answer me or pass this
letter to an appropriate addressee. Hopefully there are people knowing
enough about Nabokov's idiosyncrasies and/or chess history.
Thank you very much!
Erika Greber
********************************
University of California - Irvine
Dept. of English & Comparative Literature
Irvine, CA 92697-2650
Fax (949) 854-2039
********************************
home address:
Prof. Dr. Erika Greber
Universität München
Institut f. Komparatistik
Schellingstr. 3
D-80799 München
e.greber@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
********************************