The expression diēs caniculārēs or "dog days" takes its origin in the Roman times and means the 'hottest days of summer' (not to be confused with "холод собачий" or "dog cold" which is more typical of Russian weather and hence a Russian expression!). Back in those days, Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Orion's bigger dog) rose about the time of the sunrise during the hottest summer days - between early July and late August. (It doesn't happen now because since then the Earth's axis has slightly changed its orientation.) So the name of the constellation became the name of the hot season - dog days. And the Latin word for "little dog" - canicula - got its meaning of "vacation" or "holidays" in Russian - каникулы.
But it was not the unusual heat in Moscow that made me think about the dog days. It was Vladimir Nabokov's book that I read last month - Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (which I wrote more about in my other blog - Arts and Crafts in the Family).
Similar to Vladimir Nabokov himself, the main characters of this book are trilingual, and speak fluent English, Russian and French. So even though the book is written in English, there are many French and Russian expressions used, especially idiomatic expressions, the most colorful expressions that suite best this or that situation in the book.
- Sometimes Nabokov uses the Russian expressions in transliteration and then translates them into English in brackets:
...but she remembered him saying 'Vot te na' (well, that's odd) in a bothered voice.
- sometimes he translates them into English first and puts the Russian transliteraton in brackets:
'Rather soon (skorovato) she consoled herself,' remarked Marina, alluding to the death of the Count...
- sometimes he translates them into English and just explains what it means:
'On her there was no face,' as Russians say to describe an expression of utter dejection.
- but sometimes he just gives a funny English translation of the Russian idiomatic expression - and in this case you've got to figure it out all by yourself. And this is how I stumbled upon the canicular devils:
Now, this is a good example of Nabokov's language play, very similar to that used extensively by James Joyce in Finnegans Wake, when mixing two or more languages creates a word or expression which either does not make sense when you look at it at first, or is completely unrecognizable, but in any case contains a puzzle that needs to be solved. Unlike joycean puzzles, Nabokov's puzzles are not too difficult, and this one in particular is quite easy to solve. All you need to know is that 'canicular' means 'dog' as an adjective in Latin to be able to recognize the Russian expression 'к чертям собачьим'.
Nabokov seems to quite like this Russian expression, there are several places in the book where he uses it, and every time translates it in a different way:
But, added Ada, just before being whisked away and deprived of her crayon (tossed out by Marina k chertyam sobach'im, to hell's hounds - and it did remind one of Roses's terrier that had kept trying to hug Dan's leg) the charming glimpse was granted her of tiny Van, with another sweet boy... (Part1, Chapter 24)
Especially now - when everything had gone to the hell curs, k chertyam sobach'im... (Part 2, Chapter 11)
... hydrodynamic telephones and other miserable gadgets that were to replace those that had gone k chertyam sobach'im (Russian 'to the devil') with the banning of an unmentionable 'lammer'. (Part 1, Chapter 3)
Out of 'hell curs', 'hell's hounds' and 'to the devil', the expression 'canicular devils' definitely stands out because it sounds funny, it's witty and has inside it a puzzle to solve.
