Thank you for the comments and corrections on fading soldiers,
Golconda and "pinyin". The misspelling was not Dauster's fault, but
mine and I'm glad you were all quick to spot it.
To my questions: "... the romanization of Chinese characters is
called "pynin" ( but we have no idea on how this sounds). Would there
be a special name for the transposition of characters in cyrillic?"
I got three answers:
1.It's "pinyin," pronounced as two distinct syllable, pin yin.
(Michael Donohue) ;
2.. I think it is pronounced "pin-yin." Nothing to do with
Cyrillic, probably the old-style transliteration of Chinese (Peking
instead of Beijing) C. Kunin
3. ( Would there be a special name for the transposition of characters
in cyrillic?):
"Transliteration" or, colloquially, "translit". Nikita.
I also enjoyed the reference to Pnin and "pearl" in Hebrew after Maria
Yamalidou described the novel as "a pearl". The murderous grays in
their gradations from dark to light travel from suffering Pnin to PF's
poet, skipping paragraphs or "boarding a train of thought" should lead
us towards Jacques de Grey, James de Gray, Gradus, Sudarg, D' Argus...
Concerning Gradus, as Kinbote explains in note to line 17, the
"real origin of his name should be sought in the Russian word for
grape, 'vinograd', to which a Latin suffix had adhered, making it
Vinogradus" , while we can also find, in "Pnin", a lady Varvara who fled
"from the Bolsheviks to western Europe, with her aunt Lidia Vinogradov,
the well-known feminist and social worker".
There are other haunting echoes in "Pnin"who, in one of his seizures
suffered under " the discomfort of awkward haste to
the difficulties of a quest that was grading into delirium."
It was when Pnin confused the wall-paper in his nursery with the trees
in the garden where he was recovering from his fit. The patterns "
appeared to detach themselves in one undulating body from their
pale-blue background (...)." Some objects interfered "even less with the oak leaves and rich blossoms than
would the reflection of an inside object in a window-pane with the
outside scenery perceived through the same glass. And although the
witness and victim of these phantasms was tucked up in bed, he was, in
accordance with the twofold nature of his surroundings, simultaneously
seated on a bench in a green and purple park. During one melting
moment, he had the sensation of holding at last the key he had sought;
but, coming from very far, a rustling wind..."
A second reference to the name Pnin in "Pale Fire" was written by
Kinbote, in his note do line 172: "Speaking of the head of the bloated
Russian Department, Prof. Pnin, a regular martinet in regard to his
underlings...grotesque 'perfectionist'..." - ( but this mention does
not seem to correspond to "our" Pnin, does it? )
Jansy