Les Enfants Maudits
(Darkbloom: “the accursed children”) seems to blend les
enfants terribles with Les poètes
maudits (1884), by Paul Verlaine. On the other hand, the aphorism
"children are flowers of life" (quoted by the hero of Ilf & Petrov's "The 12
Chairs") reminds one of Les fleurs du mal, by another "accursed
poet."
Boyd: that Vere de Vere: "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" was
"The title and heroine of a poem (1842) by Tennyson.
Romantically inclined handmaids, whose
reading consisted of Gwen de Vere and Klara Mertvago,
adored Van, adored Ada, adored Ardis's ardors in arbors.
(2.7)
The opening poem of The Poems of Yuri
Zhivago (in Pasternak's novel, Lara Antipov is Zhivago's mistress)
is Gamlet ("Hamlet"). Gamlet is a half-Russian village near Ardis
(1.5). On the other hand, Ophelia and Claudius are mentioned in this
chapter (1.32).
'But let's be serious, I still don't see how and why his wife - I mean the
second guy's wife - accepts the situation
(polozhenie).'
Vronsky spread his fingers and
toes.
'Prichyom tut polozhenie
(situation-shituation)?' (1.32)
Vronsky (who was Marina's lover in 1871, before leaving
her for another long-lashed Khristosik) is perplexed, because
polozhenie (situation) also means "pregnancy" (and one of the guests,
Elsie Rack, is pregnant). The interesting phrase interesnoe
polozhenie occurs earlier in Ada:
Marina arrived in Nice a few days after
the duel, and tracked Demon down in his villa Armina, and in the ecstasy of
reconciliation neither remembered to dupe procreation, whereupon started the
extremely interesnoe polozhenie ('interesting condition') without
which, in fact, these anguished notes could not have been strung.
(1.2)
Boyd: kok: Russian,
“Coca-Cola,” with pun on English vulgar “cock.”
Kok is Russian for "ship's cook" and "quiff" (a
lock or curl of hair brought forward over the forehead). It does not
mean "Coca-Cola" (which we call simply kola to distinguish it from
pepsi).
Boyd: Doc Ecksreher: Dr
X-rayer. Cf. 369.20: “Dr. V.V. Sector.”
None of Ada's Russian translators (except
this one) was able to see the allusion to X-rays. Btw., their
discoverer, W. K. Roentgen (1845-1923) had a friend, Professor F. S. Ecksner
(1849-1926), and an assistant, Professor Max Wien (1866-1939). When in the Kalugano hospital Van Veen visits Philip Rack, the
latter addresses him "Baron von Wien" (1.42). Of course, Wien
is the German name of Vienna,* the city where Mozart died (the composer was
convinced that he had been poisoned - not by Salieri though). Rack,
too, was poisoned (by his wife Elsie, according to Ada).
Boyd: Forestday—after tomorrow: Darkbloom:“Rack’s
pronunciation of ‘Thursday,’ ” and his unidiomatic (from Germanic
übermorgen) version of “the day after tomorrow” (which Nabokov himself
usually rendered unidiomatically in English as simply “after
tomorrow”).
Van is soon to fight a duel with Captain Tapper in the
Kalugano Forest (1.42).
"After tomorrow" - Russ., poslezavtra. On the other
hand, posle dozhdichka v chetverg ("on Thursday, after the rain") means
"never."
*Vena (Russian name of Vienna) is an anagram of Neva
("the legendary river of Old Rus:" 2.1).
Alexey Sklyarenko
All private editorial communications are
read by both co-editors.