Subject
Colonel Erminin's talisman, Jew's eye, minirechi in Ada
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Date
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But Greg had to be asked to come after all: on the previous day he had called on her bringing a 'talisman' from his very sick father, who wanted Ada to treasure as much as his grandam had a little camel of yellow ivory carved in Kiev, five centuries ago, in the days of Timur and Nabok. (1.39)
Greg's father, Colonel Erminin, is Jewish. In Kuprin's story Zhidkoe solntse ("Liquid Sun," 1912) an old Jewish jeweler gives the hero an amulet that later saves his life:
Старый еврей писал коротко и любезно:
"Не откажите мне в маленьком удовольствии: примите на память о нашей встрече прилагаемое кольцо. В нем нет большой ценности, но это амулет, предостерегающий от морской опасности. Надпись на нём древняя, едва ли не на языке вымерших инков.
Даниэльс".
В пакетике было кольцо с небольшим плоским рубином, на поверхности которого были вырезаны диковинные знаки.
Dr Krolik, the local entomologist, calls himself Ada's court jeweler:
Three adult gentlemen, moreover, were expected but never turned up: Uncle Dan, who missed the morning train from town; Colonel Erminin, a widower, whose liver, he said in a note, was behaving like a pecheneg; and his doctor (and chess partner), the famous Dr Krolik, who called himself Ada's court jeweler, and indeed brought her his birthday present early on the following day - three exquisitely carved chrysalids ('Inestimable gems,' cried throatily Ada, tensing her brows), all of which were to yield before long, specimens of a disappointing ichneumon instead of the Kibo Fritillary, a recently discovered rarity. (1.13)
At the picnic on Ada's twelfth birthday (where Colonel Erminin and Dr Krolik fail to turn up) Marina mentions a Jew's eye:
Marina's contribution was more modest, but it too had its charm. She showed Van and Lucette (the others knew all about it) the exact pine and the exact spot on its rugged red trunk where in old, very old days a magnetic telephone nested, communicating with Ardis Hall. After the banning of 'currents and circuits,' she said (rapidly but freely, with an actress's desinvolture pronouncing those not quite proper words - while puzzled Lucette tugged at the sleeve of Van, of Vanichka, who could explain everything), her husband's grandmother, an engineer of great genius, 'tubed' the Redmount rill (running just below the glade from a hill above Ardis). She made it carry vibrational vibgyors (prismatic pulsations) through a system of platinum segments. These produced, of course, only one-way messages, and the installation and upkeep of the 'drums' (cylinders) cost, she said, a Jew's eye, so that the idea was dropped, however tempting the possibility of informing a picnicking Veen that his house was on fire. (ibid.)
Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): vibgyor: violet-indigo-blue-green-yellow-orange-red.
In Kuprin's story Chyornaya molniya ("The Black Lightning," 1913) the forestry officer mentions multiple rainbows ("the fairy tale seven-colored corridor") that appeared in the sky on the day of the Messina earthquake (Dec. 28, 1908):
Глубокой зимою, в день ужасного мессинского землетрясения, утром, я был с гончими у себя на Бильдине. И вот часов в десять - одиннадцать на совершенно безоблачном небе вдруг расцвела радуга. Она обоими концами касалась горизонта, была необыкновенно ярка и имела в ширину градусов сорок пять, а в высоту двадцать - двадцать пять. Под ней, такой же яркой, изгибалась другая радуга, но несколько слабее цветом, а дальше третья, четвертая, пятая, и все бледнее и бледнее - какой-то сказочный семицветный коридор. Это продолжалось минут пятнадцать. Потом радуги растаяли, набежали мгновенно, бог знает, откуда тучи и повалил сплошной снежище.
In Kuprin's story Poslednee slovo ("The Last Word," 1908) fotofon (the photophone, telecommunications device which allowed for the transmission of speech on a beam of light) is mentioned among other inventions:
Да! Это он, не кто, как он, изобрёл шарманку, граммофон, биоскоп, фотофон, биограф, фонограф, ауксетофон, патефон, музыкальный ящик монопан, механического тапёра, автомобиль, бумажные воротники, олеографию и газету.
