THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE In Preparation BY THE SAME AUTHOR RUSSIAN POETS AND POEMS FROM THE START TO THE PRESENT DAY THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE BY MADAME N. JARINTZOV WITH AN INTRODUCTION DISCUSSING THE PROBLEMS OF PRONUNCIATION AND TRANSLITERATION AND A PREFACE BY NEVILL FORBES Reader in Russian in the University of Oxford NEW YORK MITCHELL KENNERLEY 1916 PRF. cr:o VAT!ON COPY ADDED ORIGINAL TO BE RETAINED N* 2 2 1993 TO MY FRIEND EDWARD STANHOPE KITCHIN, PH.D. TO WHOSE KEEN INTEREST IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MY MOTHER-TONGUE THIS LITTLE WORK IS INDEBTED FOR ITS APPEARANCE PREFACE THE appearance of this volume at the present moment is so apposite that any prefatory or explanatory remarks are really superfluous, all the more so that the authoress is already known in this country by her excellent writings on Russia which have appeared in the course of the last few years. It has, however, been suggested that something may be usefully said as to some purposes which, amongst others, this book may serve. In the first place, it is something really new, being an exposition of Russian psychology illustrated by examples of the Russian language. One often hears said by those who have read translations of Russian works, or books written in English about Russia, that they do not yet understand Russian psychology. To that it may be answered that it is very difficult to understand Russian psychology without knowing, at any rate, some- thing of the Russian language. Translations of Russian books are sometimes inexact, and books about Russia are sometimes one-sided. The fact that this book on Russia, Russian, and Russians is written by a Russian in English endows it with the authority of an original, and saves it from the tedium and incorrections of a translation. The authoress has lived long enough in England to know what is both interesting and unintelligible to English readers, and has lived long enough out of Russia to be able to look at her country and countrymen objectively and to appreciate fully the value and beauty of her own language ; at the same vi PREFACE time she is still able to write sufficiently subjec- tively to be inspiriting, and sufficiently broad- mindedly to be convincing. In this way, with the aid of the numerous quotations from such authors as Gogol, Dostoyevski, and others more modern, the book will appeal to those who are interested in Kussian literature and psychology, but have no time or inclination to study the language ; written in an engaging and conversational style, it brings certain interesting and illuminating aspects of the Russian character and language to them in their armchairs, as it were. In the second place, the book will be directly useful to the rapidly increasing number of people in this country who are actually studying the Russian language. The many aptly chosen lin- guistic examples and their explanations and inter- pretations which illustrate the book go a long way towards providing a Russian syntax very attrac- tively disguised, and will help to impress certain remarkable characteristics of the Russian lan- guage on the minds of students more effectively and pleasantly than the arid pages of grammars and textbooks are wont to do. Although differing somewhat radically from the authoress in certain points amongst others, of pronunciation and the vexed problem of trans- literation (and therefore it may be hoped not to be suspected of collusion) the writer has no hesitation in saying that for serious students of the Russian language, literature, and psychology, the present work, being, as it is, a sort of concentrated essence of Russia, is equal in value to half a dozen of the large books on that country which have latterly been so plentifully showered upon us. NEVILL FORBES. INTRODUCTION DISCUSSING THE PROBLEMS OF PRONUNCIATION AND TRANSLITERATION EDUCATED English people seem to be interested nowa- days in Russian literature. Happily, there exist some translations which convey the general meaning of the originals very well indeed like those by Mrs. Edward Garnett and a few others. But even they could not possibly transfer the atmosphere of the Russian speech, its beautiful subtlety, or its extreme analytical power. These have no equivalents in modern English (nor in other modern languages, but my little study partly con- cerns the comparison between the Russian and the English speech only). Hence the gaps in the best of translations; and hence the appearance of these pages, the aim of which is to show that those who want to understand the Russian national character and to grasp the beauty of Russian literature, should try and learn the original Russian speech. Let not the difficulty of pro- nunciation stop anyone. Firstly, we are not so particular on a foreigner's pronunciation as a Cockney or an English labourer are on the ' exact ' pronunciation of English ! I hope those who have visited Russia have had the opportunity to notice that we are capable of ' catching a word on its flight,' as we say. Secondly, it is chiefly not the sounds themselves, but that logical flexibility of our vii viii THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE language which we would love to introduce to all the world but cannot, for the lack of a medium. Much of the following in the main part of this book will startle a casual reader as bad English but this is just the point: there exists no good English for many a conception which I want to convey from the Russian ! The only way I can suggest is for the reader to try and detach his mind from the usual modern English and to try and penetrate with it into the attitude of the Slavonic mind. This may be worth while trying for those who really want to investigate this mental attitude; because the mechanism of thinking, the process of thought itself, reflects of course the nature of a nationality just as much as its politics and customs do. And a patient reader will, perhaps, get an additional glimpse into the national Russian mind through seeing the possibilities which are open to the Russian speech. What is discussed in this book beyond the preface is not included in Russian grammar- and text-books. The complexity of our syntax is naturally such a matter of course to us, that the branching off of its nuances strikes one only when one is confronted with the task of ex- plaining them to a foreigner. If it were not for my wonderful English friend to whom this book is duly and gratefully dedicated, and who has a regular 'flair' for tracing the beauties of every language and takes a rare interest in it, I should never have been struck by all the subtlety of the Russian one, notwithstanding all my love for it. It is only thanks to our studies with him and to his knowledge of the philosophy of the old and modern languages, that the pearls of the Russian one rose for me from its sapphire deep. I hope that perhaps some of the Russian subconscious mind will reveal itself in each of these little pearls to the eyes of my English reader and will make him see that INTRODUCTION ix learning our language in the original is worth the energy it requires; especially for those who are really interested in the Russian land itself: for I must repeat that this little work is not a formidable theoretical essay in com- parative philology, but a sketch of the Russian national psychology as reflected in the language. But I hope it will also be helpful as a character-sketch of the language itself to all those who have already begun studying it and may even arouse some interest in the minds of those who have not yet considered this some- what exciting occupation. Meanwhile, the Preface itself is meant only for those to whom the idea of learning Russian is no more strange ; and all that follows in it should not be considered as generally readable material, but only as an offer of some help to the actual students. The only way for an English person to really grasp the quaint, characteristic beauty of the Russian literature is to study the language in the original. But not through grammars and text-books only: they suffice to frighten anyone away ! These booklets with the pronunciation authoritatively fixed by their non-Russian authors x drive even a Russian crazy: what can, then, be expected from the unfortunate English ' self-scholar ' ! There are enormous difficulties in conveying the exact Russian sounds by means of the Western (Romance) characters, and I cannot help making a big point of it. The nature of the two alphabets coming from different sources 2 is reflected respectively in the two spheres of sound so different, that the two languages (English and Russian) cannot be said to have a common denomina- tor. Therefore the transliteration is rather like investi- 1 Like, for instance, C. A. Thimm and J. Marshall's Russian Self-taught. 2 The Russian alphabet comes from the Greek, via Old Slavonic. x THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE gating the laws for prime numbers, subject of which is full of pitfalls for the unwary. These insurpassable difficulties account for the fact that there exist no two persons one of them Russian and another English knowing the two languages equally well who would entirely agree on the details of trans- literating Russian into English (or the other way round). I think that only practical, careful oral instruction given by genuine Russians can start the English ear and pro- nunciation on the right road. There are a few excep- tions amongst non-Russian people, of course, who can do it almost reproachlessly and they should be admired ! Meanwhile, this little work is not meant to be anything like a text-book, but one interesting for a general reader though more or less philologically inclined; therefore I prefer not to squeeze our Russian words into the exclu- sively English spelling more than it can be helped: all vowels in my Russian verbal illustrations are represented by the Italian vowels, and not by the exclusively English ones. Also, with the consonants, s always sounds an original ss (as in sun, but never otherwise); again, z always sounds as in zeal, and never as in azure, and is never represented by an s; the / stands for the French sound in je (instead of replacing it by the zh)\ and h also stands for its sound alone, instead of using the clumsy and unfair kh / I do so with the instinctive Russian habit of putting one letter for one sound (as we always do in our alphabet) whenever possible instead of increasing the genuine number of letters in the Russian words. When talking about the Russian language, English people always exclaim: ' Oh, those awful endless words !' But the fact is that they are made longer in appearance by applying the English spelling, which does not contain a sufficient number of single letters for various sounds. INTRODUCTION xi Ask some genuine Kussian to tell you slowly and dis- tinctly the Russian words for: soap, dust, soap-bubble, a far way, to be in exile, height (the poetical form of the word), cod-liver oil, to climb, to howl, the decrease, a white forehead, my dear (beginning with the letter M), to wash, ripple, dismal life, wrath, etc. 1 He will find it utterly impossible to write them down for you in English letters, whilst you will find it equally impossible to pro- nounce these words after him on the spur of the moment unless Russian was the first language you heard round your cradle, or unless you have spent many, many years in Russia, or have a philological genius innate in you (which is not often the case: personally, I have found only one scholar-specialist of the last de- scription in the course of many years of residence in England). The cause lies in the close succession of very hard con- sonants and very dark vowels, with consonants so soft and vowels so light that almost no Western ear or tongue seems to be able to master it without energetic practice. Particularly unconquerable appears to be the hard, in- describable vowel which is vainly represented in English by i, and y, and w, and a, and what not ! It is pro- nounced approximately as i in bit, only much deeper and darker. Next in difficulty come the soft t, r and /, and especially whole words consisting exclusively of soft con- sonants and light vowels 2 : 'ep'er'=now, =to take, ri'ed ) el'a=a, week, zcTes'=here, st ) ep= steppe, rubdv'love, os'=ax, 'mf&=people 5 2'ecA'=a leek, pr^el > est'=de\ight, c?'en'^=money, (to sing) p'ef ; Tenepb (now) t'ep'er : JHOJJH (people) Vud'i : C'fecTb (to sit down) s'est\ etc. Here I want to point out that the Russian vowels dis- tinctly fall into two groups, each dark vowel having a corresponding light one: and a e or El H or i o | y | being the dark ones; being their correspond- e ing light ones. Well, everyone of the second set affects the preceding consonant, rendering it soft and itself mostly turning into its corresponding dark variety. Thus, if you pronounce the Russian word for ' name ' HMH but go on voicing its last sound you will find that it is an a ; but it has done its bit, having turned the hard M into a soft one (while, if you call out in that same way MEMB, you will notice that the M has remained hard. The same thing happens in numberless cases, such as: O^TBIH, T^TKecTL, T/WIO, 3/bJio, c/bJTb, B'fcc'L, MCJTL, ejiKa, nect, 6jiaro#ap70, c/o^a etc. The turning into the corresponding dark vowel does not so frequently take place in the case of e, and never with the H or i. But their effect on the preceding consonant remains just the same, so that, for instance, -the letter 1 Many Russian words contain this variety of a light e. There is no difference whatever in the sound between the two. Grammatical rules command the choice between 1> and e in the spelling of terminations, but a great number of words contain a -fe in their stem, and in these cases can be learned only through practice. A witty remark runs, that ^ exists in order to distinguish educated people from illiterate ones ! xvi THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE T in TH (thou), ty, sounds hard, but in THXO (gently) t'iho, it is palatalized by the H which is the light sister of the dark H. Or, the Ji in Jiyna (moon) is still harder and deeper than a good Scotch I, while in JHO^H (people) Pudi, or in JiK)6jiK) (I love) Fu&Tu, it sounds, as it were, on the opposite side of the medium Romance I which can be taken as the central one in the little scale: ji L Jib (Russian) (Romance) (Russian). Everyone who can master these three shades of I, voicing them on the same continuous note and just alter- ing the position of his tongue (from pressing its point to his teeth only to pressing the whole of it close to the roof of his mouth), is sure to master the Russian pronunciation straight away ! . . . Well, perhaps another little practice is equally efficient as a test : namely, a parallel to the above scale : BHTB Bit EHTL (Russian (English) (Russian for manners of life) for beaten) Only, Russian proceeds in this case to a still further degree of softness and winds up this scale by 6umb (b'tf). The next exercise would be to repeat the two following Russian words with the English one between them as a stepping-stone : JIorL Lot Jlert (Russian (English) (Russian for half-ounce.) for flight) Really, you can start quite bravely, if your ear and tongue will master these two hardest tests ! Now we can INTRODUCTION xvii proceed with the soft sign, and mention the third way in which it can be applied. 3. When a soft sign following a consonant is in its turn followed by a vowel. It is only the vowels of the light set that can follow it at all. Now, these light vowels, ivhen standing at the be- ginning of a word, or when preceded by another vowel, by hard sign or by soft sign, have the sound of an English y running into them. Thus, in ejib (pine tree), "the Russian e sounds as in yes ; the same in ?KapKoe (roast meat of any kind) jarkoye ; in BHHMame (attention) vnimaniye ; in oS^eflH- Heme (the uniting) obyed'in'eniye ; in Bapente (jam) varenye. But, when preceded by a consonant, that same letter e has no y -sound running into it at all, nor has the r fe. Thus RTEJIB (chalk) m'el, or in TBJIO (flesh) felo, or in TGHJIO (warm) t'epld, or in H'BTL (no) n'et it palatalizes the con- sonants M, T, and H respectively (itself turning into its corresponding hard- vowel-sound 9), but without getting the y-sound, with which it does begin under circum- stances just mentioned above. Exactly the same rules refer to the rest of the light vowels: thus, JOHOCTB (the time of youth), or MOIO (mine, in fern, accusat.), or nbio (I drink), sound: yitnosC, moyu, pyu ; but TiojibnaHt (tulip) has none of the ?/-sound in it which it has in English and the letter K) only does its business in ren- dering the T soft. So it does in piOMKa (wine-glass), in #K)?KHHa (dozen), etc. Only the H, amongst the light vowels, makes a slight exception: there are only three words beginning with it in which it has the ?/-sound to start it with; these are the genitive, dative, and ablative cases of the Russian word for < they' = OHH: HXT (of them), HMT> (to them), and HMH (by them), yih, yim, yimi. In all the rest of the Russian words beginning with an H the latter (against the nature of other light vowels) has no y-part in it: b xviii THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE iirojiKa (needle) igolka ; HBa (willow) iva ; HATH (to go) idt'i', etc. All this only leads us to my eventual aim namely, the role of the soft sign when standing between a con- sonant and a soft vowel: ceMbfl (family), CGMBH (families), cojiOBbii (nightingales), ruiaTbe (dress). It is the joined effect of this little trio that causes the last vowel to assume its y-sound again, although there is a consonant before it. In other words, when the soft sign stands between a consonant and a vowel, the comma at the top corner of that consonant is not sufficient as it would not convey the idea of the ?/-sound running into the vowel; and this effect, caused by the presence of the soft sign, should be represented in transliteration by the English y, distinctly pronounced as a y too. Thus, words like the examples just given above should be spelt semya, semyi, solovyl, platye, etc. ' This has been always done ! ' I hear the attentive scholar exclaim. Yes but my point goes further. This also has been always done where there is no soft sign after the consonant and therefore no ?/-sound in the Russian word at all and that is wherein the mistake lies, because it makes all the difference between genuine Russian pronunciation and a substitute for it. Russian words having no b between their consonants and light vowels (and therefore no ?/-sound), like 6aHfl, SanouiKa, HJIM, Mope, JHOAH, TeSi and so forth, are always trans- literated as banya, batyushka, ilyi, morye, tyebye, and so forth. I can't help calling this entirely wrong whether introduced by English or by Russian authors ! It either indicates a lack of good hearing, or else, merely the desire to save trouble. I am too keen in my desire to help the English students to learn good Russian, and therefore must draw their attention to this point, which is overlooked in all text-books I know. This INTRODUCTION xix omission gives no chance whatever to distinguish the two different sounds in the Russian original: on the one hand, the presence of a y-sound caused by the presence of a soft sign, and on the other entire absence of a y- sound where there is no soft sign. However difficult it seems at first to an English ear and tongue to catch this difference, it soon becomes clear (from good oral instruc- tion) ; because the mere grouping of a softened consonant with a light vowel (with no soft sign in between) repre- sents an absolutely close succession of the two, shoulder to shoulder, as it were, without any y-sound link between them. Therefore the above-quoted examples (copied from dictionaries and text-books) ought not to be spelt as they are i.e., in a wrong way but: ban a, bdt'ushka, ili, mdr'e, V ud'i, t'eb'e, and so forth. Most unfortunately, the y has been given the task to represent the darkest of all vowels H as well as H besides being the only means to interpret the effect of the soft sign. But this is not my fault, and I cannot invent an absolutely new letter to stand symbolically for that peculiarly Slavonic sound. For the same reasons no manner of transliterating the terminations HH, He, HH can be consistent. Perhaps it will be of some use if I give here the Russian alphabet as it will be transliterated in this book, and as its sounds can be possibly conveyed to the ear of my reader in the above-explained ways. Only, I shall not strictly keep to its original order. I can see no help in, and no necessity for doing so whatsoever; while a certain grouping of the characters may turn out to be helpful in memorizing them. But just a few lines, first, about that wilful little imp in the Russian language the stress, the accentuating of one certain syllable in every word. There is no vestige of a rule or uniformity about it ! It falls, Qn anv xx THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE part of the word it will choose. There are not more than a score of words in which the stress is not strictly attached to one certain syllable and even then it is mostly the difference between the beautiful pure speech of the north and centre of Russia, and its horribly corrupt variety of the far south, round the shores of the Black Sea. (I do not mean the independent dialect of Little Russia, Ukrayna; the latter is altogether as different from Russian as Polish is.) The stress may fall on the stem of a word, or on its prefix, or even on the termination : zv uki= sounds; dfcwH= reflected sounds ; mctto=a, little; mcdovdto= rather too little! vodd^ water; vddy=wa,tQTs: > mor'e=sea; mor'a=seas. So it flutters about in its own obstinate manner, like a butterfly without leaving the foreigner much chance to catch it on the ground of any theories; what is more, we possess no nets to offer him for the purpose ! But once he has got hold of the stress in a certain word he must hold it fast; because you may slide over any syllables in speaking Russian except those with the stress falling on them: they stand out high above the rest, and our national dislike for monotony is distinctly reflected in this characteristic feature of our speech. One of the worst defects in the Russian as spoken by the foreigners is, that they don't put weight enough on the accentuated syllables ; whilst it is so natural and so essen- tial for us to do so, that I know cases when babies, in beginning to speak, started a somewhat extraordinary language of their own: they picked out just those syllables from the grown-up people's speech, which had the accent on them ! Now, the Russian language has not as many one-syllable words in it as the English by far less; so it was for several months that these babies' monologues could not be understood by anyone except their mothers. Nevertheless, all these difficulties can be conquered by INTRODUCTION xxi English people who have a will to learn, a little capacity, and some genuine Russian person to guide them. But a really well-speaking Englishman who has lived in the centre or north of Russia is a better teacher than a Russian from the far south and, especially, better than a Russian Jew. I must be fair to my sub- ject and say that even amongst the well-educated, in- tellectual Jews in Russia there are very few who speak without a specific accent of their own guttural and nasal which is decidedly absent from the clear, open Russian speech. They speak Russian much worse than they speak English. The Armenians, too, can be detected by their first phrase spoken in Russian: their manner is to put broad, heavy stresses on each syllable, unheedful of any soft and light sounds, and turning them all into a kind of good- natured, deep barking ! The Finns produce a chain of short, dry, colourless syllables, as if chopping meat and giving, somehow , the impression as if the Russian were littered with millions of tt-a and pp-s ! As it can be seen, all these accents rob the genuine Russian speech of one of its characteristic ingredients: the extreme delicacy of sound ; the melting softness. The Poles have an accent of their own, of course. The softness and delicacy do not baffle them (except, some- times, with the palatalized r). But they take our hard I and turn it into the sound of a w (as it sounds with their language). By the way, I know a Polish girl in England who has no accent whatever (although she speaks with half-closed lips, unlike the Russians) and who gives excellent in- structions in Russian; well, she tells me that she almost begins her teaching each time by insisting that her pupil should grasp the difference (discussed above) between the xxii THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE sound of the soft consonants simply followed by light vowels, and the cases when there is a soft sign between the two. Keeping all this in mind, an English student will soon find out that the ' barbaric brute of a language ' is not unsurmountable after all ! And I am glad to repeat that English, or rather British, people take the lead amongst all Europeans in the capacity of learning it. A few introductory lines to our o, because this is the letter that gets affected by the stress falling on it. When there is no stress on it, the o is mostly pronounced as an a: Xopoino (all right, very well) sounds harasho; B0#a (water) vada; or6m> (fire) agon\ etc. But we think of it as an o all the same, which corresponds in English to the thinking of the presence of a g at the end of present participles: without the speaker's thinking about the g being there, the ' coming ' would turn into ' comin',' ' writing ' into ' writin',' etc. Therefore, in transliterat- ing Russian words, I prefer to keep the o wherever it is spelt in Russian. When the stress does fall on it, the o sounds particu- larly distinct and pointed (there is never any admixture of the sounds h or w to a Russian o); when the stress falls elsewhere (maybe on another o in the same word), then the unaccentuated o is pronounced quickly and lightly, leaving the whole weight of the word, as usual, with the accentuated syllable. Thus, the above-mentioned xo- pomo carries the whole weight with the last o: the first two o's can be run over entirely, if you are talking quickly ! whilst in words like onacno (dangerously) or yjKacno (dreadfully), the last o is chequed at its very start. This rule is quite easy to follow. Now for the alphabet: INTRODUCTION XXlll Dark vowels : a, 3, LI, o, y. Russian Characters. Repre- sented by Sounding A a 3 a a e As in Italian. Cami (sledges) sani. As in Italian ; or as in English in end. BTO (this) eto; noaMa (poem) LI y poema. As i in bit, but much deeper and darker. There are no words be- ginning with it. Mbi (we) my; Bbi (you) vy; CbiHt (son) syn. As in Italian or as in English in on. y y u OCH (wasps), osy; 66a (both), oba. As in Italian. Yum (ears) ushi; nyrb (way) put\ Corresponding light vowels : H, e or "B, H or i, e or e, 10. ft fl E e or ya Or a Or ie As in English in yard, when the y- sound is present in the Russian word, fl (I) ya; flflpo (shell) yadro; MOH (mine, femin.), moya; ceMBH (family) semya. When the ?