"The year 1880 (Aqua was still alive
- somehow, somewhere!) was to prove to be the most retentive and talented one in
his long, too long, never too long life... He could solve an Euler-type problem
or learn by heart Pushkin's "Headless Horsemsn" poem in less than twenty
minutes."
Cf. "Это было в 1880 году. Этот год был самый
тяжёлый в жизни Ивана Ильича." ("It was in 1880. This year was the hardest one
in Ivan Ilyich's life." Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Chapter
Three).
Ivan Ilyich's surname is Golovin. It comes
from голова, "head". Голова, the still
alive part of the body of a giant knight who was
beheaded by his brother, the dwarf Chernomor, is a character in
Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Lyudmila (1820). The name Черномор,* of the evil dwarf and sorcerer (whose power is
concealed in his long beard), comes from Чёрное море, the Black sea,** and
reminds one of Черномордик, the chemist in
Chekhov's story "Аптекарша" (The Chemist's Wife, 1886).
His comedy name comes from чёрная морда, "black mug".
ЧЕРНОМОРДИК –
ЧЕРНОМОР = ДИК [= KID]
Дик is a short form of the
adjective дикий (wild), as well as Russian spelling of the name
Dick. Dick (Lord C.[hose]) is Van's fellow student at Chose, the
unfortunate шулер (card sharper) who cheats at poker but meets in Van an
even more cunning cheat in this very chapter of Ada (1.28).
Note that the name Ван Вин (Van Veen), of Ada's protagonist,
looks like a "decapitated" version of
the name Иван Головин (Ivan Golovin). In fact, Ван Вин + и (and) + логогриф
(logogriph) = Иван Головин + гриф (gryphon; vulture).
Speaking of голова, I already mentioned Funt's
phrase "Бриан - это голова!" ("Briand*** has a good head indeed!") in Ilf and
Petrov's The Golden Calf. The novel's setting is Chernomorsk (the
invented city that resembles Odessa). The words головотяпство ("bungling";
from голова, head, and тяпать, "to chop", "to hit") and головотяп
("bungler") several times occur in The Golden Calf.
Château**** + Briand = Chateaubriand, Van's and
Ada's beloved writer who is mentioned many times in Ada. According to
Ivan Gavrilovich Golovin (1816-90), Russian émigré author who used the pen-name Nivolog
("Golovin" backwards) when publishing his book Geographic Studies
(1860), his contemporaries called him "Russian
Chateaubriand".*****
Голова (the mayor) is also a character in
Gogol's fairy story "Ночь перед Рождеством" (Christmas Eve, 1832). Its
title reminds one of Chekhov's story "Ночь перед судом" (The Night before the Trial, 1886) that I discuss in my soon-to-be-published article
"Nabokov's
Antropomorphic Zoo: The Leporine Family of Doctors in Ada". In its turn, the title
of Chekhov's story reminds one of Blok's inspired poem "Перед судом"
(Before the Judgment Day, 1915) addressed to the poet's
wife.
Unlike Cervantes' Don Quixote, Ada isn't a cruel book (but one
should read it carefully, if one wants to enjoy it). Of
course, it has nothing to do with de Sade's fantasies (btw., the name
de Sade comes from dosada, "disappointment").
*Черномор is also морской дядька (marine tutor)
of the thirty three knights all of whom live in the sea (under water)
in Pushkin's Fairy Tale about the Tsar Saltan... (1831). On the
other hand, морской дядька (who remained nameless) is mentioned
in "the extraordinary lines, among his greatest, that Pushkin added in
1824... to the beginning of Ruslan and Lyudmila" (VN's Commentary to
EO, vol. Two, p. 139): "И 30 витязей прекрасных / Чредой из вод выходят ясных, /
И с ними дядька их морской". These famous lines begin with the mention of a
green oak: "У лукоморья дуб зелёный; / Златая цепь на дубе том: / И днём и
ночью кот учёный / Всё ходит по цепи кругом". Cf. Ada's "Quercus
ruslan Chat." "Chat." no doubt hints at Chateaubriand, but
chat is also French for "cat".
**note that морить means "exterminate" and мор,
"wholesale deaths"
***Aristide Briand (1862-1932)
****castle (Fr.)
*****see Golovin's "Записки" (Memoirs,
Leipzig, 1859), p. 58.
Alexey Sklyarenko