In Kuprin's story Granatovyi braslet ("The Garnet Bracelet," 1911) the old general whose wife eloped with an actor compares himself to verblyud (a camel):
И кроме того, избежал я общей участи большинства мужей. Что бы я был такое, если бы не этот мерзкий случай? Вьючный верблюд, позорный потатчик, укрыватель, дойная корова, ширма, какая-то домашняя необходимая вещь...
What would I have been if it were not for this disgusting business? A beast of burden (v'yuchnyi verblyud), a shameful conniver, a cow to be milked, a screen, a convenient
piece of household goods... (chapter 8)
Ivory is also mentioned in "The Garnet Bracelet:"
Она достала из своего ручного мешочка маленькую записную книжку в удивительном переплете: на старом, стёршемся и посеревшем от времени синем
бархате вился тускло-золотой филигранный узор редкой сложности, тонкости и красоты, - очевидно, любовное дело рук искусного и терпеливого художника.
Книжка была прикреплена к тоненькой, как нитка, золотой цепочке, листки в середине были заменены таблетками из слоновой кости.
She took out of her bag a little note-book with a wonderful cover. On old blue velvet, already worn off and grown gray with age, was embroidered in dull gold a filigreed design of rare complexity, delicacy, and beauty — evidently a work of love, executed by the skilful hands of a patient artist. The note-book was attached to a gold chain, as thin as a thread, and thin ivory tablets were substituted for the leaves inside. (chapter 3)
A rare green garnet in the bracelet that had belonged to Zheltkov's great-grandmother and that he sends to Princess Vera is a talisman. From Zheltkov's letter to Princess Vera:
"But this bracelet was the property of my great-grandmother and was worn last by my late mother. In the middle, among the large stones, you will see a green one. This is a very rare kind of garnet, a green garnet. According to an old tradition, still believed in by our family, it has the property of rendering prophetic the women who carry it and driving away all their painful thoughts, while with men it is a talisman that protects them from violent death." (chapter 5)
Poor Dan's erotic life was neither complicated nor beautiful, but somehow or other (he soon forgot the exact circumstances as one forgets the measurements and price of a fondly made topcoat worn on and off for at least a couple of seasons) he fell comfortably in love with Marina, whose family he had known when they still had their Raduga place (later sold to Mr Eliot, a Jewish businessman). (1.1)
Raduga ("rainbow") was the Durmanovs' favorite domain. The characters of Kuprin's story Zhidovka ("The Jewess," 1904) include the police officer Irisov (Iris the Greek goddess of the rainbow). Irisov, who made a pass at the beautiful Jewess, quotes the Russian saying vidit oko da zub neymyot ("it catches your eye, but you can't catch it," "the girl looks fine, but she isn't mine"): "But you cannot do anything. We have already tried it. There is no physical possibility. Can't do it. Your eyes see it, but..."
'I say, Dick, ever met a gambler in the States called Plunkett? Bald gray chap when I knew him.'
'Plunkett? Plunkett? Must have been before my time. Was he the one who turned priest or something? Why?'
'One of my father's pals. Great artist.'
'Artist?'
'Yes, artist. I'm an artist. I suppose you think you're an artist. Many people do.'
'What on earth is an artist?'
'An underground observatory,' replied Van promptly.
'That's out of some modem novel,' said Dick, discarding his cigarette after a few avid inhales.
'That's out of Van Veen,' said Van Veen. (1.28)
While Plunkett brings to mind Balunsky (in Kuprin's story "The Disciple," the former king of shulers who helps the student to win in a game with card-sharps), an observatory is mentioned in Kuprin's story "Liquid Sun:"
«Обсерватория! – радостно подумал я. – Конечно, это обсерватория! Какое счастье! Наконец-то я поймал тебя за хвост, неуловимая судьба».
