Steve Norquist: This is probably going to look funny to those who are fluent in both Russian and English, but here is google's translation of the submitted text into English…

JM: I tried to read the automatic translation, but it was a torture. One word stood out, at first, related to chess.  “Rook”.

I had just asked the list about “raven” (apparently, a translation from the Czech ”kafka”). Ravens and rooks are both “corvus”

The Common Raven (Corvus corax), also known as the Northern Raven, is a large, all-black passerine bird in the crow family;

The Rook (Corvus frugilegus) is a member of the Corvidae family in the passerine order of birds. Named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758,^[2] the species name frugilegus is Latin for "food-gathering".

Can anyone inform me if “kafka” indicates the raven or the rook in czech? ( still trusting novelist Murakami’s information).

A second question ( related to the original in Russian in the translation provided by Google/Norquist): what does “elephant” mean in the poem? (cf. the lines reproduced below)

"But lingers still dwarf.

    And then pushed nail color of iodine

    figure. Yes! He donates elephant

    magic checkmate in four moves.

    II

    Movement of rhymes and dancers cruise

    is a chess problem. Show...

 

Crows, ravens, rooks and elephants…?  

A third item: TOOL’s “Philidor Savage” (certainly not a dwarf!)  could his name indicate something related to a chess move?