ATD 946-975

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

Page XX

Sample entry
Please format like this.

Page 946

Interdikt line
That horizontal line on the map again.

Veliko Târnovo
North central Bulgaria on north side of Stara Planina range. Just for Bulgarian Pynchon uses at least two transliteration systems; where you see the letter â in this system, another will have u. Present-day transliteration from Bulgarian uses the letter ǔ. The sound resembles the U in "bump"; it's represented by Ъ in the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet.

ruchenitsa
Bulgarian: a folk dance. The u represents the "uh" sound.

St. Tryphon's Day
St. Tryphon or Trypho is the protector of fields. Feast day is Feb. 1 in the Orthodox calendar; at the time of the action the western and eastern calendars had drifted 12 or 13 days apart, throwing the Gregorian (western) date toward mid-February.

Page 947

Dimyat
Bulgarian wine made from grapes grown near the Black Sea coast.

Misket
Muscatel wine.

May, I think
1912. The date gets pegged a few pages further on.

Kazanlâk
Central Bulgaria, south slope of Stara Planina range, halfway between Plovdiv and Veliko Târnovo.

Rozovata Dolina
Bulgarian: rose valley. The Dimitrov Dam may have filled part of the valley with a reservoir.

between the Balkan range and the Sredna Gora
Mountain ranges running east-west across Bulgaria, the Balkan (Stara Planina) to the north. Stara Planina = Old Range, Sredna Gora = Central Mountains.

mutri
Bulgarian, literally: mugs, wry faces.

Page 948

Petrich
Extreme southwestern Bulgaria, near the Bulgaria/Greece/Macedonia triple point.

on Macedonian border
Today's maps reflect another century of boundary fights and negotiations. Petrich is not right on the present border, for example.

between Plovdiv and Petrich
Southwest quarter of Bulgaria.

the music stopped two years ago
I.e., in 1910.

Page 949

called out to, by their diminutives
You can make a list of "nicknames" from most any Slavic name. In Russian, for example, Aleksandr is informally called Alyosha, Sasha, Sashenka, etc. The irregulars are boys from the neighborhood and get addressed as such.

crossing R. damascena with R. alba
Species of roses. The species most used in attar-making is Rosa damascena.

Page 950

named the baby Ljubica
Croatian: violet (the flower). Commemorating Cyprian's toilette at Carnesalve, I suggest; see pages 881 and 891. Important: the name is pronounced LYOO-beet-sah. --Volver 08:00, 26 January 2007 (PST)

toroidal black iron antenna . . . one of those Tesla rigs
I.e., made to transmit or receive energy wirelessly.

Page 951

Mihály Vámos
Hungarian name, but vámos is also Spanish = go!

Szia, haver
Hungarian: Hello buddy!

Page 952

Zabraneno
Bulgarian: the forbidden. Same meaning as Interdikt.

an attar-factory rep from Philippopolis
Attar: attar of roses, a fragrant extract of the petals. Philippopolis is now Plovdiv, located 40-50 miles south of the valley.

casemate
In a fortification, an armored room or emplacement for artillery.

Page 953

it's only chlorine . . . you get phosgene
Accurate account of the process then used to produce phosgene. Today an activated carbon catalyst replaces the sunlight.

motoros
Cyclist, biker, referring here to Mihaly Vamos.

light is..the destructive element
Thematic,of course, when non-natural light is created....studies back to 'city illumination'. Cf. Telluride chapter.

millions of candles per square inch
Not easily converted to other units of measurement. Since the International Candle was defined as the light output from a specified wax candle, imagine a source emitting as much light as a million candles. Then imagine the sky covered with such sources, one to a square inch. No, it's unimaginably bright—disorienting, blinding, probably scorching.

Sok szerencsét
Hungarian: good luck.

Page 954

Page 955

folie à trois
Folie à deux describes delusional behavior displayed by two people; here it's by three.

hebephrenic
Involving delusions, hallucinations, pointless and childish behavior.

raptors
birds of prey.

Sliven
East of Kazanlâk, Bulgaria.

the Halkata
Bulgarian khalka: ring. The suffix -ta is a definite article.

Ulitsa Rakovsky
Bulgarian: Rakovsky Street. Georgi Rakovsky (1821-67), Bulgarian freedom fighter.

Page 956

krâchma
Pronounced like CRUTCH-mah. Bulgarian: tavern.

Byal Sredets
Cigarettes?

Zdrave . . . kakvo ima?
Bulgarian: Good health . . . what's the matter?

Bogomils
Heretical sect in Balkans with doctrinal links to Cathars and Albigensians.

Pavlikeni
Sources differ on the meaning: (1) Bulgarian Catholics; (2) members of a heretical sect with dualist (Manichean) doctrines influenced by beliefs of the Bogomils.