...Одно лишь становилось мне все более ясным: загадочное предприятие, которому я служил, ничего не имело общего с постройкой обсерватории, а по виду принимаемых мною предметов я даже и приблизительно не мог догадаться о цели, которой они были предназначены служить.
In "Liquid Sun" the hero and narrator goes to work in a laboratory on the extinct volcano Cayambe in Ecuador bringing to Lord Chalsbury the priceless diamonds from the Amsterdam jewelers. Henry Dibble's companion, Mr de Mont de Rick, elopes with Lord Chalsbury's young wife. His name in Russian spelling (де Мон де Рик) brings to mind Demon (Van's and Ada's father).
'You look quite satanically fit, Dad. Especially with that fresh oeillet in your lapel eye. I suppose you have not been much in Manhattan lately - where did you get its last syllable?'
Homespun pun in the Veenish vein.
'I offered myself en effet a trip to Akapulkovo,' answered Demon, needlessly and unwillingly recollecting (with that special concussion of instant detail that also plagued his children) a violet-and-black-striped fish in a bowl, a similarly striped couch, the subtropical sun bringing out the veins of an onyx ashtray on the stone floor, a batch of old, orange-juice-stained Povesa (playboy) magazines, the jewels he had brought, the phonograph singing in a dreamy girl's voice' Petit negre, au champ qui fleuronne,' and the admirable abdomen of a very expensive, and very faithless and altogether adorable young Creole. (1.38)
Akapulkovo blends Acapulco, a seaport and resort in SW Mexico, on the Pacific, with Pulkovo, the site of the famous observatory near St. Petersburg mentioned by VN in The Gift: а та звезда над Пулково висит (and yon star sheds on Pulkovo its beam).
In Kuprin's story Sinyaya zvezda ("The Blue Star," 1927) the action takes place in Ernoterra. A descendant of King Ern (the country's first ruler), Princess Erna marries Charles, the King of France whose horoscope was composed by Nostradamus:
He also remembered to tell Erna about the horoscope composed for him at his birth by the great French foreteller Nostradamus, which, among others, contained the following phrase: "and in the wild mountains to the north-east you shall first see death, then a blue star; it shall shine for you all your life.”
I say,' exclaimed Demon, 'what's happened - your shaftment is that of a carpenter's. Show me your other hand. Good gracious' (muttering:) 'Hump of Venus disfigured, Line of Life scarred but monstrously long...' (switching to a gipsy chant:) 'You'll live to reach Terra, and come back a wiser and merrier man' (reverting to his ordinary voice:) 'What puzzles me as a palmist is the strange condition of the Sister of your Life. And the roughness!'
'Mascodagama,' whispered Van, raising his eyebrows. (1.38)
In Kuprin's story Nochnaya fialka ("The Night Violet," 1933) the Gipsy fortune-teller predicts to the hero that he will live to the age of eighty:
Пошли. Приходим. Стоит правда хибарка рухлая, на четырех ножках. В ней старуха, носастая, чёрная, закоптелая. По виду цыганка. Развела огонь, вскипятила воду в медном тазу. Мы чай заварили, напились и старую ведьму угостили. Тогда она говорит, глядя на меня:
- Дай, барин, ручку, я тебе поворожу.
Иванов ворчит:
- Гоните её, окаянную, к бесу.
А она уж завладела моей рукой и бормочет:
- Ах, барин молодой, красивый и будет счастлив и богат. Есть у тебя по левую сторону чёрный человек, он много тебе зла сделать хочет, а только ты его не страшись. Одна девица, молоденькая, хорошенькая, всё на тебя глядит. Проживешь долго, до восьмидесяти лет...
И всю другую цыганскую обычную белиберду.
She also tells him that a young pretty girl is in love with him. The hero and Agata make love in all nooks of a Volgan manor, including barns, stables, etc.:
Все кусты, амбары, конюшни, погреба и пристройки были нашими кровлями любви.