/-sound is absent. (seed) sent* a; BpeMfl (time) vr'ertfa; BOJIH (will) vol'a. As in English in yes, when the y- sound is present. EJIB (pine tree) yeT ; GCTB (is) yesf ; 'fecTb (to eat) yes? ; HTO Tanoe? (what?) chto takoyel oSteAHHeme (the uniting) obyedin'eniye; Bapenbe (jam) var'e- nye; Cffejit (ate it up) syel; xoponiee (nice sing, neut.) horo- sheye. When the English y has already just been used to represent the preced- ing bi. XpaSpbie (brave in plur.) hrabryie; MMJIBIG (dear in plur.) milyie. xxiv THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Russian Characters. Repre- sented by Sounding Or e As in Italian, when the ?/-sound is absent. Tenjio (it is warm) t'eplo; Tenepb (now) tfep'er'; TBJIO (body, flesh) t do ; fl-fijio (business, deed) d'elo; irEMeirt (a German) n'em'etz; eecejio (gaily) v'es'elo. M H i As in Italian. Hs6a (hut) izba. and The i stands in Russian only be- I i fore the vowels, but sounds exactly like H. Mojinifl (lightning) mol- niya', AHFJIIH (England) Angliya. E e yo As in English in yoke, when the y- and sound is present. EjiKa (Christ- e mas tree) yolka\ Moe (mine in sing, neut.), moyo. Or o When the ?/-sound is absent. Be- cejiLiH (gay in sing, masc.), ves'oly ; A Jienia (shortened : Alexey) AVosJia. This sound has the stress falling on it always ; therefore the in it sounds clear and brisk. K) K) yu As the English word you, when the y- sound is present. K)jia (spin-top) yula; lOjiin (Julia) Yuliya-, noio (I sing) poyu\ MOK) (mine in fern. accus.) moyu; MOIO (I wash) moyu. OTU When the ?/-sound is absent. JIio^n (people) Vudi ; JiK)6oBb (love) Vubov ; JJJOEJIK) (I love) VuWu. & y As in English in boy, represents an independent vowel. There are no words beginning with it. Eon (battle) boy ; JOMOH ! (home!) domoy ! Diphthongs iii and Liii are usual terminations with the adjectives (in masc. sing, nomin.). Being too complex for detailed transliteration they should be represented by i and y respec- tively. HaHKOBCKift, Chaykovski ; TajiaHTJiHBHii (talented) talantlivy; jnoSuMLiH (beloved) Vubimy. INTRODUCTION XXV Consonants hard and soft (palatalized) : 6, B, T, A, JK, 3, K, JI, M, H, H, p, C, T, (serf) rob-, SLTTL (man- ner of life) byt. V Soft: Pa6b (ripple) r'afc'; 6-EJiuii (white) Vdy\ 6bio (I am beating) byu. B B V As in English. 3oBt (call) zov. ' Soft: EpOBb (eyebrow) brov' ; B-tTKa (branch) v'etka ; COJIOBLH (night- ingales) solovy'i. T r 9 l As in English in good. Fofl-B (year) god. A A d As in English. ^OIVTB (the home, house) dom; pa^i, (glad in masc.) rad. d> Soft: Jloinajjb (horse) loshad" ; flO?Kflb (rain) cZo^'; a^Jio (busi- ness, deed) d*elo. >K 7K As in French (the Russian ear di- vides the English j into d and ;'). /Kena (wife) jena ; POH^BCTBO (Christmas) Rojdestvo. 3 3 Z As in English in zeo/. Bos-b (cart) voz ; s^pacTByfiTe ! (a greeting at any time of day or night) zdrast- vuyfe ! z' Soft: Bposb (apart) vroz 9 ; se-irenb (the green) z'eVeri; 3HTb (son-in- law) z'aC; siflTb (to gape) ziyaf \ s'eMJifl (land, earth) z'emVa? 1 I am not dealing with the variety of this sound, because it is simply a bad southern pronunciation. The only word in which a kind of a soft r is universally adopted is FocnoflH (O Lord !), and then it sounds between a g and an h voiced as it does in a few adjectives when followed by K; therefore the usual way of transliterating it by a kh is quite wrong, coarse, and ugly. 2 Unrecognizable in the * Nova Zembla.' xxvi THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Russian Repre- Characters. j sented by Sounding K K k As in English. RjnoHt (key) kVuch. JI ji I \ Much deeper than the Western I. JIoJKKa (spoon) loj ka ; aajTL (gave in masc.) dot ; 30Jn> (angry) zol; coJiHbniiKO (the dear sun) solnyshko. Soft, like in elusive, but still more melted: ^ajib (a far distance) daT; cojib (salt) sol'; Jiefli, (ice) I'od; JIIOAHLIH (alive through the presence of many people) I'udny; najibio (I shall pour out) nalyu. M M | m As in English. MHJIO (soap) mylo. Soft: MHJIHM (dear)w'%; CM^Tb (to dare) sm'et' ; epeMH (time) vr'em'a; ceMbfl (family) s'emya. H H ' n As in English. Om> (he) on. n Like the Italian gn, but sounding quite short at the end of the words. Soft: Konb (steed) kon'; ITEMOH (dumbjn'ewoi/; COHH (short- ened name for Sofya), Son a; RO CBHftaHbfl (au revoir) do svidanya. 11 n ! p As in English. OKOITL (trench) okop; nyxi> (down) puh. p Soft: Tonb (swamp) top 9 ; Tenepb (now) t'ep'er'; xpana (in snoring), hrap'a; xjionbH (fluffs), hlopya. P p r As in Scotch, rolling it; short. Cbip-b (cheese) syr; pa66Ta (work) rabota. r Soft: also with a momentary rolling. Kopb (measles) kor'; Mope (sea) mor'e; B3M6pbe (strand) vzmorye. G c s As in JEnglish in sun. Cbim> (son) syn; cnacnSo (thank you) spasibo. Soft : GiiJia (strength) sila ; cijnb (he sat down) s'el; c-L-BJit (he ate up) syel. 1 1 Just in a few cases the hard sign t is inserted in the middle of the word; then it acts on the following vowel as the soft sign does, i.e., adding to it the ?/-sound (without palatalizing the preceding consonant but this is too subtle a difference for a non-Russian ear!)."" INTRODUCTION XXVI I Russian Characters. Repre- sented by fSounding T T (D $ X x ^ ^ ts or tz ch in in m slich .D Oiy As the English double tt. TOTL (that one) tot; noTomb (deluge) potop. Soft: XoTb (although) ho? ; THXO (gently) t'iho; naTe ! (take this !) naCe ! njiaTbe (dress) platye. As in English. Oynrb (pound) funt. As in English in home. Chehov (name of the author); xaTa (hut) Jiata. As in English. L(apb (Tsar) Tsar ; LJapCTBO (Tsardom) Tsarstvo; (the Germans) N'emtzy; (aim) tzeT; npnujiji'L (range, in shooting) pritzel. As in English in church. (man, human being) chelov'ek. As in English in shock. HlanKa (hat, cap) shapka; niJinna (lady's hat) shl'dpa; Kama (all sorts of porridge) kasha. As in English in Ashchurch. HjH (name of a national soup) shchi; poma (a small wood) roshcha; 6opm'L (a name of another national soup) borshch. Soft sign: its influence being repre- sented by a comma at the top corner of the palatalized con- sonant. Mbicjib (thought) mysF. When it stands between a consonant and a vowel, thus producing the effect of a ?/-sound between them. KptiJibH (wings) krijlya. Hard sign, omitted in transliterating, except where it stands in the middle of a word, inserting a ?/-sound; CMHCJTL (sense) smysl\ nojrb'fes^'B (front porch) podyezd; Bi/kxaTb (to drive into) vyehat\ xxviii THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Amongst the Russian words chosen here as examples, there are some of the most difficult ones with regard to pronunciation; keeping other considerations as main reasons in selecting the examples, I nevertheless included some difficult words quite consciously. Firstly, in order that my reader couldn't suspect me in veiling over still harder obstacles from his view with the purpose of luring him on to a treacherous road ! And secondly, because the whole of this Preface is intended only for those who have already started learning Russian: to them it may, perhaps, serve as a little compass. I must add, though, that / don't for a moment consider this particular scheme of transliteration as finally solving the problem. I shall always consider it insolvable, because oral instruction is the only means which can give an idea of the difference between the two spheres of sounds, English and Russian. In the case of those foreigners whose Russian is ' self- taught ' it is almost unrecognizable ! Common de- nominators are too scanty ! Instead of wondering at the Russian words in their Romance disguise much better come and investigate them in their genuine aspect and meaning. But the reader who is interested exclusively in the Russians themselves, as reflected in the spirit of their language, should begin with the book itself leaving the ' terrible stuff ' of my Preface alone ! Because, above all, it is not the Russian sounds themselves that I would mainly like to convey to the English public through this little work, but the channels along which the Russian mind works whether I am talking about the subconsciously created single words, or about whole works by Russian authors. I am glad to avail myself of the opportunity and to welcome the two books by Mr. Nevill Forbes: Russian Grammar and First Russian Book. They show a wonderful INTRODUCTION xxix command of our language ! Obviously, the author feels perfectly at home in the midst of its subtlety and com- plexity; this is a delight to a Russian reader who is bored and tormented by all the other textbooks written in English about our Mother-tongue. And just because I do think of Mr. Forbes's works so highly (especially of the First Russian Book), I cannot omit one point about them which does not satisfy a Russian. It is this point that really has made me write all the preceding pages about our sounds as these are created and pronounced by Russian people who cherish their national treasure; because it surprises me that Mr. Nevill Forbes, knowing the structure and spirit of our language so brilliantly, should still repeat some items invented by foreigners items which really hurt a Russian eye and ear. His main mistake is that absence of difference in the transliteration of those Russian vowels that have the y -sound running into them, and those that have not got it. I shall not repeat the whole business over again. Those who care, can look it up above (pp. 18, 19). The second mistake consists in the advice to use the English sound w in order to pronounce our hard Ji. I also mentioned this before: there is no w-sound in the genuine Russian language; it happens only as a Polonism. And the third mistake is using the English letters /, t, a, /c, s, p and * for transliterating the Russian B, fl, o, r, 3, 6 and i (=v, d, o, g, z, b and e). In doing so, Mr. Forbes allows no difference between the sounds of these different letters in npafft and (Jjapjia^, roch> and KOWL, Jiecfa> and nojiewb, Majia and Majio, Jiyzi, and Jiy/n>, 60 at and 6o*n>, pa3i> and pact, Jiofrt and KJICWB, B/bdb and eumb, etc. I can but repeat that it is all right for a Russian to put a shade of obit': it means to give an extra vigorous beating; w/bit' means to fight someone to the effect of driving him out of his position, and therefore is also (quite logi- cally) applied to knocking and beating moths out of old furs or blankets. But rabbit' has an opposite meaning: it is a verb applied to filling a pipe with tobacco, or stuffing one's head with nonsense. A quaint transformation happens to the word stol : it means table, but in the ancient days prob- ably meant stool as well, because, with the addi- tion of one little nuance prestol it turns into a ' throne ' : this particular syllable conveying here the idea of ' What a table ! Such a table ! A super-table !' Again '^.vrat 9 means to tell lies vigorously (Igat* stands for doing the same moderately); pnvrat' means just to add a dose of fiction to cold truth with the longing for effect, maybe ! Again, trus means coward ; and tiMsovat means not quite a coward, but one who does not like to expose him- self to ' unnecessary unpleasantness.' 32 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE The syllable na often adds to a verb a nuance of great gentleness : thus, the verb ' to press '- with na preceding the root means that sort of pressure which a doctor would put into his fingers when examining the aching body of an invalid; (jat\ najat'). ' To sing/ with that same adjoining syllable, means to sing as gently as one sings a lullaby, or to hum unconsciously while working (p'ef , wap'evat'). The verb ' to feel ' (slichu- pat') with one's fingers is quite a different one with us from the verb conveying the idea of feeling with one's heart (chuvstvcvat')} well, the syllable na added to the first one, meaning to feel with one's fingers, makes a verb which is now used in the description of searchlights moving in the dark (nashchupaf). ... On other occasions the syl- lable na adds a decisive touch to the action: Zvat 9 = to call someone; ra&zvat'=to call someone a certain name. Brat' =to take; ra&brat' =to take a lot of something. L'et'et' =to fly; wal'et'et' = to fly against something, etc. What transformations various syllables of nu- ances can do when preceding the same verb can be seen from the column below : the top word consists of the one-syllable root only; each of the following ones has a different nuance joining on to it which changes the meaning of that one-syllable root thus: THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 33 To become To come into being To get up To get tired To stop To stick to To find (some- one) in Stat*. Or: Mzstat'. Fstat'. Efstat'. Perestat'. Pn'stat'. Zastat'. To give To sell To publish To distribute To pass on To give a task To deal (cards, or to pass ex- aminations) To add To envelop suddenly Davctf. Prpdavat'. /zdavat'. JRazdavat'. Peredavat'. Sdavat'. Pn'davat'. O&davat'. Or, here is one of the cases of a transformation of a noun; the root of this particular one meaning ' go ' in any manner except on foot. $yezd A conference in general. Also the time when people have begun to assemble for a certain meeting. Razyezd The time when people are dispersing after some meeting. Podyezd The front porch (the place which one drives up to). Fyezd A drive leading into some place. Also the moment of the arrival of some prominent person or party. Priyezd The arrival of ordinary mortals ! Fyiezd A drive leading out, or the moment of departure both on ordinary and special occasions. 06yezd A drive round a place, or ' being on a round of - Proyezd A drive through a place. N'et 'pro- yezda /=No thoroughfare ! 34 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Nayezdy (plur.) Casual visits from time to time. The char- The one syllable that makes the verb ' to be' andflexi- (but') is transformed by different preceding syl- biiity of : y ' J * y the verb lables of nuances into : to be.' To be By?. To stay at or in Probyt'. To get rid of Sbyi'. To do one's part of Ozbyt'. To decrease To fall out (of the ranks, of a list) To arrive Pnbyt'. To forget Zabyt'. The example, by the way, is^the case when a whole English expression is necessary to convey the meaning of the two-syllable word for each conception. But this is not often the case. We could not write stories of one-syllable words like those written for little children in English. The last transformation of the verb t r > be is very quaint: the syllable of nuance za which does it, means, originally, behind, or beyond. Therefore, to forget really means in Kussian ' to be beyond being.' ... A certain termination turns it into forgetfulness (zabyvchivosf), and another into unconsciousness (zabytye). This is rather fine, I think. Corresponding with this, the Russian for ' faint ' (obmorok) carries the ancient idea of being made a fool by means of witchcraft. Some unique points about the verb to be in THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 35 Russian are worth mentioning. For one thing it is never, never used in the ordinary way i.e., in the present tense as it is in all other European languages. We never say, ' I am ill,' ' we are here/ 'you are kind,' ' the children are in the house,' 'they are in the garden,' 'he is in town,' etc. The verb is omitted entirely. ' How do you say, then, " I am " ? ' the English people ask me. But we don't find any need to say ' I am ' ! Not just by itself. When we want to say, ' I am hungry,' ' I am glad,' ' I am here,' ' I am at home,' etc., we simply say, ' I hungry,' ' I glad,' ' I here,' ' I at home ' ; the special short termination of the adjective expresses in itself a state of the object, and stands as a predicate, whilst a long termination expresses only a quality. It is only when a special emphasis is needed that ' is ' is used but only ' is ' in the third person singular never in any of the others: 'There is money in my purse,' 'there is time to do it,' ' there is a chance of winning the war, ' etc. It is also used in questions : ' Is there time to do it ?' ' Is there a chance of winning the war V But even here this third person singular (is=yest') is applied to convey exclusively the idea of posses- sion : I have time=w men' a yest' mem' a. This is done because the verb ' to have ' is hardly ever used either, as the idea of something or other being there replaces in Russian the idea of possession. 36 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE We don't use the verbs to have or to be as auxiliary verbs, either, because we need no auxili- aries, having no complex tenses (except one, for the Imperfective future). Thus the verb byt' (to be) is altogether in a very unique position ; it is not at all needed in the ordin- ary way; but its importance comes in where it is non-existent in other languages: namely, it is rich in suggestion, and certain definitions are derived from it which are exclusively Kussian. For in- stance, there is the verbal noun byloye which stands for ' things which really happened long ago.' There is a touch of poetry in it, of thoughtful reminiscences. Or here is another definition (a pure noun) byl\ which is used in direct opposition to fiction. To some one's query, ( Is this a fib ?' you answer, ' No ! it is byl' \'=N 9 &t, byl' ! It is a thing which really has been, has taken place. The future tense in the Old Slavonic of this verb is bud'e ; well, quaintly enough, added to the beginning of a phrase it means ' in case if ' ; whilst the past tense, bylo, added to the end of the same phrase, means ' was about to.' Or here is still another noun from the same verb : the byt. (The only difference in the spelling of this word, from the same three letters representing the infinitive, consists in the letter t being hard instead of soft.) We use this noun to define, en masse, the manners of life, the code of existence THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 37 of any class of people. We say the byt of pro- vincial actors, the byt of courtiers, the byt of a farmer, of a peasant, of students, of the soldiers in the trenches the general routine of their life, as it were. This definition leads, in its turn, to the adjective bytovoy, which is applied to char- acter roles, to character sketches, to national features. Again, the future is called, in Russian, budushcheye, an adjective participle of the verb to be. Thus the latter is interwoven in the Russian speech closely enough, but in quite a different way to the purely grammatical and even the auxiliary one in which it runs through the Western languages. Or here are a few columns of words built round the same root, as it were, through the addition of various terminations and different syllables c nuances. They make some remarkable series of mations 01 conceptions, all of them threaded together quite logically : Spirit, breath Duh. 1 (Root: duh or doh.) Ghosts Duhi. Perfumes Duhi. Air Vozduh. Closeness (of air) Duhota. Soul Dusha. Waft Dunoveriiye. Rest Otdyh. To rest Otdyhat'. Fragrance Dushistost'. Unanimity Yedinodushiye. 