Questions tagged [литература]
The литература tag has no usage guidance.
24
questions
15
votes
4answers
7k views
Where to find parallel English-Russian novels to learn Russian? [closed]
Where can I find licence-free dual language English-Russian novels? I think this is one of the most effective way of learning language, because of no time needed to search words in dictionary, and ...
11
votes
7answers
2k views
“Horse has gypsy in its teeth” - what does it exactly mean?
In the Neil Cornwell translation of Daniil Kharms' story "Clunk" I see the following sentence:
The picture is a drawing of a horse, the horse has gypsy in its teeth.
That sounds like a very ...
10
votes
1answer
201 views
Use of genitive in Преступление и наказание
The following quote is from the beginning of Part 1, chapter 7 (Раскольников stands at the old woman's door):
"...и опять два вострые и недоверчивые взгяда уставились на него из темноты."
Why is "...
8
votes
3answers
236 views
Дать кому денег до среды (From Двенадцать стульев). What does that mean?
What does the expression in bold mean?
Человек, лишенный матраца, — жалок. Он не существует. Он не платит налогов, не имеет жены, знакомые не занимают ему денег до среды, ...(From Ch. 19 ...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
Russian classic literature with stress markings
I am a Polish native speaker. I have a pretty good passive understanding of written Russian. I have however a terrible pronunciation, especially with regards to stress (it always falls on the ...
8
votes
3answers
2k views
котов and Петров
This is a follow up to this question.
Here is a Daniil Kharms short story:
ПЕТРОВ И КАМАРОВ
ПЕТРОВ:
Эй, Камаров!
Давай ловить комаров!
КАМАРОВ:
Нет, я к этому еще не готов.
...
6
votes
3answers
271 views
Is “Трудно быть богом?” (as in the title of the book) a valid question in written or formal Russian?
Prompted by our Hard to Be a God book challenge1 on Literature SE, we've been trying to gather some attention by posting to relevant chat rooms.
An interesting discussion sparked in the Russian ...
6
votes
1answer
813 views
What Russian poet to recommend for beginners and intermediate learners? [closed]
What Russian poet could be recommender for reading for beginners and intermediate Russian Language learners?
Poetry has opinion to be difficult for learners because of extended vocabulary and many ...
5
votes
1answer
315 views
“The Grand Inquisitor” book cover - what does cyrillic letters stand for?
I recently bought a copy of, "The Grand Inquisitor" and, after a few days, I noticed that the title of the book on front cover was written partially in cyrillic. Does the cyrillic on the front mean ...
5
votes
2answers
939 views
Do these surnames imply anything?
I'm reading Kharms (again). And a friend of mine warned me that some of the names Kharms uses may actually have some meaning that are lost in translation (like in the example of Mr. Joker, Ms. Cow, Mr....
4
votes
5answers
841 views
Дружба by Pushkin
I have a multiple question on the following verses:
Дружба
Что дружба? Лeгкий пыл похмелья,
Обиды вольный разговор,
Обмен тщеславия, безделья
Иль покровительства позор.
А. С. Пушкин
Is this ...
4
votes
1answer
186 views
Why “об Чацком”, not “о Чацком”
Я на днях читал Грибоедовскую комедию 'горе от ума' и наткнулся на довольно странную грамматическую конструкцию:
Ты знаешь ли об Чацком?
Эта строка меня поразила по двум причинам. Первая из них та, ...
4
votes
1answer
310 views
Pushkin's shortest poem's meaning
If I naively translate
Дай, Никита, мне одеться:
В митрополии звонят.
(Александр Сергеевич Пушкин, март 1821—1822)
I cannot apreciate the literary value of these verses. Pushkin is said to ...
3
votes
4answers
649 views
How were these expressed in the original Russian of Yevgeny Zamyatin's “We”? [closed]
Warning: Potential Spoilers of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We!
My book club recently finished reading an English translation of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, originally published in 1924 in Russian. We don't know ...
3
votes
1answer
139 views
What word and case is `одною` in the phrase “помещалась одною лестницей ниже”?
I am trying to read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and I had a question about the word одною in this sentence:
Квартирная же хозяйка его, у которой он нанимал эту каморку с обедом и прислугой, ...
3
votes
4answers
198 views
How to understand «стал было во главе обороны»?
How do you understand the sentence "Князь Долгорукий стал было во главе обороны" taken from the novel Белая Гвардия by Bulgakov (about revolution period in Kiev)?
"Когда гетмана спрашивали: что же ...
3
votes
3answers
402 views
Wordplay between Кузьмич and со всех сторон
I'm reading Tolstoy's War and Peace (in English) and am baffled by what the joke is in the following passage in Volume I, Part III, Chapter 2:
Он рассказывал дамам с шутливой улыбкой на губах ...
3
votes
2answers
150 views
about Pushkin's Дружба : how to read it
I was very pleased to discover Pushkin's Дружба on Russian StackExchange :
Что дружба? Лeгкий пыл похмелья, What is friendship? A slight fire of the carousal,
Обиды вольный разговор, The ...
3
votes
6answers
272 views
Any long form literature websites in Russian? [duplicate]
I'm a big fan of websites like longform.org in English, which post longer-length articles (mostly non-fiction) from newspapers, magazines, etc. Can anyone recommend a similar resource in Russian? ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
“И после ей наедине // Давать уроки в тишине!”
Каково значение слова уроки в следующей строфе Евгения Онегина?
"Как он умел казаться новым,
Шутя невинность изумлять,
Пугать отчаяньем готовым,
Приятной лестью забавлять,
Ловить минуту умиленья,
...
1
vote
2answers
248 views
Does one use (still) / did one really used once гангрена (проклятая)! as curse word, as it appears in Двенадцать стульев?
If I'm not mistaken some character in Ilf-Petrov's wonderful novel Двенадцать стульев wants to damn something. I don't quite remember the situation, but he says
– гангрена (проклятая)!
Is any of ...
1
vote
2answers
144 views
чтоб in written form
After writing a while I got unsure about using чтоб instead of чтобы. I checked and found чтоб would be colloquial for чтобы.
However, the ngram indicates a slight rise of using чтоб in literature ...
0
votes
2answers
150 views
What does “всякий взор” mean in this context? Is it a phrase?
So this is from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, so I'm not sure if this an archaic 19th century expression, because I don't see how the word взор is being used in this sentence. Does it just mean &...
-1
votes
1answer
230 views
Unbiased Source of Content in Russian [closed]
I've been studying Russian for the last few years and I think I could now be searching for native content (probably news and/or books) in order to enhance my vocabulary.
It has not been very easy for ...
