12
votes
Accepted
"The Grand Inquisitor" book cover - what does cyrillic letters stand for?
It means nothing. It just reads "The Grand Inquisitor" in English with a few Cyrillic letters thrown in to replace English letters that they look vaguely similar to. This is an example of Faux ...
- 401
7
votes
Russian classic literature with stress markings
I want to propose you a better solution of the problem http://morpher.ru/accentizer/ - this program makes stress marks in every Russian text. Or Google: Тексты с ударениями
For example https://ru....
7
votes
Дружба by Pushkin
Is the word похмелья really meaning hangover (like that the day after drinking)?
That's the modern meaning. In Pushkin's times it was rather "drinking, drunkenness", e.g.
Когда для шумного похмелья /...
- 276
7
votes
Why "об Чацком", not "о Чацком"
Было приемлемо и в данном случае не вызвано метрической необходимостью.
First of all, we are talking about poetry, and in Russian poetry this kind of slight modification can be made just because ...
- 37.8k
7
votes
Accepted
What does "всякий взор" mean in this context? Is it a phrase?
It is a scanning mistake, the word is:
Вздор
Но останавливаться на лестнице, слушать всякий вздор про всю эту
обыденную дребедень...
Just use other sources of the text.
- 3,022
6
votes
How to understand «стал было во главе обороны»?
"Started but not finished" is the closest option.
The next sentence says Тщетные усилия! (All in vain / Wasted effort).
So, стал было во главе обороны means that he did become the head of city's ...
- 321
6
votes
Is "Трудно быть богом?" (as in the title of the book) a valid question in written or formal Russian?
In (written) Russian, any statement can be turned to question by adding the question mark. So, Трудно быть богом? is a correct question. Трудно быть богом. is a statement. In book names, the period ...
- 8,522
6
votes
Accepted
What word and case is `одною` in the phrase "помещалась одною лестницей ниже"?
Whenever you are looking for a declension of specific word, start from wiktionary and switch to the Russian-language section, in the majority of cases there'll be a table with declensions.
"Один&...
- 37.8k
5
votes
How were these expressed in the original Russian of Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We"?
The used word is "стопудово". It consists of "сто" (hundred) and "пуд" (a unit of weight which is about 16 kg). It sounds strange in this context. I would understand it as "very slowly and heavily". ...
- 4,289
5
votes
Accepted
Дать кому денег до среды (From Двенадцать стульев). What does that mean?
Знакомые не занимают ему денег до среды (his acquaintances don't lend him money "till Wednesday "(even for a short period of time)
When you ask someone to lend you some money, you usually promise to ...
- 21.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Wordplay between Кузьмич and со всех сторон
Actually, there is no joke there, on the contrary, it is supposed to be a highly serious and patriotic passage. It goes like this:
Prince Vassily was telling how Sergey Kuzmich, the governor of St. ...
- 25.9k
4
votes
Accepted
about Pushkin's Дружба : how to read it
безде́лья, as the rhyming scheme suggests. The pattern is iambic tetrameter. Caesurae aren't integral to Russian syllabotonic verse; other than the one after дружба, they're largely a matter of ...
- 19.2k
4
votes
Is "Трудно быть богом?" (as in the title of the book) a valid question in written or formal Russian?
This form can be a question only if it is followed by an explicit question mark: "Трудно быть богом?"
Otherwise, it is hardly perceived as a question, since the more usual form would include a ...
- 181
4
votes
Accepted
"И после ей наедине // Давать уроки в тишине!"
Имеются ли в виду уроки "науки страсти нежной"
Определенно, той самой, "которую воспел Назон", причем во всех смыслах.
или же Онегин смеётся над любовью девушек, научая их чему-то вместо свидания?
...
- 15.2k
4
votes
Accepted
How to understand «стал было во главе обороны»?
This construct is a relic of old Slavic pluperfect tense.
кто-то делал / сделал было что-то is usually followed by some kind of a "but", and means "someone had been doing / had done ...