1 The substitute in this root of an o or a y for the u in some of the words makes no difference, being commanded by sound only. 38 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Generosity Velikodiishiye. Simplicity of mind Prostodushiye. Good nature Dobrodushiye. Clergy Duhovenstvo. Sigh Vzdoh. Darling Dushechka. Last will Duhovnaya. Oven Duhovaya. Ventilator Otdushina. There is a verb belonging to this set of deriva- tions which is applied to the dying of animals izdyhdt' or izdohnut'. It conveys the idea of a very solitary, painful death, just 'letting out breath/ and is applied to human death only in the way of a curse. (There is yet another definition for the animals' dying, but it has nothing to do with our present case.) The translators never know what to do with this izdohnut'. Sometimes they put e choking ' for it, which is not very far from it grammatically, but gives none of its rudeness. In one of Gor'ki's passages, the whole power of the gloomy situation is lost, as the author uses two verbs of the same root. ... It occurs in the bitter reminiscences of a Volga-burlak, who is telling of his youth, when he was towing heavily- laden, huge barges up the current of the river, month in and month out: ' One suddenly tumbles down with one's face buried in the sand. . . . Even this comes as a relief. . . . The strength has whizzed out, and only two things remain possible at all: either otdyhat or izdyhat. . . .' Glancing at the column above, my reader will see the differ- THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 39 ence which the little syllable ot makes in this case, and will realize the bitterness of the Russian sen- tence which means that the only alternative to resting would be dying like a homeless beast. Here are some other examples of what I would call ' logical twisting ' : Truth Rule Right Correctness Administration Management Government Crossing (of a river) Justice Inquiry Training Correction Direction Jurisprudence Orthodoxy To lead To wind up Belt (of an engine) Factory Code (of laws) Fishing-net Company (of a battalion) Translation Cart Formation (in army) Mode (in music) Slimness Building Arrangement Mood Piano-tuner Pravda. (Root: prav.) Pravilo. Pravo. Pravil'nost'. Pravleniye. Upravleniye. Pravitel'stvo. Pereprava. Sprav'edrivost'. Spravka. Vypravka. Popravka. Napravleniye. Pravovedeniye. Pravoslaviye. Vodit'. (Root: vod.) Zavodit'. Privod. Zavod. Svod (zakonov). Nevod. Vzvod. Perevod. Podv6da. Stroy. (Root: stroy.) Stroy. Stroynost'. Postroyka, Stroyeniye. Ustroystvo. Nastroyeniye. Nastroyshchik. I hope it is also clear from these groups of words that they are quite different from casual likeness, 40 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE such as in cab and cabbage, or pen and penguin, or pot and potato, etc. In English, a parallel to the logically-threaded sets of Kussian nouns would be, for instance : Pedal. Point. Pedlar. Or Appointment. Expedition. Disappointment. Some interesting examples like these do exist, but not so many and not so rich as in Kussian, because the syllables of nuances in English are considerably fewer in themselves, and, what is more, not applicable to so many nouns and verbs, 1 while the eloquent terminations are quite absent. Altogether, we could not do without a choice of terminations. They make a world of difference. We like a word to obey the minutest vibration of our thought. This flexibility is quite different to the English manner of stringing different nouns like beads on a string as in: War Office Harvest Women; or, Lake Asphalt Pavement Company; Red Cross Subscription List, etc., etc. The power For instance, different terminations added to of term- inations, the root which means ' old ' give the noun, at your desire, any of the following meanings : 1 For instance, in the second of the groups given above only three of the English definitions, correctness, correction, and direction (one could add director), are derived from the root rect, the equivalent to which in Russian prav goes for build- ing up a much greater variety of conceptions. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 41 The times of yore Starina. Old age Starost'. Old man Starik. A fine old man Staretz. A dear old man Starichok. A miserable, shrivelled, haggard, little old man Starikashka. A nasty, disgusting, little old man Starichishka. Rubbish Stary6. Or, similar metamorphoses happen as most ordinary things to the words ' boy ' and ' girl/ which, like nearly all Eussian nouns, are beauti- fully soft wax under the powerful chisel of the language : Boy (derivation from the adjective ' small ' (maly) Mal'chik. A rough boy Mal'chishka. A nice, regular boyish boy Mal'chngan. A dear little boy Mal'chonka, Mal'chugashka, Mal'chuganchik, Mal'chinka. A little girl D'evochka. A nice little girl D'evchdnochka. A young girl D'evushka. A rude, nasty girl D'evchonka. An unmarried lady D'evitza. A spinster, a virgin D'eva. A wench D'evka. Or: Son Syn. Young son Synok. Dear little son Synochek. Nice great big son Synishche. Or: Daughter Doch', Dochka. Dear young daughter Doch'en'ka, Dochurka. 42 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE The root which means small and rests with all the ' boys' words ' (mal) changes its one vowel (mol) to serve the formation of the word youth, and of other conceptions akin to it. Molodost* means youth. Molod'etz is the heartiest homely word of praise for both sexes, at all times and on all occasions. It is distinctly national, and used in all classes of the population. It conveys the idea that the person has achieved, as it were, all that youth can achieve. It is often translated as ' brick,' but this word has not a breath of the heroic folk-lore about it which the Russian has. One of the prettiest sayings imbued with the old Russian heroic spirit, both in sound and mean- ing, translated literally runs thus : ' The past must not be thrown as a reproach at a molodetz.' This is conveyed in Russian by the four words: ' ByV molodtzu ne ukbr' The definition of byl' has already been given (page 36) as ' things which happened long ago ' ; the remaining nouns also belong to the Old Russian, and the whole phrase is buoyantly alive with intense dislike of hurling reproach at a young fellow for the wild oats of his past, now that he is really a molod'etz ! There is one more popular word coming from the same nucleus, which is constantly applied in Russia: it is molod'oj, a noun used only in the singular a general definition of the younger genera- tion, but never applied otherwise than in a nice THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 43 sense. Here is an expression from a recent news- paper article which describes, in a few words, the masses of the younger generation ' just behind the lines ' : 'All this molod'oj, with lovable, bright faces, longing to breathe, to work and to love. . . .' # # # # # A new word has now entered into the vistas of A new the Russian language. Politically and historic- the Qer- ally, the Germans are called in Russian Germantzy. Yet there has always existed another name for them which has absolutely acquired ' all social rights,' and has been very widely used even in official nomenclature: this name is N'emtzy (in plural). Absolutely independent of any ethno- logical or philological sources, this word must have come solely from its own root, which means dumb, and nothing else but dumb n'emoy. In the olden days the Germans must have been thus christened by a simple Slavonic population to whom they were just as good as dumb. (There exists an idea, though, that the name of the river N'eman has helped to foster it.) This theory is backed up by another, which states that the definition of the Germans as of ' dumb ' people came as a natural contrast to the definition Slavs = Slav' an' e, the root of the latter being derived from slovo=woid. But now, when a mass of Germans have risen as an obstinate power of greater importance than ever before, the instinctive wit of the soldat'ik 44 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE (soldier) has promptly accommodated itself to trie demands of the moment: the official word for a German, Germartetz, is taken, its last syllable is altered in a way never before known, and a new definition is ready ! Its nuance is absolutely dis- tinct, and makes everyone smile who knows the riches of the language: the name is germanchuk. As can be easily seen, the biggest part of it fully acknowledges the German birthright, so to speak. But that ending chuk well ! I wish it were pos- sible to interpret the seeming elegance of the word, the humour of its condescension ! But there existed, even before now, a special twist to the word n'emetz, which distinctly con- veyed an attitude of neglect: it sounds n'emchura. It is a word that needs pulling up one's upper lip in order to pronounce it in its intended tone: it alludes to ' those Germans !' whose greatest power does not surpass making sausages. ... It is very likely, therefore, that this shape of the word is not used any more now, unless it has acquired a nuance of hatred. A new The word soldat'ik itself was not used at the time reading of an old when regiments were ordered to shoot at revolu- word. tionary crowds, and when soldiers were, therefore, regarded with bitter reproach and painful astonish- ment. No ! The creative power of the language gives an absolutely different aspect to the soldier as a man, as compared to the soldier as a weapon THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 45 in the hands of a reactionary government, simply through applying to him now this slightly altered name, which has lost all its Western flavour, although coming from ' soldat.' The quiet hero, the soldat'ik, now no more made unnaturally brutal, has his name on everyone's lips and in everyone's heart throughout the vast land while he is fighting the n'emetz, who, according to a mockingly-respectful saying, has invented the monkey ! ***** It may be of interest, perhaps, to say a few words T . h ^ s about the manner in which the Eussians address th <>d of address. each other. Many times I have heard English people say that it seems as if we had ever so many names, and that one could not make out in the translations who was who, for each person was addressed in at least three different ways. The explanation can be made quite easy by a parallel. Suppose English people had, like our- selves, only one name given to them in baptism; and added to it the father's name which in former times was of the nature of a genitive and placed after that the surname, the result would be, for an English brother and sister: Kichard Edwardovich Hodgkin and Dorothy Edwardovna Hodgkina. Well, they would still retain their personalities if they were called Dick and Dora by those who addressed them with a ' thou,' or Richard 46 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Edwardovich and Dorothy Edwardovna in the customary social manner of all classes, or simply Hodgkin or Hodgkina in the third person. In the same way, the Kussian APosha, or Alexey Feo- dorovich, or Karamazov, all stand for the same person in Dostoyevski's great novel. And so it is always. If people have titles you call them: Prince Nikolay Vasilyevich, or Count Pavel Petro- vich, or Princess Ol'ga Alexeyevna, or whatever they are. Old servants, without waiting for any permission, often address their masters as: Barin (master) Vladimir Sergeyevich, or bat'ushka (father) Sergey Vladlmirovich, or baryn'a (mistress) Ol'ga Ivanovna, or matushka (mother) Vera Vasilyevna, or whatever their case may be. On attaining, with the growth of love or friend- ship, the intimate state of addressing each other with a ' thou ' in the place of ' you,' we drop the full Christian name and father's name, and call people by their shortened names, which, it is true, have no end of varieties. The richness in the numerous shades of meaning which the choice of terminations adds to the language is brilliantly illustrated by these various shortened names. You only have to select this or that ending from all those which a certain shortened name possesses, and your feelings, your attitude at the given moment towards the addressed person is sun-clear ! Thus, if you usually call a boy (whose Christian THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 47 name in full is Dmitri) Mit'usha, Mit'ushka, Mlt'ik, Mit'en'ka, Mit'unchik, Mit'un'a (or something else in that line, all of it conveying much love and ' caressiveness ' through the mere forms of the endings, while simply Mit'a is indifferent) and then he suddenly hears you calling him Mit'ka, he knows that something is wrong ! Mit'ka, as well as Kol'ka, Van'ka, Sashka, etc. (instead of the corresponding affectionate forms Kol'usha, Vanichka, Sashurka, etc.), carry in themselves your vexation, even anger, without any further explanation. Only one certain very Russian in- tonation of the voice gives them a humorously- tolerant aspect : between country boys this aspect is very popular, and the touch of rudeness disappears from those brisk endings; but, when given to girls' names (Natashka, Mashka, Matr'oshka), they in- variably convey disrespect. The peasants' various forms of addressing altogether present a feast of colours ! But when we are first introduced to each other, and commence to talk, we immediately ask each other, ' What is your name ?' and, on learning the Christian name and father's name, we proceed to address each other by them. It takes away the formality of Mister and Madame So-and-So which we dislike (gospod'in, gospojd), and which we use only in business or at formal introductions (very often employing for it the French ' monsieur ' and 48 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE ' madame '). The essentially Kussian manner is uni- versally employed as the most sociable one; there- fore the name is often given in full at the first intro- duction, e.g., Nikolay Petrovich Kolosov, or Elena Nikolay evna Kolosova. A homely, respectful way of addressing each other amongst the peasants is to use the father's name only: Petrovich, or Stepa- novna, or Alexeich, or whatever the case may be. Peter the Great used to call his statesmen in this super-homely way ; but all the Tsars' rescripts, whether bringing to the man favour or disgrace, always begin with an address in the universal way: ' Much esteemed Nikolay Ivanovich,' or 6 Ivan Nikolay evich,' or whatever the man's name may be. ***** We are quite unable to appreciate the English expressions of intimacy : ( Lucky dog ! You lucky devil! Dear old duck!' We can hardly discern any sign of friendliness in them. Not because they are slang : some English slang is magnificently expressive, and we regard it with amused admira- tion; but our sense of humour fails us here, and we should look upon these forms of address as very impolite in fact, quite offensive ! Our favourite birds, whose names make very poetic Old Eussian terms of admiration and friend- liness, are less placid and useful than a duck. They are the * steel- winged eagle,' ' falcon-bright ' and THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 49 pigeon. The last has entirely lost its connection with the idea of a pigeon, but it still remains the most popular and national term of sociability in Kussia. (Pigeon is golub'; and this favourite term is golubchik.) I am purposely calling it a term An ordin- of sociability because that is where its main char- sociability, acter lies. It is not by a long way a term of en- dearment used exclusively by lovers. It comes into any lively conversation, and is used by, and for, man or woman, prince or beggar; what is more, it enters our everyday speech not only as a kindly form of address, but also as a humorous one or one of sympathetic condescension. It is seldom translated correctly, simply because it has so many shades, and because it needs all those numerous intonations with which the Eussian speech is per- meated. Sweetheart or pigeon, which are mostly used in translations as its equivalent in English, are both of them far too sentimental. The gravest statesman, discussing and arguing over most serious matters, will now and again put in the ' golubchik,' unless the discussion is very formal. Drivers will encouragingly call out, * Hey, vy (you) golubchiki!' to their horses, when starting them on a quick, long run. A nice, simple old woman will address every gentleman in a respect- fully-familiar way as ' golubchik barin ' practically equivalent to ' darling sir ' even if he has merely stopped her to inquire his way. A devoted old 4 50 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE servant, as a matter of course, calls her master or mistress golubchik-barin or golubushka-baryn'a. A fair-minded official, when hurriedly dismissing a petitioner whose request he could not grant, would say: ' Well, golubchik, what is to be done ? Such is the law !' It is also very often used in a friendly reproof : 1 But, golubchik !' What is more, it is used without hesitation even in unusual circumstances: when Dmitri Karama- zov is being cross-examined, the old colonel of the police, who does not believe that he has killed his father, addresses him with the golubchik in the very midst of the official inquiry. It is an essentially Eussian word. Misunder- The way of addressing people as father, brother, terms of and even mother, is another very Kussian feature. It is high time to explain that the famous ' Little father ' does not mean ' little ' father at all ! The Old Kussian word for father, bdt'ushka, does not suggest an atom cf the tone in which ' little father,' or the German Vaterchen, is pronounced. This way of translating it is sickly- sentimental ! No, bat'ushka is used either in a grave, deferential way and that is how it came first to be applied in the olden days to the Princes and later to the Tsars, and is still the habitual form of addressing the priests; or else it is used in a very argumentative tone, essentially Russian, called up in quick discussion, which one THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 51 never hears in English society, and therefore is hardly explicable : it carries some familiarity, some respect, some rebuke, some humour, some surprise very often all of them at the same time ! For instance, the simple-minded small land- owner Korobochka (' little box ') in Gogol's Dead fcouls, admitting the hero into her cottage on a wretched, stormy night, and seeing him smothered with mud the result of his having been just over- turned with his vehicle in a ploughed field asks him, a perfect stranger to her: ' But where didst thou be-filth thyself like a boar, bat'ushka ?' When the investigation lawyer most artfully sounds Raskol'nikov (Crime and Punishment) throughout his Machiavellian diatribe, he con- stantly addresses him as bat'ushka, or golubchik, although he is sure of his listener's guilt from the commencement. ' Mother ' is used in a similar manner, with a similar twist to the word matushka ; and, what is very quaint indeed, men sometimes use it in address- ing each other, when the tone of the argument gets somewhat hot : ' Well, matushka, that's a bit of that!' which stands for, 'Well, sir, that's a bit far-fetched !' But here I should add that it would be altogether impossible to converse in Russian, using so few forms of address as are used by the English. On coming to live here, we sometimes, feel quite awk- 52 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE ward in being spoken to as if we were nonentities, without any names or personalities. With us, the usual form of address is the one just discussed above (see p. 43), or a shortened Christian name in one of its numerous shapes, or golubchik, or brother, or father, in one of their previous applica- tions something or other is always there, be- sprinkling the speech, so that you feel sure that it is you whom the speaker keeps in his mind and not the general public. ' Ladies and gentlemen ' is used on occasions similar to those in English; only literally it runs ' gracious sovereigns and gracious sovereignesses '- which sounds still more quaint in English than it does in Eussian. It is that same word, sovereign Gosudar' which is a homely-loyal manner of speaking of and to the Tsars, a very ancient word, too, coming from the times when a prince would be regarded as the chief of his land, just as every man was the chief of his household. Therefore, the old expression Gosudar'-bat'ushka (sovereign- father) would be applied in the olden days equally to a monarch as to a master of any house, convey- ing an equal amount of respect and of homeliness. Nowadays, of course, it has lost its popularity with the Tsars as well as with ordinary mortals, the equipoise having become less balanced in both cases: the Tsars being now less accessible than the ancient princes, and the modern householder THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 53 less lord of all he surveys than his ancient proto- type. But ' gracious sovereigns ' (mllostivyie gosudari i mllostivyia gosudaryni) still is the proper customary official way of addressing a society of men and women, though only at the com- mencement of a meeting. When the meeting is in full swing, or unofficial, the speaker addresses * able Rus- it with ' q svoda /' This is a word which formerly sian form of address. was only a plural form of ' master,' but now in- cludes anyone in any company. It means ' gentry,' as used by domestic servants about their masters; but it is also the most natural and sociable manner of addressing a company of one's equals, without which we could not live in Kussia one single day (unless one was a hermit). With us the conversa- tion is usually a general one, shared by most persons in the room, and one constantly addresses a whole group of people. The only time when one must not address them as ' gospoda ' is when all around you are officially of a much higher rank than yourself, which is rather a contrast to the handling of the same word by servants. But if you regard your audience as ordinary mortals like yourself, you cannot avoid this form of address. Thus, even Dmitri Karamazov, facing the authori- ties who came to arrest him at his orgy (suspecting him of the murder of his father), adds to every few words of his : ' Come, gospoda, it is a terrible accu- 54 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE sation. . . . What a pity, gospoda !' because lie speaks sincerely, and the usual way of address- ing these people as equals comes naturally to him. ' Gospoda ' is not exactly ' gentlemen,' because students of both sexes, school children, ladies, girls, are all addressed as gospoda in speaking. Al'osha Karamazov uses it even when speaking to small school boys. A girl stretcher-bearer carry- ing in on her shoulders still another wounded soldier into an already over-filled dressing-station, will call out to the doctors: 'Gospoda, gospoda, one more; we must make room for him !' But the wounded men would feel more at home with her if she addressed them as ' bratzy. 9 This word is translated usually in that same sentimental manner as ( little brothers.' I cannot help putting it in this way, because these English expressions (little father, little brothers, little mother) sup- posed to be equivalent to the Kussian expressions really make us turn up our noses ! There is no littleness whatever about bat'ushka, bratzy, or matushka. Big boys do not address their little brothers as bratzy in a patronizing way; on the contrary, it is the small, business-like boys, who will address older fellows as bratzy, when talking in the grave way the Kussian mujlk has about him Another from the age of six or seven. By the way, one of mos t striking contrasts between the English THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 55 and the Russian peasant children is this: an English boy seems to me to try and be as funny and rowdy as possible from the age of six up to sixteen, whereas his little Russian confrere of seven or eight presents quite a different picture: he puts on his grandfather's top-boots and old, huge fur gloves, his own sheepskin tulupchik, and walks for days on end at the side of a sledge-load of wood, leading the horse between the house and the forest his sole ambition being to express all the dignity of labour in his mien and gait. Bratzy, applied by the nurses and officers talking to their men, conveys sociable apprecia- tion. All peasants and workmen address their crowds as bratzy (which is nice and simple) and not bratya (which is biblical and puritan unless it stands for real brother). There is warmth, caress, and respectful comradeship in the expres- sion bratzy. Mrs. Constance Garnett translates bratzy as boys, fellows, or gentlemen. This is better than ' little ' brothers. It should be made clear that there is no vestige of belittling in these Russian nouns of affinity, despite their seemingly diminutive terminations. The 'little father,' 'little mother,' and 'little brothers ' ought to be banished from the English translations by fire and sword ! They are un- bearably sentimental. There are no parallel forms in English to the Russian shades of these 56 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE nouns, so let them, at least, remain simply ' father ' and ' brothers.' As it is, all the varieties of the words son, daughter, and even children, remain necessarily untranslatable. You cannot say anything differ- ent in English except adding to them that old, monotonous epithet ' little, 5 while in Eussian there is a variety of terminations meaning neither this adjective nor ' brat ' nor ' kid.' For instance, symshche means a big, nice syn (son), with a touch of humour in it; while synlshka is exclusively Russian caressive. There is a selection of varieties for words for < c hildren': fftj (the plain, original form of the word), d'etki, d'etishki, d'etochki, and d'etvora, the last being a very appreciative collective definition, implying the idea of the little folks with all their own interests included as it were a parallel to molod'oj (see p. 42). Not that we object to ' kids ' or ' brats.' The Eussian slang applied to children is equally unique, only we use it with more condescending humour, I think. We call them ' bubbles,' or by a special humorously-caressive word, ' karapuz ', which means a round, solid, comically-grave little figure. ' Bubble ' puzi/r' is also very pretty, conveying much love, and should not be translated as e kid.' I think English readers would appreciate the parallel of a nice, full-cheeked fatty to a bright soap bubble. