67: trusty, old machinka: a typewriter in English from the Russian пишущая машина/машинька It was given to Vadim Vadimovich as a wedding present. His degrading health prevented him from typing fast → decided to find a typewriter. Symbolic: soon after the death of his wife, he is unable to type. With his wife dying, Vadim’s ability to type fades as well.

68: Lyubov Serafimovna: “Lybov” means “love” from Russian and “Serafim” is a Christian name of a reformed terrorist. The seraphim
were also a class of angels. Lyubov Serafimovna represents a perfect woman to fall in love: she remembers a lot of Vadim’s poems, with her long legs she could win the Miss Russia competition. It was she who left the irises on his wife’s tomb. However, the softer her glances became, the more ungentlemanly Vadim’s reactions became. In, women he is searching for Iris’ characteristics of character.

68: zdraste: means a formal but shortened “hello” in Russian.

69: Pawn Takes Queen: refers to King Queen Knave combined with The Defense.

69: Tamara: comes from Speak,Memory. Perhaps Nabokov’s first true love.

70: Adoration: Lyubov Serafimovna’s perfume the smell of which Vadim could not bear. Everything about Lyuba shows that many men would fall for her. Then why isn’t Vadim attracted to her? The reader might sense how hard for him it was to forget his wife and move on.

70: Keat’s “To Autumn”: the 1st stanza of the poem talks about the abundance of the sun and ripe fruits in the beginning of the autumn. But towards the end of the Autumn, the sun leaves, and the speaker asks Autumn to listen to her own music. The translation of this poem at this part of the novel is symbolic because as Lyubov was typing up the translation she broke down in tears and confessed her feelings to Vadim (she was the sun leaving). It was their last meeting.

Annotated by Olena Ostasheva