61: amour-propre – Means “self-esteem” or “self-love” in French.

61: Bois – Signifies the woods around Paris.

61: Plenilune – The title of one of VV’s work  s, Plenilune 1929 “a full moon.” – cf. (1932)  Podvig (Подвиг (Deed)); English translation: Glory (1971)

61:Dutifully escorting her…avant-garde frauds – The surrealist movement was centered in Paris during the 1920s, along with various other artistic movements, apparently to V.V’s chagrin.

Juan Gris violin and playing cards

63:”Kak pozhivaete and do svidaniya” – The first Russian words means “How are you?”, and the second means “good-bye”.

63: “With that quaint non sequitur that I was to give to the heroine of my Ardis forty years later.” – Possibly a reference to Ada is Nabokov’s book Ada, or Ardor, who dodged around Van’s questions of infidelity.

64: “Supplication, sans tarder” –    (French) ” supplication,  without delay. “

Annotated by Toby Aicher