Vladimir Nabokov. Labios contra labios
Vladimir Nabokov. LIPS TO LIPS
At last came the day when the first draft of the novel was finished. To his friend's suggestion that they repair to a cafe, Ilya Borisovich replied in a mysterious and weighty tone of voice, "Impossible. I'm polishing my phrasing."
The polishing consisted of his launching an attack on the too frequently occurring adjective molodaya, "young" (feminine gender), replacing it here and there by "youthful," yunaya, which he pronounced with a provincial doubling of the consonant as if it were spelled yunnaya.
One day later. Twilight. Cafe on Kurfurstendamm. Settee of re