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIIi LANGUAGE 57 It would be only fair to say a few words about* rich- the Russian expression n'ichevo, which has acquired much misleading fame abroad. This is about the only Russian word which is widely known and it is misunderstood. It is always quoted with a smile, as it means ' never mind, this is nothing !' and is supposed to be the main characteristic of a nonchalant people. But one should thoroughly know the Russians to estimate this expression of theirs fairly. True, with us it is ' n'ichevo ' when people walk into the room without knocking; or come without invitation at any time for the simple reason that they wish to see you; or men don't walk on the outside of the pavement (which they have never been told to do), or get up from their seats and pace the room up and down, in the heat of a discussion during the course of a meal; all this is certainly 'n'ichevo,' because these points are but trifles to a Russian mind, and the Westerner may smile with disgust or condescension at the thought of such manners ! It is certainly ' n'ichevo ' for a young girl of good family and the best education to go about with one or many male friends wherever she wants to because no one hurries to suspect immorality hidden by social interests, nor to build up a scaffolding of inevitable matrimony around them. It is a universally adopted custom result- ing from a sensible, interesting, natural, and useful 58 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE equality of the sexes. With the French and Eng- lish this is rather far from ' n'ichevo !' and they smile, unless they are actually shocked. But one should be far from smiling at a Eussian man who says seriously and whole-heartedly, ' n'ichevo !' as he marries a girl with a tragic past who is left with a child. Nor is it improper when a young lady utters a sincere, gentle, encouraging n'ichevo !' whilst doing unpleasant work in assist- ing a shy and helpless man whom she sees, perhaps, for the first time in her life. Nor is a ' n'ichevo ' funny when uttered with a smile by a solddt'iJc, who is creeping towards the dressing- station wounded in his shoulder, side, and leg. There are indeed very different occasions on which the Russians will say ' n'ichevo.' True, again, a Russian will fly down a long, steep hill in his sledge, cart, or brougham, and will say ' n'ichevo !' if the vehicle happens to go into the ditch at the bottom of the hill. But in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred it would not do so, because rushing down a hill is a universally beloved thing, to which generations of horses have been used since the time when the Russian land first ' began to be.' And if a driver did not rise in his seat, and let all the reins loose, and shout words of love and encouragement to them, at the sight of a steep road downwards, the horses would think that something had gone unmistakably wrong. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 59 There is, amongst many others, one certain A very J Russian series of nouns, which have all of them grown out word for affection. of the same root. However quaint it may look at the first glance, we can easily find that they are threaded together by the idea lurking in that root. The latter is rod, which means kin, kind. The other nouns are: nature, relationship, people, har- vest, birth, homeland, Christmas (priroda, rodstvo, narod, urojay, rojdeniye, rodina, rojdestvo). Amongst the numerous adjectives which, in their turn, have grown out of these nouns, there is one which I cannot omit. It is impossible to speak of the Eussian language without mentioning the word rodnoy. Mr. Eothay Reynolds, in his book, My Russian Year, says that he found the Russian language one to make love in; and an American, who has stayed in Russia during sixteen months of the war, wrote the other day that the Russians ' love to love.' This is very true but, please, in- clude all rays of love ! All her numerous, wonder- ful rays ! And then you will understand, perhaps, why the most caressive and beautiful of all Russian love-words is derived from that root. You call rodnoy your beloved one (only mind the gender !) ; you call rodndya your mother, and your land (which is feminine); you apply the same adjective to your really beloved friends ; you say that a song is rodndya to you, and then it means that it brings home to you everything that makes your heart beat warmly; whilst to a South-Russian ' a pond, 60 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE a cherry-garden, and a windmill/ on the face of the step' make a rodnaya picture. A poor peasant woman, with large tears standing in her eyes as she hands a pot of milk to the wounded in a passing train, calls them rodnyie under her breath, for each of them is as much rodnoy to her heart as the one boy who is righting somewhere far, far away. The nearest to it in English is ' kindred,' but it is not used in the same homely way for expressing the warmth of the purest love and tenderness. ***** The order I must point out yet another important feature of words. of the Russian language. In English it IP neces- sary to keep the nouns in their exact places, in order not to confuse the object with the subject. ' The English beat the Germans,' is one thing, whilst ' the Germans beat the English ' would be quite another ! Now, in Russian we purposely group the words in various orders because each order usually gives a different shade to the tone. We are free to avail ourselves of this richness of choice because we can leave the primary distinction between object and subject to the obvious indi- cation of the inflections (one of the nominative, the other of the accusative case). Thus the most enthusiastic phrase to be repeated one day all over Russia, I hope, may be ' Beat the Germans the English !' using the past tense of the exclusively Russian perfective aspect of an infinitive. In English this sounds rather alarming. Yet THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 61 it is the result merely of the lack of inflection (in this case of an accusative for ' the Germans '), and of the trespass on the formal arrangement of words. We can also say ' the English beat the Germans,' of course, but this sounds only formal. For the same reason, another order in wording would sound in English absurd, but does not in Russian, because exact terminations in declension make all the difference: ' The Germans the English beat; Wilhelm the Allies exiled; the Americans the truth showed.' This, if put in the required cases (nomin, and accus.) would mean in Russian a very intensively expressed state of things for which we all of us wish. Again, we can easily say it in the other way : ' The English beat the Germans, the Allies exiled Wilhelm, and the Americans were shown the truth.' But that would not sound nearly so victorious. 1 The optional way of placing the verbs at the beginning of the sentence makes a great difference to the graphic power of a phrase ; it raises it several degrees higher. Our writers do it constantly, as we do it in ordinary speech as a matter of course, without any preconceived idea of being at all flowery. The music of the Russian speech is as free as a composer when he arranges his little black 1 Here are the two varieties of the phrase : N'emtzev Angli- chan'e pobili ; Vilhelma soyuzn'iki izgnal'i; Am'erikantzam pravdu pokazal'i. Or (the same meaning but far less vic- torious): Anglichan'e pobil'i N'emtzev; soyuzn'iki izgnal'i Vilhelma; pokazal'i pravdu Am'erikantzam. 62 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE words, hooked and tailed, in this or that special succession. Nothing can give more vivid motion to a descrip- tive paragraph than placing the verbs at the be- ginning of each short phrase. Here is one from a story by the young writer, Al'exey Tolstoy, giving a picture of the breaking-up of the winter in the st'ep' district. I must mention that this author takes Old Russian roots and makes new words of them with the majestic liberty of the beating of an eagle's wings : ' Stirred the winter roads; lay dirty crusts of snow; made naked themselves the hills showing last year's thistles. Bustle the sparrows, coo the honey- voiced doves; scent the walls of the huts perspiring with golden tar; do not rush the officials tinkling the bells of their sledges: soon will the spring floods break away from their leash.' Here is another nice example from the new pearl in Russian literature, Gor'ki's Childhood : 1 Square, broad-chested, he would come in, trim in his golden x silk shirt, velvet trousers, and con- certina boots. 2 Glittered his hair; shone his gay, 1 In Russian it is ' goldeny,' like silvery. 2 Smart top-boots are made in Russia, with a number of horizontal crisp pleats meeting each other under even angles right around and up the upper part of the boot. They are known as sapogi garmon'ikoy, or harmonica-boots = concertina- boots, while the plain top-boots are called sapogi butylkam'i, which means bottle-boots. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 63 somewhat squinting, eyes under tlieir thick eye- brows ; sparkled his teeth under the black stripe of his young moustache; glowed his silk shirt, softly reflecting the light of the ever-burning lampadka.' l It seems almost incredible to a Eussian ear that this order of words could fail to draw a vivid picture as on a film, even in its English garb, but then, perhaps, it does need the additional help which a Russian reader gets from his knowledge of the rest of the scene. In reading Gor'ki's lines, we also see the dim interior of a solid, warm log hut, the cosy light ' twinkling warmly ' before the lampadki lit in front of the ikon-corner where they are suspended on thin chains, their flickering light dancing on the gilt settings of the ikons. . . . The huge white-washed bread-stove, the wooden benches along the walls, mostly suggestive of a night rest for any casual wanderers. . . . Few of us belonging to the Intelligenzia keep A . , C6nC6. ikons in the rooms of our flats or houses, as was still usual some fifty or sixty years ago; but also very few of us have not known the enjoyable, quiet moments in the nursery where our old nurse keeps her own set of ikons. In those days of wonders, one likes to watch her lighting her lampadka on a 1 The lamps that are made for the purpose of burning before the ikons are little bowls in glass or china in a metal setting. They are called lampadka or lampdda, as distinguished from ordinary Idmpa. There is a special verb applied to them, t'eplitsa, which means, approximately, ' twinkle warmly.' 64 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Saturday night. She takes out of a small box several tiny little wicks drawn through weeny little coloured paper stars, lets them float on the oil, and lights one of them. . . . You stand on tiptoe and hold your face so close to it that you smell the sunflower oil and it leaves its impression in your nostrils for ever afterwards. . . . You watch the little paper stars float slowly, slowly, on the oil till they stop. These simple proceedings have the magic power of toning down your exu- berant energy, and you gently ask your friend, the nurse, to present you with a gift of several little wicks from her box of treasure-trove (price three kopeks = three farthings). She does so, and you play quietly, placing the precious weeny stars on your blanket in front of your nose till your eyelids fall as a screen between them and the still more wonderful world you enter. * * * * * There are numberless ordinary cases where the verb beginning a phrase comes as a natural demand of the Russian speech while it would sound ridicu- lous in English. For instance, the whole meaning of the phrase is emphasized in the following ex- amples through having the verbs in the first place : 1 Stilled everything. Sleep the mountains. Sleeps the green sky. Died the air. Am dying I. Love I this willingness of yours, prince ! Frightened thou me. (To) Arrest you (is) too early.' THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 65 This twist gives a different touch to the phrases than the one which is acquired by the English ' there ' placed at the head of a sentence, and could not always be conveyed through the latter. You couldn't add ' there ' to any of the above lines taken at random from Turgenev's Poems in Prcse and from Dostoyevski. Any part of speech placed first in a Russian sentence draws the reader's attention to it. For instance, if you want to lay stress on the word ' money,' where you would have to say in English, ' it is money that is wanted,' we simply exchange the places of the two words which make this phrase, instead of adding any more: Nddo d'en'eg means simply ' money is wanted ' (nado = wanted); but d'en'eg 'nado means: 'It is money that is wanted not anything else.' If you go with a friend to a shop merely to accompany her, and the assistant asks you what you would like, you would say: Mn'c n'ichevo n'e nado (I want nothing), the first word being the personal pronoun, thus indicating that you, yourself, want nothing; but if the assistant bothers you and begins to show you goods with the obiect of tempting you, you would be quite justified in ejaculating: N'ichevo mn'e n'e nado ! meaning : I don't want anything as much as to say : Leave me alone ! Yet it is only the special succession of the same few words that makes all the difference. 5 66 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Dmitri Karamazov, writing his last letter to the girl whom he had adored, but to whom he became false through his passion for another woman, writes: Nogi tvoyi tzeluyu = Feet thine (I) kiss. These three words arranged the other way round might be banal, and could be found in many love letters. But placing Nogi (feet) at the head of the sentence conveys the idea that Dmitri would not dare to kiss the woman on her lips, but mentally kisses her feet only; all his self-humiliation is re- flected in the order of this wording alone. ***** There are some other reasons which make a per- fect translation of many Russian authors an impos- sible task. There is no wonder that Gogol's genius is very little known and understood abroad ! He is almost untranslatable; his essentially Russian speech, especially in his passionate, uplifting enthusiasm blended with poetical feeling, is a feature which cannot be conveyed through any other language. He is as exclusively Russian in these as Dosto- yevski and Nekrasov are Russian in suffering, and Shchedrin in dissecting the evils of Russian social life. Turgenev and Tolstoy, with all their Russian mind, were nevertheless generally human, super- national, as it were: the first one chiefly an artist, the second a thinker. This is reflected in their speech which is the most translatable and there- fore more often translated. But already in Dosto- THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 67 yevski, Chehov, and Gor'ki there are those gaps in translations which cannot be filled, or which are sometimes filled with unrecognizable material ! x whilst at least one-half of the poet Nekrasov, the satirist Shchedrin, and the colossal suflerer- humorist Gogol' will lose in translation a world of their national beauty and character. In the midst of that brilliant bitterness with the natio* 1 - which Gogol' has slated Kussia for her shortcomings aiist. he has written the most inspired pages that love for country has ever called forth. He has suffered persecution from censorship, misery, and deadly illness, whilst being a nationalist in his genius, a nationalist more honest and more enthusiastic than a writer has ever been. By the way, it was the prostor that has made some of his pages like living creatures that breathe of Russian passion for immensity. . . . Just as the Russians themselves do not withhold their enthusiasm for fear of ridicule, so does their language remain fearless and spontaneous, freely using all that can graphically carry depth and power A term of of feeling. There is with us even a second, a more mentor ancient form for the very name of Russia, which ' Russia/ we use when we feel particularly in love with her ! 1 It is a relief to see whole pages omitted in the English translation of G6r'ki's Childhood. If ' translated,' they would unavoidably be a painful disappointment to every Russian. It is sufficient to see mistakes here and there in the English text. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE The ordinary, less enthusiastic, name is Rossiya ; but it has come into being only since Peter the Great, who invented it in his zeal to do away with all the past of his country. But in this case he failed (as in some others more sensible ones !). The original name, Rus\ still breathes of something beloved and beautiful, more genuine and more crystal-like than * Rossiya ' does. The name Rus' consists of an R, a Russian u, and a soft s a very, very soft one. ' Thou, Rus' ' sounds lovable ! . . . Rus', vastness, troyka, speed, prostor, we address them all with a ' thou,' ty, for they are such intimate conceptions that they verge on personification almost like the old Olympians were to the Greek. I feel bound to commit a sacrilege and to ' trans- late " into English some parts of those paragraphs in which Gogol' reflects our passionate love for prostor. Gbgor on ' Rus', Rus', I can see thee from my beautiful Far. 1 ... All seems poor and scattered and bare about thee. No bold marvels of nature startle one's eye. ... No wealth of wild roses, ivy-covered rocks, no grapes, no silvery moun- tains lifting their summits to the skies. All is open and empty. Thy towns are like small dots 1 This was written in Italy. (We have a beautiful noun which is akin to the adverb far, and which does not exist in English; it means, as it were, the far end of a distance: dal\) THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 69 which fail to charm the eye. But what is that unaccountable, mysterious power that draws me to thee ? Why doth thy melancholy song, soaring from seas to seas, ring constantly in my ears ? What is in that song ? What calls me, what seizes my heart ? What are these sounds that kiss so painfully and wind themselves around my heart and into my soul ? Rus' ! What desirest thou from me ? Why dost thou gaze at me with eyes full of expectation ? In awe I stand before thy vastness while the clouds over thee are heavy with coming rain. . . . What is the prophecy of this unembraceable prostor ? Is it not in its arms that limitless thought should be born, in thy arms, Rus', which embrace all ? Is not this the place for thy folk-hero here, where there is prostor for him to unfold himself ? The power of vastness embraces me and reflects itself in my innermost depth. . . . A-ah ! . . . What a sparkling, glorious infinity. . . . Rus' ! . . .' May it be, I wonder, this very sense of size that endows the Russian mind with that fearlessness of individual action which is typical of the Russians ? This reminds me of another set of words which Concep- tions are absolutely untranslatable and yet are so without . . ... which a essentially Russian that we simply could not live Russian without them ! Our land has given them birth live, and our self-expression commands our making use of them constantly, daily. They all commence 70 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE with the syllable of nuance raz (pas) whether nouns or verbs. Now that my reader has got, I hope, the conception of prostor clear in his mind, it will be helpful to introduce this other typical Eussian idea via the word razdolye: it is almost a synonym to prostor. Its root (doF) comes from doVa, which means one's part of something; in this case it is one's part in this world that is suggested and the syllable raz distinctly attaches to it the nuance of having that part lavishly spread, thrown out wide and far ! This raz is no preposition, no conjunction; it is nothing in itself, 1 and yet it contains a world of meaning. When asked by foreigners ' What is it then ? ' all that a Russian usually does is to throw out his arms vigorously to his right and left, to smile as if he suddenly visionized something loveable and to callup: ' It is this ! . . . Just this ! . . .' I cannot help this primitive manner of explana- tion either being the only possible one and am delighted to see that it does make English people grasp what we mean by it. One of my delightfully impressionable English friends proved this to me by remarking instantly and gaily : ' Then it is not equivalent to the French elan, because elan 1 Except when it makes a whole separate word (past) a noun, with a hard sign at the end, which stands for ' one ' (besides the proper number odin), or for ' once ' ; it is always used for marking time : raz-dva ! raz-dva ! (and not odin-dva) or raz-dva-tri (one, two, three) ! THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 71 is this! 9 and he made a movement forward, lifting his arms up. Just so ! This is an exact illustration of the difference. If you want to feel the meaning of the nuance raz vigorously throw your arms out horizontally, as wide as you can ! Now attach this feeling of raz to the conception of space as if there were, say, prairies all around you and you get the synonym to prostor: razdolye. It is a definition of an abstract idea. Then attach it to the idea of No ! Here I am caught again because you haven't got that idea either, so I must explain its Russian meaning. The root m.ali suggests a vigorous physical move- ment of one's arms not a waving like the gentle waving with one's wrist, which is practised in England from babyhood, but one broad gesture, a swing. Now try to attach the nuance of the raz to the meaning of the mah and you get the razmah without which no Russian could find a way for expressing another beloved abstract con- ception. Razmah of one's spiritual power is a fine thing, and it comes into Russian prose, poetry and ordinary speech constantly. Razsv'et means the morning dawn, the break of day; and this will perhaps make things clearer to my reader if I tell him that sv'et means light: thus the word conveys a picture of the ' light throwing itself out.' There is no wonder that the word razgul dees 72 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE not exist in English: its second syllable, the root gul, refers to ' walking out ' (gul'anye = a walk, an outing, an entertainment out of doors; guVat'= to have a walk); well, with the nuance of raz attached to it, it conveys such a kind of ' outing ' as is not tolerated in England ! Razgul does not imply a certain limited time given up to a casual debauch, but one's whole mode of life saturated with it. An excellent illustration is Dmitri Kara- mazov : his life was all of it a razgul. In the form of a verb, razgul'atsa, it is much milder and carries the idea of a wholehearted sparkling gaiety by which a Kussian is swept away whenever it inflames him. The raz attached to such verbs as to speak, to make merry, to walk, to sleep, conveys the idea expressed in English by ' To let oneself go ' : if you let yourself go in speaking, merry-making, walking, or sleeping to such an extent that it becomes difficult to prevent you from going on with it you fall under the Russian definitions