.

 

>>>> The Russian word for boule is shar (which also means "sphere," globe").

Indeed it does.

Shar + ada = sharada ("charade"). I suspect, I managed to solve Nabokov's difficult charade in Ada.

 

Alexey – amazing!!

I cannot believe nobody saw this simple charade before:

 

Charade = Russ. Sharada = Shar + Ada = Sphere of Hell = Demonia (Antiterra)

However, in Russian plural, charades are Sharady = Shar Ady = Ada’s Sphere

 

As opposed, I presume, to Shar Zemnoy* (Russ.) = the [Earthly] Globe

(Zemlya = Earth = Terra)

 

 

*famously featured, e.g., in the only poem-song of Okudzhava translated by VN and quoted in Ada (‘Speranza’, when the true batch outboys the riot)!

 

Ne pokachnulo b shar zemnoy = terrestrial globe is jolted

(see Verses & Versions, p. 365)

 

Notice that zemnoy (terrestrial, earthly) also means “of this world” as opposed to a poetic cliché nezemnoy (heavenly, out-of-this world).

It echoes with Zemsky, naturally (same root).

 

Victor Fet