Hebrus River . . . Maritza
The Maritza or Maritsa flows west to east, draining Bulgaria between the Stara Planina (Balkan range) and the Rhodopes, then turns south and west to the Aegean Sea. The port at its mouth, in Greece, is called Evros, a name derived from Hebrus.

Page 957

Pythagorean akousmata
"Avoid beans." Go to "A" in the alphabetical index for a definition.

hegumen
In the Greek Orthodox Church, head of a religious community.

Zalmoxis
This passage could almost have been drawn from the Wikipedia entry.

Krâstova Gora
Bulgarian: name of a mountain or range.

Is this sentence the orphan of some narrative that's been cut? Disclosure of the baby's sex is on p. 949 and has neither a mountain nor a church in it. --Volver 14:33, 26 January 2007 (PST)

narthex
Lobby or portico of a church.

Page 958

sympathetic spirits who had dug spaces beneath their own precarious dwellings to harbor her for a night or two at a time
Compare the annotations on stranniki and podpol'niki (page 663).

Bernadette o' Lourdes
young woman who is reputed to have seen visions of the Mother of the Divine at Lourdes in France. See Wikipedia.

Page 959

Oh, there won't be any war
Cyprian's self-discovered religiousness seems to make him overly optimistic--blind--to historical reality.

σχημα
In English, schema.

Νυξ
In English, Nux or Nyx.

Talking, for women, is a form of breathing
Compare p. 501: "a hundred women . . . all silent." Tying Noellyn/Yashmeen to Cyprian?

What is it that is born of light?
Cyprian trying to make sense of his epiphany on page 953.

Page 960

Hesychasts
Contemplative hermits in Orthodox Church; see Wikipedia entry. From the concise Brittanica: Hesychasm in Eastern Christianity, type of monastic life in which practitioners seek divine quietness (Greek hesychia) through the contemplation of God in uninterrupted prayer. Such prayer, involving the entire human being—soul, mind, and body—is often called “pure,” or “intellectual,” prayer or the Jesus prayer. St. John Climacus, one of the greatest writers of the Hesychast tradition, wrote, “Let the remembrance of Jesus be present with each breath, and then you will know the value of the hesychia.” In the late 13th century, St. Nicephorus the Hesychast produced an even more precise “method of prayer,” advising novices to fix their eyes during prayer on the “middle of the body,” in order to achieve a more total attention, and to “attach the prayer to their breathing.” This practice was violently attacked in the first half of the 14th century by Barlaam the Calabrian, who called the Hesychasts omphalopsychoi, or people having their souls in their navels.

omphalopsychoi
see above. "Hesychasts condemned as "having their souls in their navel".

Shekhinah
The Kabbala calls this Spirit, Shekkinah, which, according to Harold Bloom, refers to the "feminine element in Yahweh." Shekkinah is God's maternal nature, Mother God, who broods over the Earth searching for and gathering the world's orphans and outcasts under her wings.
The author of Genesis tells us this Spirit hovered over the earth before creation.

shiny black accoutrements
See the delicious annotation to page 678.

Cosmas of Jerusalem
See the concise Wikipedia article.

Page 961

metempsychosis
Habitation by a soul of a different (or new) body; non-Orthodox concept related to reincarnation.

[i]f self-similarity proves to be a built-in property of the universe
As it does seem to be. Example: a map of streams draining the side of a mountain is similar (though on a different scale) to a map of rivers draining half a continent.

any mountain,any continent?

Moon and electron and sleep, death as text examples, are 'universe(al)' analogies.

Brides of Night
A name (used by whom?) of the order Cyprian seeks to join.
This 'order' seems to be a creation of Pynchon's, an important metaphorical one. In Hesychasism, massive humility is stressed, as is the linked notion that God is light and can never be known (not even after the Beatific Vision). So, a Bride of Night is a humble 'nun' who is married to the darkness of the Unknown God.

Page 962

don't look back . . . or he'll take you below . . . down to America
Orpheus and Eurydice again.

Page 963

Plain of Thrace . . . Rhodopes . . . Pirin range
From the convent/castle in the Stara Planina or Sredna Gora, south across the Maritsa valley, south and west across the Rhodope mountain range, west and south through the higher Pirins. Close to the present Bulgarian-Greek-Macedonian borders, on a generally westward track.

In mid-October . . . invaded Macedonia
1912, First Balkan War. The text does not mention Montenegro, which was active as well. Insofar as war aims played any role, everybody aimed to get Turkey out of the Balkans, but there was little unity beyond that.

Kumanovo
Northern Macedonia near present-day border with Serbia.

Adrianople
Now called Edirne. At the present-day Turkish-Greek frontier near the Turkey/Greece/Bulgaria triple point.

from Philippopolis . . . Adrianople
From Plovdiv east and south down the Maritsa to Edirne.

