Endnotes
-
Rather acute “spoiler alert” in this particular author’s note we were signalled—(transcribers’ note). ↩
-
St. Petersburg. ↩
-
Pisarev (1840–68), a revolutionary writer and a precursor of Nihilism. ↩
-
A kind of rice pudding eaten at funerals in Russia. ↩
-
Zhamochki, an apparently invented word, meaning something particularly nice to eat. ↩
-
A musical instrument. ↩
-
This is an exaggeration of a Russian charm used against witchcraft. The word chure implies, “Hence! away!” and is addressed to the evil spirits. The whole charm is a jargon practically untranslatable. ↩
-
Piatachek means a “five kopek piece” and also a “pig’s snout.” Routilov puns on the word. ↩
-
Durman, the thorn apple or datura, a very poisonous plant. The Russians have a verb “durmanised,” meaning bewitched or stupefied by the durman. ↩
-
Zakouska, savoury salt eatables, rather like hors d’oeuvres, eaten with vodka. ↩
-
A journal of revolutionary tendencies, suppressed in 1881. ↩
-
A card game. ↩
-
Great Polish poet (1798–1855) who “is held to have been the greatest Slavonic poet with the exception of Pushkin.” ↩
-
Sarafan, national peasant-woman’s costume. ↩
-
This rhyming fellow is not such a rare specimen as may seem to the English reader. The tendency to speak in rhymes is rather common among Russian peasants. The rayeshnik is an interesting native institution. He usually improvises rhymes at gatherings and entertainments in open places, especially at carnivals and fairs. There is also the balagani d’yed (the tent grandfather), who appears in a tent in a long white beard of flax, and makes jests in rhymes. It is an institution that is gradually disappearing. ↩
-
Alexander Herzen’s periodical, the Kolokol (The Bell), was suppressed in 1863 for its sympathy with the Poles. ↩
-
Dvoryanin actually means a nobleman, but certain professions—that of a schoolmaster, for instance—entitle a man to the rank of dvoryanin. We have used the English word “gentleman,” to avoid confusing the reader. ↩
-
Madame Shteven gave all her energy to the education of peasants, but her efforts were ultimately curtailed by the authorities. ↩
-
Very inferior bread used during the famine. ↩
-
Nedotikomka, an invention of the author. The word means “the touch-me-not-creature.” It is presumably an elemental, a symbol of the evil of the world. Sologub begins one of his poems—
“The grey Nedotikomka
Wriggles and turns, round and round me. …” -
This expression implies a house of ill-fame. ↩
-
Simon Yakovlevitch Nadson (1862–86), a poet of considerable merit, who was popular in spite of his monotony and melancholy. ↩
-
This word in Russian is poloskatsya and is a pun on laskatsya, which is to caress. ↩
-
The original word is chastushka, which is a town song put to the tune of an old folksong. This is a recent development of town life in Russia. ↩
-
Bossiak is literally “barefoot,” a vagabond. The bossiak has become quite a marked type in Russia since Gorky took to writing of him. The bossiak is often referred to in a satiric way in modern Russian literature. ↩
-
Liutiki, a sort of buttercup. The word liuti means “cruel, ferocious, violent,” which gives the point of Peredonov’s reflection. ↩
-
Doosheet means “to scent” and also “to suffocate.” ↩
-
There is a pun here. The phrase ti zhelayesh means, “You like, you want it.” When split into three words, ti zhe layesh, it means, “You do bark.” ↩
-
Rosotchki means “little roses” and also “rods” and “strokes from a rod.” ↩
-
A quotation from Griboyedov’s The Misfortune of Being Too Clever. ↩
-
Koukish, a clenched fist with the thumb thrust between the first and second fingers. This gesture is a great insult in Russia. To make it is as much as to say, “A fig for you!” ↩
-
A Russian popular dance. ↩
-
Sosna means “pine” and so sna “from sleep.” Peredonov puns on it. ↩
-
Variation on the pun. “Sonya” is another form of “Sofya.” ↩
-
Lapti, rough shoes worn by the peasants. ↩
-
Russians eat dried sunflower seeds as Americans eat peanuts. ↩
-
Roubaska generally means “shirt,” but also is used to express the “back” of a card. Hence Routilov’s pun. ↩
-
Diminutive of dourak—fool. A Russian card game. ↩
-
Crowns are held over the bride and bridegroom at Russian weddings in church. ↩
-
There is a popular Russian tale about a priest who had a very old dog. It begins, “The priest had a dog …” ↩
-
Krilov’s fable is of a returned traveller who tells his friend at home about a cucumber he saw at Rome as large as a mountain. The incredulous friend tells him about one of the home wonders—a bridge which tumbles every liar who attempts to cross it into the river. The traveller gradually reduces the size of the cucumber, but even then he finally suggests that they find a place where they might ford the stream. ↩
-
A double meaning is implied in Peredonov’s use of the word, as the word patchkatsya means to soil oneself. ↩
-
A musical instrument. ↩
-
Masquerade. This word is used in Russia to mean either a ball or a bath, owing to the fact that clothes are taken off on both occasions. ↩
-
Referring to the fact that a besom is used in Russian and Turkish baths. ↩
-
Tarakan is Russian for blackbeetle. ↩