The name of old Van's typist, Violet Knox (whom Ada calls Fialochka, 5.4), seems to hint at the title of Kuprin's story and Blok's poem (1906) subtitled "A Dream."
The hero of Blok's poem Vozmezdie ("Retribution," 1910-21) is the son of Demon. In Chapter One of "Retribution" Blok mentions "the ruthless end of Messina:"
Двадцатый век... Ещё бездомней,
Ещё страшнее жизни мгла
(Ещё чернее и огромней
Тень Люциферова крыла).
Пожары дымные заката
(Пророчества о нашем дне),
Кометы грозной и хвостатой
Ужасный призрак в вышине,
Безжалостный конец Мессины
(Стихийных сил не превозмочь),
И неустанный рёв машины,
Кующей гибель день и ночь,
Сознанье страшное обмана
Всех прежних малых дум и вер,
И первый взлёт аэроплана
В пустыню неизвестных сфер...
И отвращение от жизни,
И к ней безумная любовь,
И страсть и ненависть к отчизне...
И чёрная, земная кровь
Сулит нам, раздувая вены,
Все разрушая рубежи,
Неслыханные перемены,
Невиданные мятежи...
"The twentieth century... Life's darkness is even more homeless and terrible. The shadow of Lucifer's wing is even blacker and huger... And an airplane's first take-off into the desert of unknown shperes..."
Demon Veen perishes in the fourth or fifth worst airplane disaster of the young century (3.7). At Marina's cremation Demon said to Ada, sobbing: "I will not cheat the poor grubs!" Practically a couple of hours after he broke that promise we had sudden visitors at the ranch - an incredibly graceful moppet of eight, black-veiled, and a kind of duenna, also in black, with two bodyguards. The hag demanded certain fantastic sums - which Demon, she said, had not had time to pay, for "popping the hymen" - whereupon I had one of our strongest boys throw out vsyu (the entire) kompaniyu.' (3.8)
Erminin + rechi = Ern + minirechi
rechi - pl. of rech' (speech); cf. in Eugene Onegin (Three: XIV):
Перескажу простые речи
Отца иль дяди-старика,
Детей условленные встречи
У старых лип, у ручейка;
Несчастной ревности мученья,
Разлуку, слёзы примиренья,
Поссорю вновь, и наконец
Я поведу их под венец...
Я вспомню речи неги страстной,
Слова тоскующей любви,
Которые в минувши дни
У ног любовницы прекрасной
Мне приходили на язык,
От коих я теперь отвык.
I shall detail the simple speeches
of a father or aged uncle,
the children's assigned meetings
by the old limes, by the small brook;
torments of hapless jealousy,
parting, reconciliation's tears;
once more I'll have them quarrel, and at last
conduct them to the altar...
minirechi - talking minarets
Van regretted that because Lettrocalamity (Vanvitelli's old joke!) was banned allover the world, its very name having become a 'dirty word' among upper-upper-class families (in the British and Brazilian sense) to which the Veens and Durmanovs happened to belong, and had been replaced by elaborate surrogates only in those very important 'utilities' - telephones, motors - what else? - well a number of gadgets for which plain folks hanker with lolling tongues, breathing faster than gundogs (for it's quite a long sentence), such trifles as tape recorders, the favorite toys of his and Ada's grandsires (Prince Zemski had one for every bed of his harem of schoolgirls) were not manufactured any more, except in Tartary where they had evolved 'minirechi' ('talking minarets') of a secret make. Had our erudite lovers been allowed by common propriety and common law to knock into working order the mysterious box they had once discovered in their magic attic, they might have recorded (so as to replay, eight decades later) Giorgio Vanvitelli's arias as well as Van Veen's conversations with his sweetheart. (1.24)
In his story Solovey ("The Nightingale," 1929) Kuprin tells about his sojourn in Salzo-Maggiore (an Italian spa) with Italian opera singers. He mentions in it Aqua-Madre ("Mother Water"): Это пахнут йодистые источники, которые здесь пропитали всю почву и носят славное наименование: Аква-Мадрэ, Вода-Мать. Officially, Van is the son of Marina's poor mad twin sister Aqua.
