Not only in “Mozart & Salieri”: in fact, another Pushkin’s most notable “nikto b(y)” is twice repeated in a very important point of
Eugene Onegin (8: XV)
Никто б не мог ее прекрасной
Назвать; но с головы до ног
Никто бы в ней найти не мог
Того, что модой самовластной
В высоком лондонском кругу
Зовется vulgar.
Also on the very first page of Pushkin’s The Shot (“Vystrel”) :
«если б он вызвался пулей сбить грушу с фуражки кого б то ни было,
никто б в нашем полку не усумнился подставить ему своей головы.»
(“if he had offered to shoot a pear off somebody’s forage-cap, not a man in our regiment would have hesitated to place the object upon his head”, transl. T. Keane)
Is Vystrel PF-relevant? (“The Shot” by
Gradus; Vystrel’s Sylvio to PF’s Sylvia?) J
“NIKTO B” is a colloquial but not a very rare form.
It is still used today - but a quick search detects it decades before Pushkin, e.g. in Tredyakovsky, 1735, “Новый
и краткий
способ к
сложению российских
стихов…”
Будь услужен, будь и тих, ласков в разговоре;
Всех приятно принимай, был никто б в презоре.
Victor Fet
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU]
On Behalf Of Jerry Friedman
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012 1:07 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] nikto b
> From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark1970@MAIL.RU>
> Steve is wrong! From Pushkin's Mozart i Salieri (scene II):
>
> Моцарт
>
> Когда бы все так чувствовали силу
> Гармонии! Но нет: тогда б не мог
> И мир существовать; никто б не стал
> Заботиться о нуждах низкой жизни;
> Все предались бы вольному искусству.
>
> I guess, I change my mind about nikto b
Nancy K. Anderson's translation is
Mozart: If only everyone could feel the power
Of harmony like you! But no, for then
The world could not exist; no one would want
To spend time taking care of life's low needs;
All would be given over to free art.
http://books.google.com/books?id=jxUykRYoC1oC&pg=PA151
For newcomers to the list, this subject arose because Carolyn Kunin pointed out that "Botkin" mirror-reflected could be "nikto b", which would mean something like "probably no one". People have said here that this is not grammatical by itself as the answer
to a question such as "Who is Botkin?" but still the existence of the phrase in Pushkin might make us take this idea more seriously.
(Carolyn has never given her full "solution" to Pale Fire, as far as I know, but she believes Shade and Kinbote are two personalities in one body, like Jekyll and Hyde. This doesn't leave much room for Botkin, so she must be glad to see evidence for
her idea that Botkin is "no one". Since I don't think Pale Fire has a "real story", I'm glad too, and I too thank Alexey.)
Jerry Friedman
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.