- 50.2k
4
votes
Дать кому денег до среды (From Двенадцать стульев). What does that mean?
...мы удивляемся, как ни один предприимчивый издатель не выпустил до сих пор в свет "Самоучителя одесского языка" на пользу приезжим.
Без знания одесского языка тут вас ждёт масса ...
- 291
3
votes
How were these expressed in the original Russian of Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We"?
No, there is no symbolism in I and U (Russian Ю), at least not in the sense you interpreted them: they cannot be read as Russian personal pronouns. For the record, the Russian personal pronouns are: I=...
- 15.8k
3
votes
"И после ей наедине // Давать уроки в тишине!"
Полагаю, что автор намеренно допускает двойственность.
Понятно, что (так как Евгений учился "чему-нибудь и как-нибудь" и обширными научными знаниями похвастать, вероятно, не мог) "науку страсти ...
3
votes
Accepted
Pushkin's shortest poem's meaning
According to this source Митрополия is a palace of митрополит (a head of church province) which also has a church:
Митрополия - резиденция митрополита с церковью при ней.
In the document linked ...
- 11.3k
3
votes
Russian classic literature with stress markings
You should look for books labeled "Russian for foreigners" (Русский язык для иностранцев). They are available for sale quite cheaply, for instance, at litres.ru. Not all of them have stresses marked, ...
3
votes
Accepted
Дружба by Pushkin
I found no traces of легкий (slight) there.
Yes, apparently it was omitted for the rhyme. It should be "slight hangover's faction" meaning apparently slight conflict between the friends the day ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Does one use (still) / did one really used once гангрена (проклятая)! as curse word, as it appears in Двенадцать стульев?
"Гангрена" is almost never used. It seems that Ilf (Feinsielberg) & Petrov (Kataev) have chosen quite rare idioms to make their texts really expressive.
Yet mentioned above "холера" is used ...
- 15.2k
2
votes
about Pushkin's Дружба : how to read it
Considering metrics, here Pushkin uses 4-iambus as he usually did (actually, he nearly always sticked to 4-iambus or 4-trochee). So at his home field he's absolutely brilliant.
The main scheme is ...
- 15.2k
2
votes
Does one use (still) / did one really used once гангрена (проклятая)! as curse word, as it appears in Двенадцать стульев?
sorry cannot comment yet.
1st you have to remember this is a comedy from 1920th;
2nd keep in mind the censorship and PC speech in Soviet Russia when it was written.
Russia is big. And keep in mind,...
- 149
2
votes
Wordplay between Кузьмич and со всех сторон
Mechanical repetition of a word or a part of a phrase is one of Tolstoy's personal tropes. Also in War and Peace, you have Pierre's dream about сопрягать; in Дьявол, there are the words фосфориты ...
- 19.2k
2
votes
Дать кому денег до среды (From Двенадцать стульев). What does that mean?
Could it be that around the time the novel was written Wednesday was a common employees' payday until which people would usually borrow money, just like today they do so until monthly wage payday?
...
- 19.6k
2
votes
How were these expressed in the original Russian of Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We"?
I think, no translation errors here. Both irrational numbers and imaginary numbers exist, in Russian it is "иррациональные числа" (the word "иррациональный" is borrowed, it is "irratsionalnyj" in ...
- 1,940
2
votes
Accepted
How were these expressed in the original Russian of Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We"?
The word used is стопудово, it's a adverb from a phrase сто пудов - a hundredpuds. For the time it could have well been a neologism (as those were the days of revolutionary innovations in the language)...
- 19.6k
2
votes
Is "Трудно быть богом?" (as in the title of the book) a valid question in written or formal Russian?
First, Трудно быть богом is a statement, not a question unless finalized with a question mark.
As for your question - this form is quite acceptable but a bit informal. If used in scientific articles ...
- 2,242
2
votes
What does "всякий взор" mean in this context? Is it a phrase?
As to the other part of your question, there is nothing complicated in this line:
Всякий взор к добру стремится, нет достоинства во зле
Rough translation:
Every look turns towards the good, there ...
- 15.8k
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