Thank you, Jansy, for your kind words and suggestions as to how better organize my data. I did something of what you propose (but no diagrams, colored ardises, etc.) in the Russian version of my article. Unfortunately, this article is too long (and my English is limited) to be translated into English. All I can do is write short commentaries about certain aspects discussed in my Russian piece (which will allow me to say what remained unsaid in the Russian text). I'm sorry to hear that these commentaries are insufficient. Well, apparently only a multi-lingual reader, with a knowledge of Russian history and literature, can enjoy Ada to the full.

Blok wrote a cycle of poems "Mary" (1908) that consisted of three pieces and was inspired by Pushkin's poem "I'm drinking to health of Mary" (1830). On the other hand, Blok's poem "Incognita" (1906) has the lines: "the drunkards, with the eyes of rabbits [s glazami krolikov], / shout: In vino veritas" and ends thus: "you are right, the drunken monster, / I know: the truth is in wine."

Mary's song in Pushkin's play "The Feast in the Time of the Plague" (1830) ends in the lines: A Edmonda ne zabudet / Dzhenni dazhe v nebesakh ("And Jenny won't forget Edmond even in heaven." In 1913, these lines were chosen for a poetic contest organized by the Moscow Literary Circle; poems composed by the participants had to contain these two lines by Pushkin; the contest was won by Marina Tsvetaeva, while the best poem was written by Khodasevich, who showed it to Bryusov, the the jury's chair man, only after the prize had gone to Tsvetaeva). It seems that, in Ada, Aqua and Lucette don't forget Van and Ada even after their deaths.

The heroine of Pushkin's Poltava (in the drafts of this poem Pushkin wrote anagrams of Anette Olenin's name and even jotted "Anette Pouchkine") is Maria, the young wife of old Masepa (actually, the name of Vasiliy Kochubey's daughter was Matryona; in his drafts Pushkin calls her Natal'ya and Anna). This poem has a scene of Kochubey's and Iskra's execution (by coincidence, Iskra, Russian for "spark," was the name of the Bolsheviks' first newspaper, Pravda's predecessor, that had Odoevsky's line for a motto: Iz iskry vozgoritsya plamya, "the flames will flare up from a spark"*) and its culmination is the description of the Poltava battle (in which a good amount of Russian and Swedish blood was spilled). Note that, among the many words one can extract from "Poltava" (a city in the East Ukraine), there is tolpa, Russian for "crowd." Cf. Poet i tolpa ("The poet and the crowd," 1828) Pushkin's famous poem, written in the form of a dialogue between the Poet and the crowd, that ends in the Poet's words: "We were born for inspiration, / Sweet sounds and prayers" (note the epithet "sweet").

At the bottom of the draft of the Andrey Shen'e poem ("André Chenier," 1825) there is Pushkin's self-portrait as a horse (Pushkin's equine-looking face, among several horse muzzles). Cf. d'Onsky, Demon Veen and Demon's London pal Paul Whinnier (2.8), all of whom are horses, in my opinion, even if they look like men. Speaking of horses, cf. also Khodasevich's article on Mayakovsky Decol'tirovannaya loshad' ("Decolletted horse," 1927).

Also, quite apart from 'Gory Mary,' Andro = narod = adorn = Adorno - O = orda + N (Adorno is the name of a comedian, who played in "Hate" (a movie) and who visits Ardis Hall: 1.41; cf. Theodor Adorno, 1903-69, German philosopher; orda is Russian for "horde;" cf. the Golden Horde).

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Search the archive	Contact the Editors	Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla	View Nabokv-L Policies	Manage subscription options