Pushkin is the author of Talisman (1827) and "The Gypsies" (1824).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Greg's father, Colonel Erminin, is Jewish. In Kuprin's story Zhidkoe solntse ("Liquid Sun," 1912) an old Jewish jeweler gives the hero an amulet that later saves his life:
Старый еврей писал коротко и любезно:
"Не откажите мне в маленьком удовольствии: примите на память о нашей встрече прилагаемое кольцо. В нем нет большой ценности, но это амулет, предостерегающий от морской опасности. Надпись на нём древняя, едва ли не на языке вымерших инков.
Даниэльс".
В пакетике было кольцо с небольшим плоским рубином, на поверхности которого были вырезаны диковинные знаки.
Dr Krolik, the local entomologist, calls himself Ada's court jeweler:
Three adult gentlemen, moreover, were expected but never turned up: Uncle Dan, who missed the morning train from town; Colonel Erminin, a widower, whose liver, he said in a note, was behaving like a pecheneg; and his doctor (and chess partner), the famous Dr Krolik, who called himself Ada's court jeweler, and indeed brought her his birthday present early on the following day - three exquisitely carved chrysalids ('Inestimable gems,' cried throatily Ada, tensing her brows), all of which were to yield before long, specimens of a disappointing ichneumon instead of the Kibo Fritillary, a recently discovered rarity. (1.13)
At the picnic on Ada's twelfth birthday (where Colonel Erminin and Dr Krolik fail to turn up) Marina mentions a Jew's eye:
Marina's contribution was more modest, but it too had its charm. She showed Van and Lucette (the others knew all about it) the exact pine and the exact spot on its rugged red trunk where in old, very old days a magnetic telephone nested, communicating with Ardis Hall. After the banning of 'currents and circuits,' she said (rapidly but freely, with an actress's desinvolture pronouncing those not quite proper words - while puzzled Lucette tugged at the sleeve of Van, of Vanichka, who could explain everything), her husband's grandmother, an engineer of great genius, 'tubed' the Redmount rill (running just below the glade from a hill above Ardis). She made it carry vibrational vibgyors (prismatic pulsations) through a system of platinum segments. These produced, of course, only one-way messages, and the installation and upkeep of the 'drums' (cylinders) cost, she said, a Jew's eye, so that the idea was dropped, however tempting the possibility of informing a picnicking Veen that his house was on fire. (ibid.)
Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): vibgyor: violet-indigo-blue-green-yellow-orange-red.
In Kuprin's story Chyornaya molniya ("The Black Lightning," 1913) the forestry officer mentions multiple rainbows ("the fairy tale seven-colored corridor") that appeared in the sky on the day of the Messina earthquake (Dec. 28, 1908):
Глубокой зимою, в день ужасного мессинского землетрясения, утром, я был с гончими у себя на Бильдине. И вот часов в десять - одиннадцать на совершенно безоблачном небе вдруг расцвела радуга. Она обоими концами касалась горизонта, была необыкновенно ярка и имела в ширину градусов сорок пять, а в высоту двадцать - двадцать пять. Под ней, такой же яркой, изгибалась другая радуга, но несколько слабее цветом, а дальше третья, четвертая, пятая, и все бледнее и бледнее - какой-то сказочный семицветный коридор. Это продолжалось минут пятнадцать. Потом радуги растаяли, набежали мгновенно, бог знает, откуда тучи и повалил сплошной снежище.
In Kuprin's story Poslednee slovo ("The Last Word," 1908) fotofon (the photophone, telecommunications device which allowed for the transmission of speech on a beam of light) is mentioned among other inventions:
Да! Это он, не кто, как он, изобрёл шарманку, граммофон, биоскоп, фотофон, биограф, фонограф, ауксетофон, патефон, музыкальный ящик монопан, механического тапёра, автомобиль, бумажные воротники, олеографию и газету.