razgovoritsa, razv'es'elitsa, razoytls\ razospatsa, etc. There are dozens of them. One can do anything to the extent of raz-doing it ! Only, English people seldom allow themselves such luxuries, so there exist no definitions for them. Aa im- 1 must take my chance on this occasion to make portant . . digres- an important digression. I am bound to fire some shots at ' The English ' throughout this book THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 73 due to the lack of definitions in the English lan- guage, corresponding to the blank spaces in English life. With us, instead of those blank spaces, are the most breezy, passionate, natural, warm, cares- sive things (and definitions for them). But I always remember the remark of a young Russian fellow who had received his school and university education in England : ' Take care, don't mix them all up together: the present younger generation in England has mostly got the gift of spontaneity and uvlecheniye ' (we were speaking in Russian) ' They are not afraid of showing what they really feel. They hate the old stodginess, and dryness, and artificial reserve of the Victorian era.' Now, asking my reader to remember this too, I feel justified in continuing my investigations in our two languages: after all, it is the younger English generation that has got the new sap- resembling the Russian one flowing through it, but not the English language yet. They say that a Dutch tourist, after having stayed in Russia for some sime, was asked by his host how he liked our country. ' I like it very much,' said the Dutchman. ' The only thing which strikes me is why do you throw out your arms so often ? One does not see this gesture in our land at all. We don't do it.' ' I should like to know how could you possibly 74 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE do it over there ? ' tlie Russian remarked with a humorous smile. To the sense of size should be added the sense of motion. . . . True, a few years ago Eussia had been thrown by force of reaction into a state of marasme. There was almost a stagnant stand- still in the one-time keenness for social interests. Russian society (compared to the one in the be- ginning of the century) seemed to be dozing off, tired to the verge of indifference with regard to our place in the world in the future. . . . But here comes the war, and all is awake and throbbing with genuine, intense love: for homeland, to be freed from the at last realized German yoke, for the people represented by the soldatik, that wonderful grey hero, for the prostor of Russia that gives the chance to the unsophisticated heroism of old folk-lore to ' unfold ' itself (razvernutsa) again for a great cause. . . . And, instinctively, one's mind returns to Gogol' : who but he, in the thirties of the last century, spoke about Russia in those allegorical pages which everyone of us has learned almost by heart for their beauty, but to which no one has ever attached any prophetic mean- ing ? If anything, one felt somewhat ashamed of those lines where he boasts of Russia with the daring frankness of a genius ! I have already mentioned that self -advertising is not a Russian feature; and in our private life it has always been THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 75 sufficient for any ordinary person to express any- thing approaching Gogol' 's admiration for Eussia to be suspected of chauvinism. The now almost extinct, but formerly aggressive, ' Union of True Russians/ has taught us to be over-conscientious, and we thought it almost a crime against our own country to express our love for her openly. But this is changing now ! And, speaking here chiefly of the Russians as reflected in their language, I cannot omit those pearls in the realm of that language which have become the expression of the idea growing nowadays in many European minds (with the exception of those of German origin!) . . . I have never seen a translation of the pages I am thinking of, and I would not follow one if I had met one. I stand breathless before my task, like every Russian would. And yet I must try and ' translate ' these pages as I did those above- not into classical English, no ! but keeping to the original as literally as possible : because my purpose is to try and show to a literally inclined reader how the mind of a Russian genius works (if this can be called ' work '), what are its national ways of self-expression. These inspired pages are addressed to a troyka, Tr6yka. which Gogol' compares, in his heart, to Russia herself. Perhaps it would be better to explain to some of my readers what a troyka means: it is the national Russian team, three horses abreast. 76 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE The middle one is a powerful ' trotter ' who steadily keeps to his action, while the two horses at his sides are trained to bend their necks away from him, so that the persons in the vehicle (which may be of any kind, just as any kind of vehicle may be drawn by horses driven tandem) can see their pro- riles all the time. The part of these two pri- st'ajnyia (' attached ones ') is not the pulling itself; they are attached very lightly; their business in forming two-thirds of a troyka is the so-called playing : the element of beauty, the graceful, flying motion, the elegance, the gaiety. . . . Try to imagine the musical chord of the little bells tink- ling under the duga (bent wood high over the neck of the middle horse), the power of the broad- chested trotter (korennoy), throwing his legs out far, in that ' rare ' Eussian trot, try to imagine the vitality and beauty, and especially the elegant, com- plex rhythm of the troyka flying along the broad roads in the open country and down every hill. . . . ' Eh, Troyka ! Troyka-the-bird ! Who has in- vented thee ? Thou must have been born with a quick-thinking people, in that land which means no joke, but which has flung itself out, 1 vast and smooth, half over the world. . . . Go, count the mile-stones till they dance in your eyes ! It would seem there is nothing complicated about thee, 1 The Russian verb is razm'etnulas'. The adverb following it (pOBHeMt-rjiaflHeM'L) is absolutely unattainable in English . THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 77 troyka: just a few strokes of the axe and chisel in the hands of a quick peasant and there thou art ! No German leggings about the driver just beard and gloves and the devil knows what he is sitting on ! But there he leans forward, and swings his knut, and starts his song and the steeds are like a hurricane, the spokes in the wheels are one smooth circle, and the road gives a shudder, and an involuntary shout escapes the startled passer- by. ... And there she flies, she flies the troyka ! Already one but sees in the distance something swirling and dust eddying in the air. ' Art thou not, Rus', flying like a lightning-swift troyka, too ? The road is a whirlwind of dust under thee, the bridges tremble, and all remains behind. . . . What is this awe-inspiring motion, like a bolt thrown down from the skies ? What unknown power is there in these unseen horses ? . . . Eh, horses, horses ! What horses ! . . . Is there a storm hidden in your manes ? Is every little vein of yours throbbing with responsiveness ? . . . There comes the song you know and hardly touching the ground with your hoofs you are like arrows flying through the air. . . . ' And there she soars, inspired by God ! . . . Rus', whither fliest thou? G ive thine answer ! . . . There is no answer. Bewitchingly goes the little bell, the air torn into fragments rings in your ears and becomes wind. . . . All flies by and remains 78 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE behind. . . . And, looking askance, other peoples and countries stand aside and give way to thee. . . .' This sounds awful ! (I don't mean Gogol' 's pre- mature vision, but his speech in the English attire.) It is robbed of all its winding, throbbing beauty. It is like a photograph as compared to the photo- graphed landscape itself: no colours, no breeze, no vivifying warmth ! only the skeleton. Because the genuine colours and breeze and warmth of the philosophy and of the syntax itself of the Kussian speech reaching their climax in these pages have no equivalents whatever. Perhaps this statement will become clearer if I say that one can easily translate this English Gogol' back into the Eussian, but if one closely follows the English ' original ' it will not be the Russian Gogol' ! Very far from the genuine one indeed. Because there are many ways to say a fine Eussian sentence within the limits of a given idea, but giving it each time different half- shades, whilst there will be but one certain correct way to say that sentence in English, or in any other language. 1 The very exclamation by which Gogol' hails Eussia as represented by troyka (and which 1 Since these lines were written I have made a special study of the English translations of the Dead Souls and Inspector General on their republication ; and I find my suppositions fully realized. Gogol' 's quiet humour in Dead Souls can more or less find its expression in using a rich English style (with the exception, of course, of the killing names he gives THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 79 is usually wrongly spelt in English with a k Ekh) always carries with us a certain attitude in itself; in ejaculating 9x-B! = M/ we mean: 'Here is a thing (or situation) about which one could say a lot! ... But I am unable to. . . .' There is a touch of longing in it. I cannot omit at this convenient occasion that putting the artificial kh for a Russian h not only makes this word look like a caricature and takes away its long sound, but it even alters its mean- ing: because there is another exclamation, BKB ! consisting of the same deep e and a k (in the place of an h), but it conveys quite a different atmosphere: it carries astonishment and reproach with it and stands for the quintessence of, ' Just look at it ! Did you ever !' Thus, transliterating both BX-L and BKT, as ekh, the translators kill the meaning of both substituting for it something like an old man's cough. * * * * * Now, my patient or impatient reader, allow me The pos- to dwell for a moment on the idea itself of these fulfilment lines of Gogol' 's, leaving form alone. vision. to his characters, in place of which we see blank spaces or meaningless substitutes, to which we shall return later); but as a passionate lover of his country, he will remain untranslat- able for ever. The unknown translator of Dead Sauls must excuse my saying that he has approached the original beauty of the Troyka-pages no nearer than I have myself. We are both equally tied by the entire absence of an equivalent mode of speech in English. 80 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE This idea should not frighten any Englishman. The fear one still meets amongst the British public with regard to Russia as the foe to be fought next is due only to the lack of thorough acquaint- ance with the country. I have mentioned already that the educated Kussians have always expected the light to come to them from the West. An obvious proof of this was the encouragement, both private and official, but always spontaneous, with which the German colonist and the German accur- ate official used to be met all over the Russian land. It was only the peasantry and the working classes that permitted themselves the attitude of frank, although inactive and humorous distrust, whilst the most advanced Intelligentziya was naively trying her best to sow the Western Culture on the Russian soil wherever the seeds could be got from. Even our revolutionaries were fre- quently too Western in their whole-hearted efforts to raise our village population from its ' un-Euro- pean ' darkness. The war has brought the sudden revelation that there exists Western culture and Western culture ! And England should rest as- sured that now our educated society will be most keen and conscientious to rectify its mistake. The psychological attitude from the very beginning of the struggle has acquired a serious, steady form. There is no hysteria, no rushing and dashing about it; none, even, of the old nonchalance expressed THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 81 in the narrowly-patriotic saying: ' We can bury the foe under our caps r=Shapkami zaJciddyem! Every person and every written page that now comes from Kussia is full of something new. The nation is awakening to the consciousness of her serious, quiet power. She will presently find her- self within herself. In that new coming era there will be room enough for Western influence and for Western aspirations only inasmuch as these will entirely correspond with the Slavonic ones. The element with which will probably rest the approach- The new ing shaping of Kussia will be a perfectly new one : national- radical nationalism. Because, formerly our nation- ism< alists were the reactionaries, and our radicals were thus opposed to them voluntarily and involun- tarily. But the new type of a true Eussian cul- turist will come forward in masses, and will present the accounts to all debtors. These will have to be traced everywhere. There is room for hoping that, next, Eussia will make her greatest stride ahead. Therefore England should not for a moment No danger doubt the good of helping her : she is helping the new Eussia, that Eussia which is becoming con- scious of all that is best in her, and who means to foster that best. One ingredient of the latter is love for peace. And as long as there is plenty of prostor for us to unfold ourselves (razvernutsa) physically and spiritually in our immense land, 6 82 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE there is no vestige of danger for anyone. Our Shchedrin, satirist as he was, said : ' Prostor calls forth a limitless, unconquerable thirst for love.' Aggressiveness has never been a feature of the Slavs, and one could not repeat this too much to those who hesitate: Kussia will now find means to develop within herself; she will find ample room, ample raw material, and ample spiritual power to do so without troubling anyone. ***** Atypical In returning to the Kussian language I would Russian . i i r i word for like to mention now a typical word ot a less grave quick wit. ,, ,, T. T . . nature than the preceding pages. It is a noun, sounding, approximately, sm'otka ; it means the capacity of thinking very quickly on the spur of the moment, or, initiative plus speed. For in- stance, sm'otka is priceless in this war against the Germans to upset their splendidly-planned theories. It has been proved now that they are helpless before the Unexpected. It blinds them. Here is an example of sm'otka. Three Russian infantry soldiers managed to penetrate in their reconnaissance expedition so far that they suddenly found themselves right amongst the enemy: there they were, in a large field, almost enclosed by Germans within earshot. Of course, the first thing they did on realizing this circumstance was to scratch the back of their heads (no Russian in perplexity can do without this ges- THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 83 ture !) ; after which, obedient to Fate, they re- marked quietly that ' their hour has evidently come.' At that moment there came a noise of a propeller, and a German aeroplane, gracefully and in full confidence, landed quite near them. ' Look here, brothers,' said one of the soldatiki, smiling, ' we are lost all the same, so let us try a joke. Come along and take them prisoners.' Said done ! as they say in Russian. 1 Up walk the three fellows to the aeroplane, and approach face to face the slightly-surprised airman and his pilot, before these have time to stretch their limbs. A bullet in the temple finishes the pilot on the spot, after which the soldatiki quietly but clearly explain to the officer, by means of ges- ticulation, that he is to pull the machine along the field. That German officer had certainly no atom of sm'otka in him, for he obediently did so; partly screened by the aeroplane the three men led their prey through the perilously narrow space between the lines of the enemy to the Russian lines, whilst the Germans must have been looking on with that same slow - working surprise (the opposite to sm'otka !) at that airman of theirs, who was steadily pushing his machine towards the Russian side ! Another case of sm'otka is no less historical, though peaceful. When Catherine II. was erect- 1 CKaaano cfl'fejiaHO ! 84 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE ing the monument to Peter the Great, she was dis- pleased with the solid rock of granite which had been brought as a foundation for it, with immense difficulties, from Finland. ' I will not have it,' she said, glancing at it from her carriage. ' It is ugly in shape.' This time it was many men in the enormous crowd in the vast Winter Square who scratched their heads : To take the huge thing away ? After all the trouble . . . ? Several courtiers dared to approach the Empress, explaining that the task of removing the rock would be as enormous as fetching it. ' Dig out a hole close by and push it down !' came a voice from the crowd. The peasant was richly rewarded for his sm'otka; and the granite rock, which did not pass the in- spection of an artistic taste, lies buried close to the fine monument. Of course, that capacity for quick-thought takes at times comical forms. A Eussian general who was very keen on broadening the outlook of his men, told me about his experience at the Soldiers' School of which he was in command when a young officer of nineteen. The chief characteristic of his men all of them country fellows was that they were never given to doubt or hesitation: their brains worked as fast as possible, in some direc- tion or other ! One day the general in command THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 85 of the district came to inspect the school at work. Taking some pride in the advanced nature of his teaching, the youthful ardent officer suggested to his chief that he might put his pupils some ques- tions in ancient history. ' Oh, indeed ?' Pleasantly surprised, the general addressed one of the keen -looking fellows : ( Dost thou know anything about Socrates V ' Yes, sir !' 'Well? What about him?' ' He is the left forward horse in the second troyka with the sixth gun in the third battery who wants shoeing, sir !' came as quick as lightning. The young scholar forgot for the moment who Socrates was, but he would not be non-plussed, and quickly thought of the ' Socrates ' of his battery called so by the men in honour of the interesting lessons. * * * H * There are some rather interesting points about ' Man '' woman, the conceptions concerning man and marriage. a .nd * mar In the olden days man was called muj, and the same word stood for husband. Nowadays muj means husband only, whilst the new word defining man has grown out of the same root through the addi- tion of the sound china : muj china. This addition is not meaningless; already, in those days when muj meant man, the word chin meant rank: thus 86 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE the newer word, muj china, means really a creature having the rank of a man. Similar promotion has been granted to woman. The old word jena meant both woman and wife, whereas now jena means wife only, and the newer word jenshchina has come into being for defining woman a creature having the rank of a woman ! The English expression ' to marry ' is strictly divided in Russian according to facts. Speaking about a girl who is going to marry we say ond vyhodit zdmuj ; note the last two-syllabled word, which means ' behind man,' and you will get the original meaning: ' she is going out, or leaving her parental home, to place herself behind a man ' ; isn't this an exact definition of what marriage meant for a girl even not so very long ago ? Whilst speaking of a man about to wed, we say on jenitsa which means, as it were, ' he be-wifes himself.' This/a0'2 de parler indicates much more independ- ence in comparison with the meaning of marriage for a girl : it is just the same grammatical form as ' soaping oneself ' (mylitsa) or ' steaming oneself ' in a bath-house (pdritsa) ! The words fiance and fiancee are with us defined thus: jenlh stands for the man who obviously has involved himself in some way with a jena (wife), as the stem of the word clearly indicates; whereas the word for fiancee is derived from the Old Slavonic ' not know ' (n'e v'edat' ; n'ev'esta), THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 87 which suggests the state of mind of a young girl who is about to be married. Both frank and poetic. To return to the old word chin (rank) : besides ' Chin ' ' chmov- the definitions for man and woman it has formed nik ' and Peter the a nucleus for rather a curious set of conceptions. Great. Obviously, in times of yore, chin conveyed the idea of a dignified, imposing personality, because the old word bezc/mistvo meant every scandalous or rowdy scene : its meaning is quite plain, as its first syllable, bez, stands for ( without ' ; thus things ' without chin ' were things deprived of dignity, as it were deprived of the atmosphere which should go with rank. It is a word which is still often applied to disorderly crowds or drunken brawls. Again, since Peter the Great's effort at putting Russia in order there has appeared the word chinovnik, deliberately created from the same root; that is to say, a man of a certain rank in Govern- ment service, as opposed to a private individual. Unfortunately, the word chinovnik soon acquired the additional characteristic of callousness and greediness, and thus turned into a distinct defini- tion of a type opposed to all big-hearted, generous altruistic work for the people. There exist Memoirs of a French aristocrat who visited Russia in the times of Alexander III.; in them he wrote: 88 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE ' II y a en Eussie un espece de canaille qu'on appelle chinovnik.' Apropos of the word chinovnik, one's thoughts involuntarily approach the question which the Eussians are often asked in this country: 'How is it that your charming nation produces such horrible creatures as your bureaucrats ?' This problem has always been instinctively felt even in Eussia herself, although we do not actually call ' charming ' everyone who is not a chinovnik (bureaucrat). Looking backwards now, at this hour of re-valuations, one can attempt an historical solution of the question. Ever since Peter the Great undertook the enlightening of Old Eussia by means of wholesale import of Germans into the land, there began a continuous inoculation of utterly un-Eussian aspirations, alongside with the technical machinery of State life. The Tsars and Tsaritsas after Peter, right up to Alexander I. (1725-1800), were of German flesh, blood, and edu- cation. They and their helpers took great care to fill up all the ruling Eussian institutions with Germans. The only exception was Catherine II., who did not exclude Eussians as a matter of prin- ciple. Well, is it not logical to suppose that, with the adaptability and flexibility of the Eussian nature, those of the Eussians who did form the minor proportion of the officialdom, were gradually influenced and saturated with a hitherto unknown THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 89 spiritual narrowness and dryness ? Would they not, having the pompousness and greediness grafted on to them from generation to generation, gradually degenerate into that type which indeed stands apart from the rest of the Kussian nation and which even now is trying to stop the wheels of a national spiritual upheaval ? Now it seems to be a likely conclusion that Peter the Great, however wise his eventual ideals were, has made the usual mistake of a self-made man (which he was) in using without discrimination those means on a large scale which impressed him most. ' Kussia is large and abundant, but there is no order in her.' These words are attributed in the earliest Russian legend to the North Russians, who went (about the eighth century) to seek for rulers abroad and brought with them three wandering warriors from Scandinavia. Nevertheless, no order resulted from it, and Peter the Great, in trying to introduce it himself, almost repeated the mistake of the aboriginal Russians ! Worse still, he overdid it. If he could return again, he would certainly rise to the full height of his seven odd feet, and deliberately apply to the German backs his famous Russian dubmka (" the dear cudgel "), which he invariably carried about with him two centuries ago in his busy work of Germanizing the Russians ! Such are the jokes of the old dame History. 