Vladimir Nabokov. Una cuestión de honor : Клуб изучающих испанский языкVladimir Nabokov. Una cuestión de honor
e and took the top card, a three of diamonds. What does the three of diamonds mean chiromantically? No idea. Then he drew, in that order, the queen of diamonds, the eight of clubs, the ace of spades. Ah! That's bad. The ace of spades—I think that means death. But then that's a lot of nonsense, superstitious nonsense.... Midnight. Five past. Tomorrow has become today. I have a duel today.
He sought peace in vain. Strange things kept happening: the book he was holding, a novel by some German writer or other, was called The Magic Mountain, and "mountain," in German is Berg; he decided that if he counted to three and a streetcar went by at "three" he would be kill