In Kuprin's story Granatovyi braslet ("The Garnet Bracelet," 1911) the old general whose wife eloped with an actor compares himself to verblyud (a camel):
И кроме того, избежал я общей участи большинства мужей. Что бы я был такое, если бы не этот мерзкий случай? Вьючный верблюд, позорный потатчик, укрыватель, дойная корова, ширма, какая-то домашняя необходимая вещь...
What would I have been if it were not for this disgusting business? A beast of burden (v'yuchnyi verblyud), a shameful conniver, a cow to be milked, a screen, a convenient
piece of household goods... (chapter 8)
Ivory is also mentioned in "The Garnet Bracelet:"
Она достала из своего ручного мешочка маленькую записную книжку в удивительном переплете: на старом, стёршемся и посеревшем от времени синем
бархате вился тускло-золотой филигранный узор редкой сложности, тонкости и красоты, - очевидно, любовное дело рук искусного и терпеливого художника.
Книжка была прикреплена к тоненькой, как нитка, золотой цепочке, листки в середине были заменены таблетками из слоновой кости.
She took out of her bag a little note-book with a wonderful cover. On old blue velvet, already worn off and grown gray with age, was embroidered in dull gold a filigreed design of rare complexity, delicacy, and beauty — evidently a work of love, executed by the skilful hands of a patient artist. The note-book was attached to a gold chain, as thin as a thread, and thin ivory tablets were substituted for the leaves inside. (chapter 3)
A rare green garnet in the bracelet that had belonged to Zheltkov's great-grandmother and that he sends to Princess Vera is a talisman. From Zheltkov's letter to Princess Vera:
"But this bracelet was the property of my great-grandmother and was worn last by my late mother. In the middle, among the large stones, you will see a green one. This is a very rare kind of garnet, a green garnet. According to an old tradition, still believed in by our family, it has the property of rendering prophetic the women who carry it and driving away all their painful thoughts, while with men it is a talisman that protects them from violent death." (chapter 5)
Poor Dan's erotic life was neither complicated nor beautiful, but somehow or other (he soon forgot the exact circumstances as one forgets the measurements and price of a fondly made topcoat worn on and off for at least a couple of seasons) he fell comfortably in love with Marina, whose family he had known when they still had their Raduga place (later sold to Mr Eliot, a Jewish businessman). (1.1)
Raduga ("rainbow") was the Durmanovs' favorite domain. The characters of Kuprin's story Zhidovka ("The Jewess," 1904) include the police officer Irisov (Iris the Greek goddess of the rainbow). Irisov, who made a pass at the beautiful Jewess, quotes the Russian saying vidit oko da zub neymyot ("it catches your eye, but you can't catch it," "the girl looks fine, but she isn't mine"): "But you cannot do anything. We have already tried it. There is no physical possibility. Can't do it. Your eyes see it, but..."
'I say, Dick, ever met a gambler in the States called Plunkett? Bald gray chap when I knew him.'
'Plunkett? Plunkett? Must have been before my time. Was he the one who turned priest or something? Why?'
'One of my father's pals. Great artist.'
'Artist?'
'Yes, artist. I'm an artist. I suppose you think you're an artist. Many people do.'
'What on earth is an artist?'
'An underground observatory,' replied Van promptly.
'That's out of some modem novel,' said Dick, discarding his cigarette after a few avid inhales.
'That's out of Van Veen,' said Van Veen. (1.28)
While Plunkett brings to mind Balunsky (in Kuprin's story "The Disciple," the former king of shulers who helps the student to win in a game with card-sharps), an observatory is mentioned in Kuprin's story "Liquid Sun:"
«Обсерватория! – радостно подумал я. – Конечно, это обсерватория! Какое счастье! Наконец-то я поймал тебя за хвост, неуловимая судьба».
...Одно лишь становилось мне все более ясным: загадочное предприятие, которому я служил, ничего не имело общего с постройкой обсерватории, а по виду принимаемых мною предметов я даже и приблизительно не мог догадаться о цели, которой они были предназначены служить.