90 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE An ex- The Eussians find that toothache is different of trans- from all other pains, and they indicate this differ- ideas. ence by a special word which means the pain of a recurrent, grinding nature, entirely different from the pain of a burn or a cut. The verb indicating that sort of pain consists of three letters : first, n ; then the exclusively Eussian hard vowel which has got to be defined in some way or other, and for which the English y has been adopted; and a soft t : nyt\ The conception of toothache conveyed by this verb includes a subtle idea of a monotonous, incessant sound. . . . Well, the Eussian mind has transferred this word to indicate those persons who possess the unfortunate capacity for getting on your nerves by constantly airing their own grievances as well as finding that ' the times are out of joint ' altogether. For instance, if a friend visits you evening after evening and goes on till midnight with the same old grumblings and complaints, you exclaim at last, if you are Eussian: 'Stop your nyt-mg !' (Da brcs't'e vy nyt'I). We make this little phrase very intense without possessing the auxiliary verb do. One of the numerous ways of intensifying the meaning of any sentence consists in applying the conjunction yes (da) in one of its various shades : thus the above exclamation literally runs in Eussian, ' Da stop you nyt' !' (We need no preposition to before our THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 91 infinitives.) Thus being addressed, the most annoy- ing melancholic will mostly become silent. Kecently, on hearing this, a bright English girl asked: ' But isn't silence the normal state of melancholies ?' This remark brought home to me an additional point of difference in national indivi- duality. A Kussian melancholic even a melan- cholic ! is apt to go on pouring his melancholy out, so to speak; and that is just what is called ' nyt '-ing (nytyo). Undoubtedly the English variety of a melancholic is more attractive. Here the tendency of locking up one's thoughts and feel- ings from other people certainly greatly adds to their comfort. There is one more Kussian word of the same class A very . Russian which makes every good translator stop short : it concep- is toskd. They usually end by giving for it the English words depression or despondency but it is not the same thing. Toska is a very poetical term, used throughout the folk-lore; and in its form of a verb, toskovdt', it is equally popular. We even apply this verb speaking separately of our thought, heart, or blood: for instance: My heart toskuyet ; my thought toskuyet ; my blood toskuyet. But the most popular way is to use it quite alone. Therefore the English ' yearning,' as well as ' de- pression ' and ' despondency,' cannot compete with the independent power of the to ska, either. 92 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE If a chum walks gloomily into your study, throws himself on to your couch, and remains motionless, his eyebrows and lips alone expressive of pain, and you ask (if you are not chutki enough !) : ' What's the matter ?' he is sure to say the one word: ' Toska !' Then you will remember that he had lost someone he loved, or simply that lately the man ' couldn't find a place for himself on earth.' Or you may overlook, by chance, a young girl painfully clasping her arms in some lonely wood or garden, and overhear her repeating to herself the only v/ord, ' Toska, toska !' and you will know what she feels like. ... ' Eh, toska has gnawed me up r = Eh, toska zayelaf is a very Russian ex- pression; and none of the suggested English words can be used with that same independence and all- explaining power. Such English expressions as hump, spike, needle, or being in the blues, don't let the tragic and poetical element of the situation ap- pear, thus being no good either. Could the English mind be so severe as not to permit any tragedy or poetry into the feelings of a person who is pining away with the longing for his homeland, or his beloved one, or for the spring and sunshine ? ' Homesick ' is no good either, as it serves one purpose only; ' longing ' requires a definition of what one is longing for, whilst the Russians are apt to experience the toska without any strictly defined cause ; ' yearning ' cannot stand as an THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 93 independent, all-explaining ejaculation. We often are overtaken by toska under circumstances when a well-balanced Englishman would simply refresh himself by giving way to a strong expression. Therefore, perhaps, the hump, the spike, etc., are just the right sort of definitions for the English. But even then, they are labelled by the literati as slang and are not admitted into high-class literature, whereas toska is a classical Eussian word. There is not one Russian poet who wouldn't have used it in a number of his works ! The Russian word for ' weary ' (tomit') has a form of an active verb with us which suggests the idea of exhaustion, like the one caused by a long waiting for something, or by anxiety, or even by the ' singing ' of a solitary gnat in your bedroom in the heat of a summer night. But a Russian mind finds a poetic element even in weariness. A modern poet, Feodor Sologub, amongst a quantity of very complicated matter, drops a few very simple little triolets which speak direct to every Russian heart. They are exactly the kind which draws for every lover of the north a rodnaya picture : ' My heart doth leap with former joy: The ' sad- North once more, and rain once more ! gives i ' Once more the moss is thin and tender. Once more the sadness that gives joy, And weariness that is so sweet, And once again the dreamy woods. Beloved North ! Beloved rain !' 94 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE ' The moss is sighing under foot, The silver birches tremble sweetly, The forest hid his face in fog There is but forest, moss and fog, A song that's moan, a word that's sigh, Mirage of earth and dark of sky. . . . Ye loved forest, tender moss, Ye silver birches trembling sweetly !' I had to use the adjectives ' loved ' and ' be- loved/ as being nearer to the original mlly than the ordinarily given translation ' dear.' Mily has more meaning in it: it indicates not only your attitude towards someone or something, but also that he (or she, or it) is nice in himself although it has nothing to do with the idea of value, as 6 dear ' (dorogoy) has. One applies this term to a nice person, or a nice deed, whereas one does not say in Kussian, ' a dear person.' At the same time it is a word which one wants to whisper hundreds of times into the ear of the loved one. The lines above, in which the North is called ' mlly,' and the rain too, only show what a power of loving there is granted to the Slav. Nature's weariness itself fills him with ' sadness that gives joy,' and he is one with her in whatever mood she is: for doesn't she suggest that she too enjoys in a special kind of way her autumn with its trist- ful, grey, poor-looking, monotonous attire ? . . . A Russian seldom gets the hump through bad weather. If he is responsive he attunes himself to it without getting upset. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 95 This attitude of responsiveness, of oneness with Tfa e one- ness with Nature's moods, is reflected in a number of poems Nature, by various authors. Some clumsy English, but one closely interpreting the Kussian flow of thoughts may be, perhaps, allowed here for the sake of pointing out this very Russian feature of which a little has been already shown in the autumnal triolets. The Russians are not contented with flowers for table-decorations (in fact, there is no such item in the Russian life), not even with a nice little flower garden (we hardly do any gardening for ourselves, which is a great pity). It is again the atmosphere of prostor, a mood on a large scale that draws them. . . . The beautiful poet, Al'exey Tolstoy, expresses it for us : ' The sea is not foaming, the waves do not splash, No stir in the fir-trees' dark branches. Reflecting the world in itself as a glass Pellucid the sea lies quiescent. ' I'm sitting on a rock. O'er me fleecy clouds Hang motionless high in the azure. . . . My soul is at peace with itself and profound The still sea and I are at one.' ' Breaking and splashing the wave throws its tear-drops of salt in my eyelids. Spellbound I sit on a rock while new courage flows into my spirit. Endlessly forwards and backwards the surges are beating my stronghold. Foam on their crests rolling snow-white and gleaming. ' Whom shall I challenge to fight, mighty sea ? On whom shall I try coming power ? 96 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE My heart now has learned the beauty of life, Oh, waves, ye have washed out sorrow ! Your roar and your splash have awakened my soul The turmoil and I are at one.' The folk-lore expresses this strong bond with Nature in a slightly different, but, if anything, still more poetic way. Numbers of folk-songs begin with a statement about some apparition of Nature and then simply pass on to the corres- ponding mood of the singer, placing the two as obvious parallels. For instance : ' Why growest thou misty, lucid dawn, now covering earth with dew? Why growest thou pensive, stately girl, tears rising to thine eyes ?' Or: ' The green blade of grass was growing in the field. But they have cut me down and have laid me to dry in the sun. Oh, thou bitter, bitter lot of mine !' Or: ' The white fog is rolling heavily over the lake, Grief and toska have overpowered the young fellow,' etc. All Russian poets follow this national manner of self-expressing as a matter of course. But the quaintest of such parallels comes in one of the latest short poems by Igor' S'ev'er'anin: " A gnat is circling above the duck -weed of a pool, fascinated and unable to penetrate it. I cannot take my eyes off thine, unable to penetrate their meaning/' THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 97 I hear our postman, the man I mentioned before Looking (see p. 11), knock at the door as I am writing this. ... I wonder what lie would think of such things ? ! ***** To return to the point of the f lack ' of spiritual fire with the Kussians: one must be just, and say that only our exacting poets, upset by the sight of a few men in the state of an objectless toska, could generalize this accusation ! Chehov, the profound national psychologist, said (also in the eighties) in the words of one of his everyday heroes: ... If a Eussian does not believe in God it A main- spring of means that he believes in something else, and this the he does not inactively, not like a German doctor character, of philosophy, but so that every one of his beliefs makes a duga of him ' (which means that each leading ideal bends or sways his every action). ... ' As a small boy I was told that soup was the main thing in life, and I stuffed myself with it to the state of stupefaction ! When a schoolboy I devoured books and believed in every one of them. I ran away to America and lured other boys into joining me. . . . Then came Science. . . . Eeve- lation ! I thought that I had grasped the solution of existence from its first pages ! I gave myself up to Science passionately, headlong, as one gives oneself up to a beloved woman. Afterwards I 98 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIE LANGUAGE found out that the beginning of each science does this with every man. ... I went ' back to the land ' and ' to the people ' . . . I toiled with the burlaki' on the Volga. ... I came to love the Eussian folk, their speech, their creative spirit I loved them to the verge of suffering. . . . Then came the abdication of property. . . . Then the non-resistance to evil. . . .' The man does not say what is his worship at the moment of his telling the story of his life to the author, but the latter easily finds out that his latest faith is the faith in Woman. These lines are typical of the Kussians, very typical indeed. Difference Here I want to point out that there exists in between the English Eussian only one word for the two English ones and the . Russian ' belief ' and ' faith.' This is a case where, appar- tions ently, Eussian is poorer than English, but I think that it has its explanation. The English believe with their minds and have faith with their hearts. But the much more emotional Eussian tempera- ment is satisfied with what comes from the heart, often without subjecting it to the criticism of the intellect. Now, in English, ' belief ' implies en- tirely an intellectual attitude, and therefore gives a touch to that conception which is strange to a Eussian mind. Therefore, again, Chehov's sketch of a typical ' believer ' (briefly given above) shows the most national Slavonic feature of putting one's THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 99 heart and soul into whatever one believes to be right. Believing in the sense of thinking only is incon- ceivable to him. That is why religious faith with the Russians is either passionate to the degree of an almost aboriginal fatalism, or it is absent alto- gether. But then, we have two words for truth : prdvda Two words 1 for ' truth.' implies truth as applied to facts themselves, where- as Istina rather expresses the existence of truth as of an abstract idea. For instance, the English for Pontius Pilate's query, ' What is Truth ?' is given in Russian not by means of the word prdvda, but runs, ' What is Istina ? In brief, it is Istina who inhabits the bottom of the well, and not pravda. Therefore, the English expression, 'God's Truth' runs in Russian Istin- naya pravda, the first of the nouns being tuined into an adjective; but one could not possibly say it the other way round (pravdlraya islina) no more than you would say ' truthful God.' * My mind wanders to one more definition which ' is lovable to a Russian mind, but which would be ness. 1 Mrs. Edward Garnet t, whose translations approach the Russian originals nearer than any one else's, translates istina now ' truth,' now ' justice ' and it is not her fault that the subtle, deep distinction between these English words and. the istina cannot be conveyed. 100 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE ridiculous in translation because the conception itself is strange to the English. The word means ' one behind the soul ' (zadushevpy) or a quality which dwells in the deepest recesses of one's spirit. Thus, the man who is endowed with ' behind-the- soul '-ness is very deep and sympathetic, and at the same time very straightforward, so that one feels that one can talk to such a man as one would talk to oneself. A beautiful example of this nature is ' The Stranger ' in Mr. Jerome K. Jerome's Passing of the Third Floor Back. A conversation in itself between fellow-thinkers can be a ' behind-the-soul ' one; also a voice, or a manner of reciting and of acting. The last two must be of the ' behind-the- soul ' quality to reach a Russian listener's heart. That is why, again, Mr. Forbes Robertson's manner of speaking in itself appeals to us, whilst the one of the late Sir Henry Irving seemed to us painfully artificial in its almost intoned monotony. We call our best-beloved friend a ' behind-the- soul ' one. . . . But I understand that the best friends amongst the English people seldom like to share between them what is ' behind their souls,' so there is no wonder that the English speech lacks the described definition. Yet Mr. Garstin very sympathetically describes, in his little book The Friendly Russia, how often we make thorough acquaintance in the course of THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 101 the first conversation with a stranger who appeals to us, telling and asking each other with equal straightforwardness dozens of things of a personal nature. The lovable personalities of Dostoyevski's Idiot and Al'osha are the best illustrations of a behind-the-soul nature, and I am glad to notice that they appeal to the most interesting and edu- cated type of the English people. The General gladly calls the Idiot ' a behind-the-soul ' man in the course of their first meeting, when the young man, not at all reluctant, tells him of his cherished principles. (Mr. Jerome's Stranger doesn't but he is an English variety!) This reminds me of a case in this country when a young English fellow made the whole of a dainty party at dinner roar with laughter simply by telling them how a casual Irish fellow-traveller told him on the route between Liverpool and Manchester how many children he had, what sort of children they were, how splendid his wife was, how much he made of his farm and what were the items of that par- ticular year, what he thought of life in general, etc. I must say that, although the vital, outspoken Irishman was somewhat simple as compared to the 1 Idiot ' or Al'osha, my Russian sympathies on that occasion were entirely with him who was neither shy of the society youngster, nor so proud as to keep to himself what was to him the whole meaning of existence, when there was a chance of conversa 102 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE tion with a human soul instead of an alien silence in the course of a whole hour. The soul has altogether a prominent place in a Kussian conversation. It is one of our terms as a friendly form of address (dusha moyd). Also, if any- thing suits our tastes and principles exceptionally well, we say that it is po duslie i.e., ' alongside our soul ' ; whereas everything that is ' against the grain ' in English is ne po dushe, ' not alongside our soul ' in Eussian. some BUS- The above-mentioned Irishman was just the ings. " opposite type of a man to the one which is suggested by the graphic Russian saying s'eb'e na um'e : it gives the idea of a miniature of Mr. So-and-So sitting on the edge of the actual Mr. So-and-So's brain, listening to it attentively, and granting or not granting egress to the teeming thoughts. . . . Many sayings are fine in that rich suggestiveness. One of them I heard recently from a Russian who applied it to the manners of German warfare: ' If not by washing, then by mangling !' Rather good is the one stating that ' There is enough stupidity to be got in the world to go round for all sage.' 1 Most graphic is the saying used by the peasantry TOO indicate a state of absolute safety : to convey its meaning I must first say that our peasants and workmen very often keep their money, or a thick slice of bread (krayuha) for the next meal, or alto- 1 See list of Russian words and phrases. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 103 gether something of value, next to their skin, under their shirt. This place of safety is called ' za pazuhoy,' which, in itself, is untranslatable. Well, then, when anyone finds himself in a state where there is no grief or worry, one says about him: ' He is like za pazuhoy with the Christ !' i.e., as if Christ kept him next to His skin ! . . . ***** We have no word for 'slang'; we simply sayNosian?' J in Russian. ' the speech of the labourers,' ' the speech of peasants,' ' of fishermen,' ' of tramps,' ' of old- believers,' etc. All of these are acknowledged and admitted by the writers, because the ' slang ' of our peasantry is often most wonderful, both in its poignant definitions and poetical vein. Some of it is rude, but this doesn't make us discard it altogether. One can learn beautiful expressions from our simple folk who create them on the spur of the moment. ' Pardon,' says Gogol', suddenly breaking up one of his humorous descriptions : ' words seem to have escaped our hero which are heard only in the streets. But such is the position of a writer in Russia: he is bound to reflect the life in which there are things not tolerated by higher society. . . .' Happily, such is the position of a Russian writer as established by Gogol' three-quarters of a century ago ! Whole stories by Gogol', by Shchedrin and L'eskov, whole pages by Ostrovski (our Moliere), by Nekrasov, 104 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Maxim Gor'ki and Chehov, whole paragraphs by Tolstoy and Dostoyevski will never be interpreted, even if they are seemingly ' translated ' : they will be like an even, silvery moonshine as compared with a crackling bonfire fragrant with burning twigs and sending cascades of sparks into the pitch dark quiet of a night. The same can be applied to national wit of every language as soon as it has a local character: Dickens, Bret Harte, Kipling, Jacobs have no more chances to have their local collo- quialism interpreted irreproachably into another tongue than have in parallel circumstances L'eskov or Gogol' ; although I must add that almost every expression the sense of which does not depend on some local topic easily finds its equivalents with us, due to the pliancy and freedom of our language. For instance, the bewitching, subtle humour of The Cricket o)i the Hecvrth sounds beautiful when rendered in Kussian. All the warmth in it remains intact, yet wholly conveys the English atmosphere. Very few expressions in it are un- translatable. This applies to the whole of Dickens's works (even his Pickwick Papers), to Shakespeare, Meredith, Arnold Bennett, Jerome K. Jerome, Birmingham, or Oscar Wilde. This does not mean that all Russian translations from the English are excellent: unfortunately, with the absence of literary convention between our coun- tries, too many Russians who do not possess a THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 105 perfect knowledge of the intricacies of English translate and publish English works. But what I mean is that the atmosphere, the style of English speech with the rare exception of unique col- loquialisms finds its equivalent in Russian and can be translated beautifully. Whereas it is just the style, that something essentially Russian, which cannot be expressed in any other tongue owing to the lack of technical mediums. Can it be that the local English atmosphere is conveyed more readily to our minds, and that the colloquial English is more easily translated into Russian than vice versa because we know England better than the English people know Russia ? We have studied English literature so long (at school and ad libitum) that English characters are not strangers to us, and therefore even their typical expressions can be translated literally when they happen to have no equivalents in our character- speech; they do not baffle or alarm us, but, on the contrary, make the English types stand out the more clearly. Whereas it is quite improbable that an average English reader could vividly imagine the surroundings and the types of Gogol' 's In- spector General or Gor'ki's Childhood ! How, then, could he stand a close translation of their speech as a natural, human thing ? In giving to my English friends the exact meaning of various Russian manners of speech throbbing with poign- 106 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE ancy and humour, I constantly hear the intolerant remark: ' Oh ! but you mustn't say that in English F S?lbie S ~ I am tnan kfril to see that the anonymous trans- names. i a tor has tried all ' permittable ' English to convey Gogol' 's humorous style in Dead Souls ; but in the I/ispect^r General his most conscientious en- deavours were bound to fail. The names