"A student in his beginning {Russian] class recalls that on the first day of the term, Nabokov happened to find on his desk a yellow vase with blue flowers. He went to the blackboard, wrote 'yellow blue vase,' and asked the students what it said. 'Yellow blue vase,' of course. 'That is almost "I love you" in Russian,' he explained, and repeated the phrase, ja ljublju vas, adding: 'That is probably the most important phrase I will teach you.'" [Ben Boyd. 1991. Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years. p. 122.]