In "Liquid Sun" the hero and narrator goes to work in a laboratory on the extinct volcano Cayambe in Ecuador bringing to Lord Chalsbury the priceless diamonds from the Amsterdam jewelers. Henry Dibble's companion, Mr de Mont de Rick, elopes with Lord Chalsbury's young wife. His name in Russian spelling (де Мон де Рик) brings to mind Demon (Van's and Ada's father).
'You look quite satanically fit, Dad. Especially with that fresh oeillet in your lapel eye. I suppose you have not been much in Manhattan lately - where did you get its last syllable?'
Homespun pun in the Veenish vein.
'I offered myself en effet a trip to Akapulkovo,' answered Demon, needlessly and unwillingly recollecting (with that special concussion of instant detail that also plagued his children) a violet-and-black-striped fish in a bowl, a similarly striped couch, the subtropical sun bringing out the veins of an onyx ashtray on the stone floor, a batch of old, orange-juice-stained Povesa (playboy) magazines, the jewels he had brought, the phonograph singing in a dreamy girl's voice' Petit negre, au champ qui fleuronne,' and the admirable abdomen of a very expensive, and very faithless and altogether adorable young Creole. (1.38)
Akapulkovo blends Acapulco, a seaport and resort in SW Mexico, on the Pacific, with Pulkovo, the site of the famous observatory near St. Petersburg mentioned by VN in The Gift: а та звезда над Пулково висит (and yon star sheds on Pulkovo its beam).
In Kuprin's story Sinyaya zvezda ("The Blue Star," 1927) the action takes place in Ernoterra. A descendant of King Ern (the country's first ruler), Princess Erna marries Charles, the King of France whose horoscope was composed by Nostradamus:
He also remembered to tell Erna about the horoscope composed for him at his birth by the great French foreteller Nostradamus, which, among others, contained the following phrase: "and in the wild mountains to the north-east you shall first see death, then a blue star; it shall shine for you all your life.”
I say,' exclaimed Demon, 'what's happened - your shaftment is that of a carpenter's. Show me your other hand. Good gracious' (muttering:) 'Hump of Venus disfigured, Line of Life scarred but monstrously long...' (switching to a gipsy chant:) 'You'll live to reach Terra, and come back a wiser and merrier man' (reverting to his ordinary voice:) 'What puzzles me as a palmist is the strange condition of the Sister of your Life. And the roughness!'
'Mascodagama,' whispered Van, raising his eyebrows. (1.38)
In Kuprin's story Nochnaya fialka ("The Night Violet," 1933) the Gipsy fortune-teller predicts to the hero that he will live to the age of eighty:
Пошли. Приходим. Стоит правда хибарка рухлая, на четырех ножках. В ней старуха, носастая, чёрная, закоптелая. По виду цыганка. Развела огонь, вскипятила воду в медном тазу. Мы чай заварили, напились и старую ведьму угостили. Тогда она говорит, глядя на меня:
- Дай, барин, ручку, я тебе поворожу.
Иванов ворчит:
- Гоните её, окаянную, к бесу.
А она уж завладела моей рукой и бормочет:
- Ах, барин молодой, красивый и будет счастлив и богат. Есть у тебя по левую сторону чёрный человек, он много тебе зла сделать хочет, а только ты его не страшись. Одна девица, молоденькая, хорошенькая, всё на тебя глядит. Проживешь долго, до восьмидесяти лет...
И всю другую цыганскую обычную белиберду.
She also tells him that a young pretty girl is in love with him. The hero and Agata make love in all nooks of a Volgan manor, including barns, stables, etc.:
Все кусты, амбары, конюшни, погреба и пристройки были нашими кровлями любви.
The name of old Van's typist, Violet Knox (whom Ada calls Fialochka, 5.4), seems to hint at the title of Kuprin's story and Blok's poem (1906) subtitled "A Dream."