Page 964

west through Strumica and Valandova . . . the Vardar
Strumica is in the southeast of present-day Macedonia, Valandovo to the south. The Vardar is the major river of Macedonia, flowing north to south more or less.

the Tikveš wine country
A plain in the center of present-day Macedonia.

Monastir
Now Bitola in southwest Macedonia.

between Veles and Prilep
In central Macedonia.

Page 965

by way of Kičevo and Prilep
Kičevo is in western present-day Macedonia, Prilep more in the middle. Two Serbian columns?

Babuna Pass
North of Prilep.

Page 966

Page 967

Sarakatsàni
Not a place but a people, Greek-speaking shepherds well beyond the present-day borders of Greece.

Bukovo Pass
???

down into Ohrid
Extreme southwest of present-day Macedonia, on a large lake.

Liman von Sanders
Otto Liman von Sanders (1855-1929), German advisor to Turkish military. In overall command of Turkish victories at the Dardanelles in 1915.

Page 968

Sveti Naum
Macedonian: St. Naum. Large monastery on the lakefront south of Ohrid.

Yanina
Now Ioánnina, in the Epirus province of present-day Greece.

Pogradeci, on the road to Korça
Now Pogradec, Albania, across the lake from Ohrid, and Korcë, southeastern Albania near present-day Greek border.

Page 969

Erseka
Now Ersekë, southeastern Albania near the Greek border.

Gramoz Range . . . Pindus
Grámmos and Pindos on present-day maps. The Pindos range runs mainly north-south in northwestern Greece; Mt. Grámmos marks the boundary of Greece and Albania (and also the boundary between two Greek provinces, one of them named Macedonia).

šarplaninec
Or šarplaninac. Named for the Šar Planina mountain range. It's a largeish working breed. Compare the Wikipedia article with the description of Kseniya's temperament.

Kseniya
The name (here in Macedonian form; elsewhere Xenia) means "guest, stranger."

Page 970

tungjatjeta
Albanian: hello! Literally: "may you have a long life"

një rosë vdekuri
Albanian: "What we call a rose"...Allusion to Juliet's line from Romeo & Juliet: "that what we call a rose/ by any other name would smell as sweet"

Vëlla
Albanian: brother

Page 971

Gëzuar
Albanian: ???

Tosk
Principal southern dialect of Albanian, basis of the literary language.

Përmeti
Përmet on present-day maps.

Gjirokastra
Argyrokastron on old maps, Gjirokastër on new ones.

Vjosa
Vijosë on present-day maps.

Page 972

Muzina Pass
In Southern Albania it is 572 meters high.It connects Sarande [below] with the Drinos Valley. Wikipedia, German edition.

Agli Saranta
Present-day maps identify this Albanian Riviera town as Sarandë.

Corfu
Western Greek island off the Greek/Albanian coast.

Pantokratoras
South of Mouzaki, Greece. Famous for Byzantine icon screens.

XI
Eleven: a cricket team.

Lefkas
Or Levkás, Leucas or Lefkada, the next sizable island down the Greek coast from Corfu.

Page 973

hot-pepper salamis
???

the Compassionate
???

Durazzo
Now Durrës, Albania, nearest coastal city to the capital, Tiranë.

casus belli
An occasion or cause for war.

Page 974

Volodya
Diminutive form of Vladimir. Not Colonel Prokladka.

a transaction in jade
???

one of those turns
. . . And aren't there a lot of them through here.

Page 975

Garitsa
???

leptas
Bastard plural of lepton (Greek = a low-denomination coin). Plural in Greek is lepta.

tsingarelli
???

polenta
Originally Italian; dish similar to cornmeal mush.

yaprakia
Stuffed grape leaves (similar to dolmathes).

stoufado
Possibly an alternative spelling of stifado (Greek = beef and onion stew)?

Mavrodaphne
Red wine made in the Achaia region of Greece.

Hrisoula
The cat bears the name of King Yrjö's wife (GR 119).

Annotation Index

Part One: The Light Over the Ranges	1-25, 26-56, 57-80, 81-96, 97-118
Part Two: Iceland Spar	119-148, 149-170, 171-198, 199-218, 219-242, 243-272, 273-295, 296-317, 318-335, 336-357, 358-373, 374-396, 397-428
Part Three: Bilocations	429-459, 460-488, 489-524, 525-556, 557-587, 588-614, 615-643, 644-677, 678-694
Part Four: Against the Day	695-723, 724-747, 748-767, 768-791, 792-820, 821-848, 849-863, 864-891, 892-918, 919-945, 946-975, 976-999, 1000-1017, 1018-1039, 1040-1062
Part Five: Rue du Départ	1063-1085