Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Venena + Blok + Azov = Veen/even + Nabokov + laz/zal = Neva/Vena/vena + nebo + vokzal = zveno + balkon + Eva = venok + zloba + Neva = zakon + obval + Veen

Venena – Lat., poison; in the third poem of his cycle Plyaski Smerti (“The Dances of Death,” 1912-14) Alexander Blok (1880-1921) mentions a Jewish chemist sighing in his sleep and a closet marked Venena:

Describing his first visit to Ardis, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the portraits of his ancestors:

In her last note Aqua (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Marina’s poor mad twin sister) mentioned a klok (piece) of a chelovek (human being):

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Mlle Larivière’s (Lucette’s governess who publishes her stuff under the penname Guillaume de Monparnasse) wrote a novel entitled Les Enfants Maudits:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Van Veen mentions a riddle that he whispered in Ada’s ear on their first night in “Ardis the Second:”

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Van and Ada find out that they are brother and sister thanks to Marina’s old herbarium that they discovered in the attic of Ardis Hall:

Odon/Nodo/odno + Omega = modo/mood/doom + Onega

Onega + zero = ozero + nega

In his Commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions the three conjoined lakes called Omega, Ozero, and Zero:

In Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes shaving:

Since my biographer may be too staid

Or know too little to affirm that Shade

Shaved in his bath, here goes: "He'd fixed a sort

Of hinge-and-screw affair, a steel support

Running across the tub to hold in place

The shaving mirror right before his face

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and mentions "big if:"

In his commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) describes Hazel Shade’s and his own attempts to decipher a message from the ghost:

Jane allowed me to copy out some of Hazel's notes from a typescript based on jottings made on the spot: 

10:14 P.M. Investigation commenced.