The hero of Blok's poem Vozmezdie ("Retribution," 1910-21) is the son of Demon. In Chapter One of "Retribution" Blok mentions "the ruthless end of Messina:"
Двадцатый век... Ещё бездомней,
Ещё страшнее жизни мгла
(Ещё чернее и огромней
Тень Люциферова крыла).
Пожары дымные заката
(Пророчества о нашем дне),
Кометы грозной и хвостатой
Ужасный призрак в вышине,
Безжалостный конец Мессины
(Стихийных сил не превозмочь),
И неустанный рёв машины,
Кующей гибель день и ночь,
Сознанье страшное обмана
Всех прежних малых дум и вер,
И первый взлёт аэроплана
В пустыню неизвестных сфер...
И отвращение от жизни,
И к ней безумная любовь,
И страсть и ненависть к отчизне...
И чёрная, земная кровь
Сулит нам, раздувая вены,
Все разрушая рубежи,
Неслыханные перемены,
Невиданные мятежи...
"The twentieth century... Life's darkness is even more homeless and terrible. The shadow of Lucifer's wing is even blacker and huger... And an airplane's first take-off into the desert of unknown shperes..."
Demon Veen perishes in the fourth or fifth worst airplane disaster of the young century (3.7). At Marina's cremation Demon said to Ada, sobbing: "I will not cheat the poor grubs!" Practically a couple of hours after he broke that promise we had sudden visitors at the ranch - an incredibly graceful moppet of eight, black-veiled, and a kind of duenna, also in black, with two bodyguards. The hag demanded certain fantastic sums - which Demon, she said, had not had time to pay, for "popping the hymen" - whereupon I had one of our strongest boys throw out vsyu (the entire) kompaniyu.' (3.8)
Erminin + rechi = Ern + minirechi
rechi - pl. of rech' (speech); cf. in Eugene Onegin (Three: XIV):
Перескажу простые речи
Отца иль дяди-старика,
Детей условленные встречи
У старых лип, у ручейка;
Несчастной ревности мученья,
Разлуку, слёзы примиренья,
Поссорю вновь, и наконец
Я поведу их под венец...
Я вспомню речи неги страстной,
Слова тоскующей любви,
Которые в минувши дни
У ног любовницы прекрасной
Мне приходили на язык,
От коих я теперь отвык.
I shall detail the simple speeches
of a father or aged uncle,
the children's assigned meetings
by the old limes, by the small brook;
torments of hapless jealousy,
parting, reconciliation's tears;
once more I'll have them quarrel, and at last
conduct them to the altar...
minirechi - talking minarets
Van regretted that because Lettrocalamity (Vanvitelli's old joke!) was banned allover the world, its very name having become a 'dirty word' among upper-upper-class families (in the British and Brazilian sense) to which the Veens and Durmanovs happened to belong, and had been replaced by elaborate surrogates only in those very important 'utilities' - telephones, motors - what else? - well a number of gadgets for which plain folks hanker with lolling tongues, breathing faster than gundogs (for it's quite a long sentence), such trifles as tape recorders, the favorite toys of his and Ada's grandsires (Prince Zemski had one for every bed of his harem of schoolgirls) were not manufactured any more, except in Tartary where they had evolved 'minirechi' ('talking minarets') of a secret make. Had our erudite lovers been allowed by common propriety and common law to knock into working order the mysterious box they had once discovered in their magic attic, they might have recorded (so as to replay, eight decades later) Giorgio Vanvitelli's arias as well as Van Veen's conversations with his sweetheart. (1.24)
In his story Solovey ("The Nightingale," 1929) Kuprin tells about his sojourn in Salzo-Maggiore (an Italian spa) with Italian opera singers. He mentions in it Aqua-Madre ("Mother Water"): Это пахнут йодистые источники, которые здесь пропитали всю почву и носят славное наименование: Аква-Мадрэ, Вода-Мать. Officially, Van is the son of Marina's poor mad twin sister Aqua.
Pushkin is the author of Talisman (1827) and "The Gypsies" (1824).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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