Shar is also present in sharovaya
molniya, "ball lightning." In his poem Vysokaya bolezn' ("The
Sublime Disease," 1928), Pasternak (the author of "Dr Zhivago") compares Lenin's
speach to shorokh moln'i sharovoy (the rustle of a ball lightning).
On the other hand, in Pasternak's poem Groza
momental'naya navek ("The thunderstorm instantaneous forever"), included in
Sestra moya zhizn' (My Sister Life, 1922), there are
lines:
Sto slepyashchikh fotografiy
Noch'yu snyal na pamyat' grom
(The thunder took in the night
A hundred blinding photographs in memory [of
summer]).
Cf. in Ada: "Nobody was taking pictures
except Perun, the unmentionable god of electricity." (1.38)
Alexey Sklyarenko