alone, for instance, of the Governor and of the Judge are to every Russian mind inseparable from their owners who have been living characters to us ever since they were created. Yet, naturally there are blank places corresponding to them in the English version. The chief aim of my book is an attempt to show that the Russian brain works along differ- ent channels from the English one and its manner of doing so therefore I will try and explain the present instance technically, as it were. For that purpose my patient reader will have to return to that Russian root of many conceptions which means breath, spirit duk (see page 37). Well, with a consonant slipped into it, this noun acquires a comical character: dmuh sounds as funny as duh sounds serious ! Gogol' takes this dmuh and turns it into a kind of adjectival name: Dmuhanovski. But that is not all: he brings forward the wicked stupidity of the big, fat old Governor by doubling this surname : he makes it Skvoznik-Dmuhanovski, which means ' A draught of a Dmuhanovski ' or THE RUSSIANS AND THEIB LANGUAGE 107 ' a - draught - of - an - empty - headed - pooh - poohing - bully.' No wonder, a footnote in the English edition says that ' in order to simplify for the English readers the somewhat formidable caste, the sur- names of the first eight characters are omitted.' But that footnote should not run on as it does, explaining ' as they would not be used in familiar intercourse.' They are not in real life, that is true, but Gogol' 's characters are such vivid, living per- sonifications that the beloved classical comedy, In- spector General, when shorn of them, is unimagin- able and ridiculous ! The translator ought to try and explain them, I think. But anyhow, as he has not done so, I must try my best. Therefore, a few more lines about Gogol' 's names : The Judge is in Kussian Z'dpkin-T'dpkin; the first syllables of the two words through their very sound convey to the Russian mind a rude, clumsy gesture of snapping something greedily. Isn't this, then, a splendid name for a provincial Russian Judge of seventy years ago who swears that he takes no bribes except in the form of borzoy- puppies ! Hl'estakov himself (the young and silly rascal taken, from fright, for the official Inspector) means a slashing, swaggering strut. The Warden of the Charity Institutions is ' Strawberry ' pure and simple. The primitive brute of a policeman is 108 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Eerjimorda, wliicli conveys the idea of ' Catch hold of his dial ' (face) ! and indicates the simple way in which the representatives of public order used to follow out their duties. Again, the simple-minded old land - proprietress in Dead Souls, who has upset the hero's knavish plans entirely through her simplicity, is called by Gogol' merely Koro- bochka which means nothing more nor less than ' a little box ' ; and there was no logical need to turn her in the English version into a ' Koroboch- kina.' The humour vanishes like a puit of smoke with this ' improvement ' on the original name. ***** The most characteristic current English expres- sions often lack the half-shades of colouring neces- sary to meet the demands of the Russian language. It is not only the speech of the lower classes that is acknowledged by our literature to its fullest extent; the same thing has been done by the above- named English writers when speaking through their characters; the difference between their writings and those of the Russian authors lies in the fact that ours enjoy the perfect freedom of Croatin? applying and creating expressions when speaking for themselves. Hundreds of these would not pass in England as ' good style,' because, although Tennyson and Carroll, amongst others, have actu- ally invented special words to meet emergencies, nevertheless it does not follow from this that THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 109 special twists of expressions of the Eussian language which is teeming with them in humour, grief, poetic feeling, and enthusiasm, would all find their equivalents in English; nor would the English translators be permitted to invent any equivalents on the spur of the moment. With us the power of graphic rendering is an essential quality of art. Turgenev managed to command it without being exclusively Russian in his style, but all the rest of our writers could not help being so, in various degrees. They are given with us a carte blanche for creating, as it were. Every kind of definition, every new word is allowed as long as it is born of the atmosphere of the dis- cussed subject and is, therefore, natural before everything else. It is the natural that goes home deepest, after all. Recently this carte blanche has acquired enormous proportions. Some of the new words and expressions startle one who has been brought up on L'ermontov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and even on the extra -richly-coloured Gogol', L'eskov, and Shchedrln. Some of these new words and twists of expressions will fall out; but many are throbbing with real new power for they are natural outcome of a free and creative Slavonic mind working through a most flexible medium. It is not considered essential that each new word or expression should be of a sufficiently universal importance to stand the test of time. Any amount 110 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE of words have been created by Gogol', Tolstoy, L'eskov, Chehov, Dostoyevski, Gor'ki, and several writers of the younger generation, for a special purpose and some of them will, perhaps, never be used again; but they are just splendid in their own places for which they are invented ! They are, naturally, absent from the dictionaries, and the translators will vainly struggle to find out their meaning and to see their essential beauty. Since 1914 there has been published in Petro- grad a formidable periodical. Each volume con- tains nothing but the newest prose and poetry distinctly reflecting the searching for truth (for istina, in this case). Bart Kennedy would have had a chance in it to find by and by his bit of Truth, instead of being bovcotted by means of mockery and laughter. The periodical is called S'ir'in, the Kussian equivalent for Bird of Wisdom. It welcomes to its pages the most gloomy satire as well as the most mystic, or fantastic, or realistic poetry. As to its nationalism, it allows the quaintest examples of verses that ever existed being, as it were, cries of the old Eussian land, frank to the degree of primi- tiveness and uncanny in the nature of their poetry. I hope I will not give a start to my reader by giving one of them (by a well-known mystic woman-poet, Zinaida Gippius) in closely follow- ing both form and meaning: THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 111 Russia speaking to her Singer. A charac- teristic I have pleased thee with my meadows green, poem. With my herbs, and tall, white hemlock, With my waving corn spreading far and wide, With the golden hearts of my daisies ; Thou mak'st poems of them, thou sing'st joyfully Of my playful self as thou lovest me : But who will love my ugly wounds ? Who will look at my sins ail-forgivingly ? Come ! Love also the evil fogs That rise from my poisonous stagnant pools, Love the huge weeds alongside my walls, Love my poor, drunken peasant. . . . But if fear and contempt are all thou find'st In thy heart for my evils so painful Then go ! Lose thy way in my forests' mists ! Get burnt with my stinging-nettles ! I shall not lift the veil from my face For those who seek me the beautiful one, Who can not love me to bitter end, Cannot stand me the ugly one, cannot bear me the dirty one. . . . The name alone of this periodical indicates the idea that the most ancient in the artistic tempera- ment is not a hindrance, but a help in the search for the New. The name of the bird S'ir'in is equiva- lent to an Old Slavonic adjective by which it is often replaced and which means ' the one knowing and giving out the Truth.' The Old Slavonic, which is the cradle of the T , he * played by Eussian language, continues to exist in all its 01 ? Slav - purity and is absolutely independent as our lan- guage of the Church. Every Kussian can under- 112 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE stand it, nevertheless, even without learning. The Bible is usually printed in two columns, Old Slavonic and Russian, and one gets to know the first of them quite well, even without being a church-goer. One says one's prayers in it in early childhood without being told that it is not Russian : one does not think of it, somehow, as being a language in itself, and it is a great mistake to state, as it has been stated in the English Press, that the Russians don't understand the language of their Church. The roots of the words are in an over- whelming majority the same. Just in the same way as Modern Russian, the Old Slavonic has no grammatical articles whatever, neither the nor a. This degree of simplicity does not exist in any other modern European language. Slavonic is also free of auxiliary verbs, as there exists the same three tenses as in Russian, and the only gram- matical difference is, that the verb 'to be ' is used in the Slavonic in its present tense. All these similar features between the fountain-spring of the Russian language and its modern form also serve as links of close kinship, besides the simil- arity of roots. Altogether, the likeness is so great that simple-minded church-goers and devoted Bible-readers are quite unconscious of knowing, after all, two languages. To them the ancient manner of speech appears to be simply a more ' heavenly ' one than the modern ! In my child- THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 113 hood I knew a very old great-granny who used to shed touching tears of delight when the boys would purposely read to her: ' And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; and Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon. . . .' ' Why are you cry- ing, granny ?' they would ask mischievously. ' It is so heavenly !' she would answer with profound joy. The Kussian word bojestvenno ! is all that is wanted for this English answer and means, literally godly ! The highest praise. A great many genuine Slavonic words are in constant use, interwoven with the Kussian speech to such an extent that they only intensify the ' very Russian ' colouring of the conversation and literature. 1 This obviously forms an additional difficulty for the translators I mean for those who know our language sufficiently to realize the fact. This fact is that there exists but one French, or English, or any other word now in use in the foreign languages where we often have the choice between the two definitions for the same conception: Modern Russian and Old Russian (or Slavonic) being equally familiar to us. And of these 1 For instance, we often use the Old Slavonic instead of the Modern Russian without thinking of its being Old Slavonic even for the following conceptions having absolutely different roots from their modern equivalents: the eyes, the future, because, call, strength, confession, good, fate, wounds, if, depth, shame, 8 114 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE two it is the second that carries the essentially Russian spirit with it, without being out of date. How, then, could one possibly interpret the dif- ference between a purely Modern Kussian speech and the one which is intensified by the use of the familiar Slavonic equivalents, when using the current Modern English only, as even the best of now. to rest, grief, this, lips, kiss, temptation, other, ceaseless, the thought, etc., etc. Here are the parallel columns of these definitions, in order to show the difference between their aspect in the modern Russian and the ancient: English. Modern Russian. Ancient. The eyes. Glaza. Ochi. The future. Because. Budushcheye. Potomuchto. Gr'adushcheye. Ibo. Call. Zov. Klich. Strength. S'ila. Moshch. Confession. Priznaniye. Ispov'ed'. Good. Dobr6. Blago. Fate. Sud'ba. Rok. Wounds. Rany. Yazvy. If. Yesl'i. K6H. Depth. Glub'ina. Puchina. Shame. Styd. Sram. Now. T'ep'er'. Nyn'e. To rest. Otdyhat'. Pochivat'. Grief. Gdr'e. Skorb'. This. Eto. S'iye. Lips. Guby. Usta. Kiss. Temptation. Potzeluy. Iskusheniye. Lobzaniye. Soblazn. Other. Drugoy. Inoy. Ceaseless. Bezostanovochno. N'eustanno. The thought. Duma. Mysl'. Flesh. T'elo. Plot'. Likeness. S-hodsto. Podob'iye. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 115 translators do ? The choice which is at our disposal seems not to be at theirs ! Meanwhile, remove just that very Eussian i uance de genre from the pages of Dostoyevski, Gogol', L'eskov, Chehov, Sl'eptzov, Gor'ki, Pushkin, Tolstoy, where the tone of the speaker is to any extent elated, or religiously-poetical, or sarcastic, or humorous and the characterization will vanish. It is rather a puzzle to me why those translators who can see this characterization in the Russian originals do not use the beautiful Old English ex- pressions. Quite a quantity of them serve the purpose. There seem to be ample equivalents amongst them to that Old Russian style of speech which we instinctively continue using when we feel ' very Russian,' and fondly describe something very Russian. It surprises us that those features of the Old English speech which should be a parallel with the Old Russian, and should serve for parallel purposes, seem to be effete in modern English life; and this in spite of the English insularity and self- respect ! Do the translators not care even for those equivalents that could be found in the Old English ? Why ? Wouldn't their readers under- stand them ? Or is it because they cannot them- selves see the difference these expressions make in the Russian original ? Of course, I mean those cases where an essentially English old word could be found as a parallel. In 116 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE most cases, I am afraid, they would not correspond exactly; but perhaps a masterly admixture of Chaucer's, Spenser's, or Shakespeare's expressions might at least in some cases suggest the beautiful old element in the current Eussian language. I even heard a remark from a well-educated English person that the Old English expressions would make the speech pedantic. This is very strange. With us, everything Old Russian brings with it the atmosphere of warmth and humour and caress, as well as of dignified homeliness, or of the national heroic spirit reflected in the folk-lore. We have no The keys to need to dream any ' Dreams of John Ball ' in order to talc, child- enjoy the beauties of the olden speech. The fountain- head of our language is blended with its steadily- increasing modern forms in perfect harmony. The language, a k ove _ men t;ioned passion for the searching of the new in the realm of the language is a proof of this in itself: every newly-introduced Russian word is essentially Russian, i.e., always founded on a familiar old root. Thus one can force an endless growth of the Russian language, a growth by expan- sion, without necessarily breaking up and casting away its original individuality. The genuine age-old element is just the one which in a fairy-tale way- keeps the artistic Russian nationalism child-young. There is an English volume of translations of our wonder-tales. The translator, Mr. Post Wheeler, has rightly called them wonder-tales: THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 117 there exist no fairies in the mind of the folk who created them, and all the wonderful achievements narrated in those tales are accomplished by human heroes, peasants or princes sometimes aided by a fire-bird or a frog (transformed ' Tsar-girls '). iiut the translator never mentions in his preface what difficulties he has been forced to contend with ! Mr. Kasso, the late Kussian Minister of Education, sent him a letter of congratulation on this volume, but the Russian Ministers of Educa- tion have seldom taken a keen interest in Russian enlightenment, especially in the Russian peasant's unique speech, and Mr. Kasso least of all ! His letter, published next to the preface, carries more weight as a diplomatic than a literary document, for Mr. Post Wheeler's signature is followed by, ' Secretary of the American Embassy at St. Peters- burg.' This letter does anything but minimize the deplorable fact that the ancient, genuine facon dc parler of the Russian tales is entirely lost and unrecognizable in the English version. This is inevitable, and could not be helped. But what I wish to point out is the obvious indifference of the translator towards the most precious part of those folk-lore creations: their unique, superb, Old Russian style ! He seems to be quite uncon- scious of it; otherwise he should have made it clear in some form or other. If the paintings of our Vasnetzov, Surikov, 118 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE An ex- Vrubel, and Nesterev had been known in England, via other my reader would be able to understand me better from a parallel: because these artists give in their colours and in their compositions that same un- translatable element of the Slavonic with which the characteristically-Russian literary style is teem- ing. Their paintings are not supernationul, not generally-human. Most probably their meaning would remain hidden from the mass of the English public. Yet everyone could feel in them that some- thing which is their spirit. Bobbed of that touch of their very own lines and colours, the greatest paint- ings of Vasnetzov would turn into nothingness. Being unable to show them to my reader, I would like to point out to him the Eussian peasants' carved wood and toys as the next typical examples. These are rather well known in England by this time. Well, would they remain ' Russian ' if you washed away from the woodwork the golden cupolas, the heads of hermits, the ancient palaces built of logs, the rich Byzantian ornamentation, the design of stars, the immense hedges and weeny windows, the ancient head-wear, imposing boyars, the troyki, the folk-lore subjects ? No. The whole industry, so rich in artistic imagination and char- acter, would vanish if anyone had the power to check the springs of its inspiration. The genre would disappear, even if the fir-trees and village roofs half buried in snow and the modern village- THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 119 types were left to it. Because it is, again, that age-old element which is an inseparable part of the Russian art and which lives on alongside with the newest and most daring in it. Those who had the chance of seeing the Russian ballet and opera at the Drury Lane, in 1914, will clearly follow the current of my thoughts. The striking blend in both colour and sounds of their ancient nature with the most daring New is the keynote of that child-young sincerity and is its fascination. It is obvious to those who have seen the chords of colour and heard the harmony of sound. But neither of these could be ' translated ' ! The Russian speech deprived of its fundamental and essentially Russian element, would sound the same as ' Boris Godunov ' or ' Petrushka,' if these were rendered in C major from beginning to end ! A simpler illustration would be an Irishman's English shorn of its national character. Well, the rich colouring of the Russian literature (not sub- divided into little squares of ' slang ' and good style) is further away from the correct English than from Pat's. Thus a typical Irish story would lose less by its translation into the Russian than by being retold in pure English. ***** Here are a few examples of interesting deriva- Some sim- ,. i i ,, , . , Pie deriva- tions which are at the same time very simple. tions. ' Work ' in English is an independent definition, 120 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE so to speak, and why it is just so, and nothing else, no one can explain as one cannot explain the origin of thousands of words in any language. But in Russian work is rabota, the first three letters of which mean serf. This does not point to a specially industrious spirit in our ancestors ! But most likely they were poetical lovers of Nature before everything else; and when, in the course of their development, a definition for work had to be created, it appeared in this strikingly frank form. ( Rob = serf ; rabota = work ; rabstvo = serfdom.) The Russian word for excitement comes from the noun wave (vo?nd=wave; volneniye = excitement). It is applied to the high seas as appropriately as to the state of a person whose voice, expressions, looks are ' waving ' like the surface of a rough sea. This noun, volneniye, has, of course, a correspond- ing verb, which literally means ' to wave oneself ' (tioJnov&tsa). Thus when we want to say, ' Don't get excited !' we say ' Don't wave yourself !' This is an everyday, simple expression, but we use it without the mocking, humorous touch of voice which so often goes with the English dis- approval of excitement. If anything, volneniye is a state of mind which attracts sympathy. And we never think of excitement, either, as the cause of a child's ' liver ' three or four days after a Christmas party ! It is we who smile here. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 121 There are two ways of saying in Russian, ' I want to.' One of them conveys the idea of con- ^fleeted in scious will and decision, yd hochu = l will (which has nothing to do with the formation of the future tense, as it is not wanted for that purpose); while the other, with the personal noun in the dative (mn'e in the place of ya) is expressed by the impersonal form of the verb: mn'e hochetsa. The latter form of saying ' I will ' conveys a vague desire for something, as if commanded by some power from without, and even the dative of the personal pronoun is usually omitted: Ne hochetsa rabotat' /=! don't want to work. Hochetsa otdoh- niit' f=I want to rest. Spat' hochetsa != to sleep I want. Hochetsa molodost *i ! = one wants to be youn g ! (p. 42). All these are amongst the numerous everyday expressions when we subconsciously acknowledge an involuntary desire, as it were. Hochetsa Vybv'i one longs for love often comes into poems and songs. It does not matter which of the two aspects (personal or impersonal) of this expression you use about wanting or not wanting a cup of tea, or about going to bed. But it makes a difference whether you say about yourself, Ya hochu jenitsa, or Mn'e hochetsa jenitsa! Both mean in English that you want to be married, but the first suggests that the choice of a girl has already been settled, and you have finally decided to see the business 122 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE through; while hochetsa jenitsa means generally that you are tired of a bachelor life and you would like to settle down. In olden days, a young Rus sian girl living in strict seclusion and seeing no alternative to her endless embroidery would wearily murmur, half -abashed at her temerity: ' Zdmuj * hochetsa /' The author of the Idiot says about his man of society, Totzki, that he wanted to marry well; in this case the impersonal form (in the past tense: hot'elos') is applied as the only logical one, because the man's desire was a general, vague idea which took hold of him. Altogether, the impersonal form of the verbs winds its way throughout the language and pre- sents one of the characteristic points of the Kussian manner of thinking ; a whole volume could be written about our verbs alone ; and the all-important subtlety of their two ' aspects ' of the infinitive greatly accounts for the deficiency of most translations. NO com- But then we have no exact expressions for the ever-present English verbs ' to like ' and ' to mind.' I must acknowledge that here the palm for subtle differences in the definition of degrees of feelings belongs to the English language. I can offer only one explanation of this, namely, that we either love a person or a thing, or we don't. There isn't much room for compromise in the Russian heart, 1 Pages 85 and 86. THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 123 and the only alternative is ' this pleases me,' as in French, which is rather a different thing. The English language can claim the verb ' to like ' in its entirety. A very good example of no compromise in the Russian taste is the absence in our language of the eternal English answer, ' I don't mind.' To mind is in itself a very English, a very mild and civilized way of remonstrating; and the not minding is essentially so in consenting to something. There is no vivid wholeheartedness about it, and we very often stop and think after such an answer: * But does he (or she) really approve of it ? ' A few months of life in England are necessary to put a stamp of English manners upon us, and then we say a hun- dred times a day, in quite an English intonation: ' I don't mind.' Only I reserve to myself the right of doubting whether many of us really begin to feel in this half and half way. In expressions and intonations we get acclimatized very quickly, that's very true; but in our innermost, inherent attitude towards things it is not so easy to have one's nature rolled out smoothly. There is a risk of being impolite ? . . . Oh, yes, very often so. Lack of politeness is the natural result of feeling wholly one way or the other. That is why there is such a lot of arguing and debating going on in Russia. If I may touch on the seriousness of to-day, there were very few 124 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE advanced people hitherto in our country who ' didn't mind ' things as they were and there are none now. The not minding and not caring has never existed before, nor has this indifferent state so far appeared. But people of enlightened views and Opposition parties have, for the time being, left behind their opinions, habits, and fashions, as soon as they realized that by retain- ing them they would impede the nation's achieve- ments. No, the polite and lukewarm indifference will never become a national Mature of the land of the Eussians. They do mind and they do care very much so, although they appear to be able to put their personal feelings on one side while their country's freedom is at stake. ***** An every- With this Slavonic capacity of yielding oneself day capa- city, wholly to one's ideas and emotions, it is not sur- prising to find an everyday Russian definition very seldom used in England; here people are more con- servative and refuse to be swept off their feet which, at times, must be more effective in the long run than a hearty yielding to that fascinating sensa- tion I This definition is uvlecheniye, 1 and it means ' the state of being carried or swept away ' ; the verb is uvlekatsa, and means the action of carrying oneself away. Living amongst Russians one per- 1 Mentioned before, p. 73. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 125 petually hears that someone is being carried away, and you would see proofs of this with your own eyes. You would see people glued to their work, which they are not in the least bound to do not merely for hours, but day and night for many months on end. That is why Kussians wear themselves out physically much sooner than the British. It is as though the sap of life were with- drawn from the Russian body to feed the emotions, whereas with the British the reverse is often the case. With us there are no persons of fifty and upwards presenting that healthy, glowing, youth- ful appearance which one constantly meets in people of a corresponding age in these isles. Dos- toyevski and Gogol' used to work in that exhaust- ing Russian manner. It results in great, inspired work, but it certainly also mows down and carries those people away too far and too early ! You would hear that someone is carried away by this or that philosophy or system and you would have to endure the result of it each time he meets you ; another by his passion for enlightening the masses, and then you may be sure that that person will not leave alone any servant, or work- man, or peasant he comes across for the first time. Yet another is carried away with the arts the drama above all and these number legion. Again you will constantly hear a good-natured statement that So-and-So is carried away by So-and-So, 126 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE which, needless to say, no one regards as humili- ating. It is a tribute to any artist, musician, or social worker to say that he or she is painting, playing, singing, or working with uvlecheniye; be- cause everyone who is spontaneously swept away by his work is sure to sweep others along with him. The nearest to it in English is abandonment, but the Russian uvlecheniye does not include any suggestion of the unpleasant side of abandon- ment. If you feel that you are being carried away by a marriageable person of the opposite sex, you can safely tell him or her, ' You are carrying me away!' Vy m'en'd uvlelcayefe! This will sound lovable if you are sincere, but it will not give the other party an opportunity of beginning to weave a network of matrimonial schemes. We possess no Breach of Promise Act, and we would never think of passing such a law. It makes Russian people roar with laughter, or thunder with indignation, when they read instances of it in English books or daily press. * * * # * Baba' There is a Russian word baba, which is usually RSn translated into English as countrywoman. This cjmcep- j g p ar ^ a n;y right, but not altogether. Every countrywoman is a baba, it is true, and is called so without the least disrespect, in spite of the touch of contempt it originally implied, and which THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 127 can be revived when occasion requires. Now- adays, the peasant says in highest praise: ' Molodetz 1 baba ! Boy baba !' ' boy ' literally meaning a fight, a battle which is an obvious proof that the Eussian peasant rather admires vigour and strength in his mate. But the original shade of contempt is distinctly conveyed by the same word, baba, if you choose to apply it to that special purpose. Both men and women of the educated classes will use it when mentioning some gossiping woman or a company of plain females exclusively absorbed in the sex attraction; and then the denomination baba fully implies con- tempt for the hackneyed prerogative of woman. Probably due to the English horror of slang in literature, even this tone, when suggesting first and foremost the sexual element, is invariably neglected and replaced by the respectable defini- tion ' countrywoman,' whereas female would be very often nearer the mark. ' Countrywoman ' emphasizes class distinction rather than sex, where- as, in the original, the word baba embraces both at will. I want to point it out again that in speak- ing about countrywomen, the word baba suggests nothing but a natural wholesome idea of the sex as the word grandmother in Eussian, babushka (derived direct from baba), shows. No one says in Eussian ' mujiki and countrywomen,' but ' mujikl 1 See p. 42. 128 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE and baby ?1 Yet baba directly suggests the idea of sex in a more pointed way than jenshchina (woman) does, when the distinction is all-important. Thus, trying to guess the sex of the dirty, stingy old person wrapped up in rags, the hero of Gogol "s Dead Souls repeats to himself, ' Oy, mujik ! Oy, baba !' the exclamation oy conveying much wonder. An An historical anecdote will further illustrate the historical anecdote, word baba when it means accentuating the dis- tinction of sex. When Catherine II. usurped her husband's throne on the momentous night in 1762, the men in one of the regiments stationed in Peters- burg declared that they would not swear allegiance. Their officers vainly tried to persuade them. ' We won't we shan't !' they shouted. ' But why ?' ' Because she is a baba !' A very energetic colonel appeared quickly to put the matter straight. ' You won't swear allegiance to our Mother- Empress ?' ' No-o !' ' Why ?' ' Because she is a baba ! We won't serve a baba !' 1 In plural. Please don't for a second imagine that this word sounds as an English ' baby ' does ! Eemember the Italian a and the dark Eussian vowel for which y stands only as a symbol. (See Introduction.) THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 129 ' Won't you ?' and the energetic man of the hour briskly walked up to the men and proceeded to box the ears of each man. As he continued this steadily, the men gradually fell in, the noise stopped, and the hands went up to salute; but he continued until he was tired. ' Well ?' his panting voice thundered again, ' won't you swear allegiance to our Empress now T ' We shall we will !' ' Why, you fools, 1 then why didn't you want to before ?' ' Because,' they cried unanimously, ' no one had explained it to us properly !' Certainly the expression 'to explain properly' would not be applied in this sense by any soldier nowadays; but the word baba certainly would. Obviously it was not used in order to call Catherine a countrywoman but with the distinct intention of expressing contempt for her sex. This characteristic of the word baba is clearly reflected in the critical saying, ' Quite po-babyi /' Men use it at the sight of women's wiles to which they (men) 'would never resort' themselves: tears, coaxing, proverbial cunning, etc. Altogether it seems to me that the word baby for the Russian peasant women deserves exactly the same popularity as the word mujikl has already 1 In this case the word for fools, duraki, was surely applied in its intensified form, durachyo, which conveys boundless contempt. 9 130 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE won. This would, perhaps, also help in sketching the mental picture of a Russian peasant woman as being so different from an English one: she does not possess or dust a mantelpiece; she does not make dainty little cakes with baking-powder at five minutes' notice, for there is no baking-powder in Russia and she kneads her yeast-made black bread thrice the night before; she does not ' change ' in the afternoon, and does not walk about till then with paper curlers sticking from her head like a porcupine in utter ignorance of her ugliness. (If a Russian baba should encounter such an apparition, she would be likely to stop short in amazement and to cross herself for safety.) She often lives through her life without knowing of a hat or a corset, or even of other underwear; very often goes about barefooted. But she vigorously cleanses herself with boiling-hot water and steam each week in the village public bdn'a, as every moujlk does; 1 neither of them would call an English bedroom-bath anything but a saucer; she makes her own linen chemises from the home- grown flax; she embroiders all her table-cloths and ' A-ah ! Nice ! . . . Now we feel Russia heart and soul with us ! . . .' say the Russian soldiers as they emerge from the bath-trains behind the trenches. An hour weekly in the hot steam of a ban'a (Turkish bath-house) is the same as daily bread to a Russian moujik. ... ' We now feel Russia behind us !' . . . By the way, the ban'a is an ancient genuine Russian institution, not at all introduced by the Turks, THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 131 towels, to say nothing of chemises and shirts; and she looks after the cattle and works in the fields with the strength and vigour of an unsophisticated aboriginal. This work is a matter of course to her, side by side with man. That is what a baba is versus the probably wrong vision of an English reader who is likely to imagine a Russian countrywoman wearing a ' best hat ' and corsets. On a Sunday she looks very trim and bright without possessing these, and spends, if possible, her Sunday afternoon and evening in sociable merry-making, often with a touch of art in her uvlecheniye. Each of the two types, if they met, would mutually regard each other with compassionate contempt. * * * * 4 The English reader will be surprised to learn TWO im- that the universally-known expression, ' Ivan the finitions Terrible,' for Ivan Grozny, is not correct. Being translated, an epithet meant for a special definition of a Tsar's personality and one of Ivan's nature, too ! it would be surely translated correctly if there existed an equivalent for it. But grozny is just one of those Old Russian terms which seem to have no equivalents in the West. There is a different word which stands exactly for ' terrible ' with us (ujasny). But grozny is an adjective derived directly from the nouns ' thunder-storm ' (gr^za) 132 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE and 'thunder' (grom)\ not simply 'storm,' for which we have several other nouns, but exactly thunder-storm. Thus grozny carries a more pic- turesque idea with it than ' terrible.' We apply the term grozny for everything that is silently dark and menacing and frowning, like the advance of a thunder-storm when you don't know whether it will leave you alive or not. If William the Silent were a Kussian Tsar' he would be probably called Grozny. With the additional syllable of nuance po which gives a touch of finish to the idea, the same root makes the world-renowned word pogrom ; another twist and it is transformed into ' fulminating mercury,' one of the most terrible explosive substances known (gremuchaya rtut'). Equally untranslated by the historians and grammarians remains the term applied by us to the times of Dmitri and his few successors. In English this period of the Russian history is mostly called ' The Stormy Times.' But with us it is not ' stormy ': the idea of our adjective in this case is the same which we apply to the state of water when something has rendered it turbid; or to the outlines of a landscape made undistinguishable by mist; or to an unaccountable feeling of foreboding. . . . There is an element of heavily-weighing unaccountability in that adjective (smutny) which is absent in its translations. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 133 In Russian a special twist is given to some nouns special twists to through the addition of the termination shchina. the nouns. It implies the whole atmosphere of ideas, feelings, and actions which have grown around a certain person, or a set of people, which forms its original centre, as it were. It is parallel to the Western 1 ism/ e.g., Sheridanism, Voltairianism, Bismarck- ism, etc. So Biionovshchina stands for the most cruel officialdom, such as Biron, the German favourite of the Tsaritsa Anna (1730-1740), first introduced in Russia ; Hovanshchina is more or less known in England as the title of the beautiful opera given in Drury Lane in 1914, in which the whole world surrounding the Prince Hovanski forms the plot of the drama. Dostoyevshchina would be easily understood by every Russian, although it has just occurred to me on the spur of the moment: every student of Russian literature will realize that I mean the everlasting exaltation of suffering or of love, and the eternally throbbing nerves of Dostoyevski himself and of all his char- acters, with which they intensify the weight of every moment, of every passing word or thought. . . . Sometimes the all-embracing quality of the end- ing shchina is attached not to a person, yet keeps its power of giving a bold character sketch and that is where it is particularly popular and graphic : so, Dostoyevski himself constantly uses in the Brothers Karamdzov the word ugolovslicliina : 134 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Mrs. Constance Garnett translates it by ' crime '- the only way it can be translated approaching the original; but, being an excellent student of both languages, she is sure to know what I am going to say here, namely: that crime in Eussian is quite another word, prestupleniye ; but that Dostoyev- ski uses ugolovshchina purposely, as a word con- veying a much stronger flavour of something gross about it. Every crime is prestuplenie, whereas ugolovnoye prestupleniye means specially a crime of homicide, and the courts dealing with it are called ugolovny sud (the root of the word, gol ,va, means head). Now this adjective, ugolovny, is twisted by Dostoyevski into a noun by the special termin- ation, \igo\ovshchina, on purpose to suggest the whole gross atmosphere of Karamazov's crime. ' . . . There is the scent of ugolovshchina about it ' is an expression used not only by Dostoyevski' s characters, but often heard in the practice of the judicial circles when a guess at some appalling criminal affair is made. A quite familiar, everyday word with us is kaz'onshchina, which conveys our scorn of official routine. The root of this word is kazna, and means Government funds; the adjective from it, ka- z'onny, means everything belonging to the Govern- ment, and is applied to service in civil or military circles, to schools and institutions, to buildings and all sorts of property belonging to the Government; THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 135 officials live in a kaz'onnaya kvartlra; there is a whole ocean of kaz'onnoye ink and paper used in the offices; a soldier wears kaz'onnyie boots and clothes, etc. But, due to Russia's past history, this adjective has acquired a distinct meaning of dryness and stiffness, and therefore is used with irony or sarcasm as an epithet directly defining these qualities. Thus, a Russian peasant speaking of some official who refused to listen to his requests or explanations, will wave his hand and say: ' Kaz'onnaya dusha !' thus implying that he gives up hope, because what can be expected from a man whose soul (dusha) is not his own, as it were, but merely an appendage of the Government ? . . . Or, a style of writing devoid of vivacity and freedom is universally called kaz'onny stiF. Again, Russian schoolboys people possessing the strongest diges- tion in the world ! are often laughingly spoken of amongst themselves and by their elders as having ' kaz'onnyie ' stomachs: nothing can possibly upset them. This characteristic of immovable stiffness is still further accentuated by the ending discussed above, which turns it into a noun kaz'on- shchina. This is the word which the old cynic Karamazov uses in speaking of the monastic life, and which is translated merely as routine or con- vention. The poignant, flippant flavour is all gone from the original word. I repeat, this is not the 136 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE fault of the translator in this and similar cases, but the impossibility in other languages of making all these telling, all-important twists. Very interesting is the fact that various term- inations used ad libitum for nouns, adjectives, and even other parts of speech, not only carry very dis- tinctly different shades of meaning, but suggest the attitude of the speaker, indicating the various tones of voice in which all these definitions would be uttered. For instance : The expression of old Karamazov, ' Jidy, Jidkl, Jid'lshki, and Jid'en'ata,' does not mean ' Jews, Jewesses, and Jewkins,' as it is translated: they convey, through this assortment of terminations, nothing but the speaker's contemptuous attitude to the Jews, whilst their wives and children are not implied at all. It would be nearer the tone of the original to translate it ' all sorts of dirty, wretched Jews.' True, Jiden'ata is often used for defining Jewish youngsters; but, along with the other diminutives, this word stands here solely to under- line Karamazov's tone of contempt, and this is clear from the next phrase in the original, in which Karamazov says, as an antithesis : ' but I ended by being received by Hebrews.' Mrs. Constance Garnett translates this : ' received by Jews high and low alike.' But in this paragraph she has not understood the original (an exceptional case). May I explain that it carries distinctly all the differ- THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 137 ence which, in Kussia, rests with the choice be- tween the words Jew and Hebrew. Strangely enough, in other languages, even in Yiddish itself, the people of that race are called Jews, and they accept it as a matter of course; but in Russia the Jews are bitterly offended when they are so called (Jidy). In fact, no one does it, except with in- tentional insult. One takes great care not even to pronounce this name (even in the form of an adjective) in the presence of Jews at all: it must be Hebrew (Yevrey). Thus, saying that his busi- ness ended by his acquaintance with Hebrews, whilst it began with Jidlshki and Jid'en'ata, old Karamazov obviously uses the selection of con- temptuous terminations with the purpose of dis- tinguishing the Jidki from Hebrews, whom he thus classifies as a better type and is prepared to respect. That same attitude of the speaker towards the object winds its way throughout the numberless endings expressing, ad libitum, love, contempt, fear, respect, etc. The old cynic Karamazov him- self is called by his philosophical son Ivan a 1 st&iishishka ' a twist of the word for old man which breathes of nothing but disgust; while starch is used by everybody as a term of profound respect for the other old man in the book, Zoslma, although both forms of the word come from, and mean, old man. 138 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE In the Western world one does not meet with characters like Al'osha, Zoslma, ' Idiot/ Platon Karavayev, Tsar' Feodor loanovich, Gor'ki's ' Granny,' Son 'a Marmeladova, and other such outstanding characters in Kussian literature and Tender- history. Naturally enough, the style of language love wind- surrounding these types can be nothing else but way essentially Russian. They are living embodi- ments of utterly selfless love, and therefore the language. ^^ wor ^ o f their language and of the lan- guage surrounding them the Russian language of love is unimaginable and non-existent in any other language. It is essentially Russian in many features. To begin with its terms of endear- ment, for instance: my falcon bright, my bright light, my red sun, my rodnoy (see p. 59), etc. But this is far from being all; the order of the words itself commands various degrees of ' caressiveness ' the latter in itself being a char- acteristic feature, without which the Russians could not live. To return to the order of the words, ' my dear boy ' in Russian carries with it considerably less ' caressiveness ' than ' boy thou mine dear '! It sounds ugly in English, but beau- tiful in Russian. It is placed by Dostoyevski in the mouth of Zosima when addressing Al'osha, and is inevitably translated in the only one correct English way. There is a passionate love for the soul of Nature THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 139 and soul of Man which radiates human warmth and sympathy winding its way throughout the whole of Russian literature : through Tolstoy's and Dostoyevski's classical characters in prose, through Nekrasov's poetry, Ostrovski's drama and comedy, through the modest types of Chehov and Gor'ki. In one of his brief sketches, Chehov brings out a vivid figure of a quiet monk who takes people across a ferry to his monastery for the Easter midnight service: he is in an ecstasy of love and worship. Being also a born literary artist, he speaks of the subtle beauties of expression to be found in the Old Slavonic psalms ; he mentions the Akaphist to the Virgin, and says : ' The shortest line addressed to her should breathe of sunshine and wind, of the beauty of God's thunder-storms and of the little field flowers. . . .' Diminutive forms more than often do not mean ' little ' at all, but suggest something else charac- teristic of the moment. 1 For instance, when Dmitri Karamazov observes a responsive spark in the eyes of his brother Al'osha, he calls them ' cjlaz'onld ' : neither simply glazd nor glaz/a, both 1 There is an excellent example given in Mr. Nevill Forbes's Russian grammar: lie says that when a guard on a Russian train, asking you to show your ticket, uses the word bU'rt'ik instead of saying it in its original form, bil'et, it means that he will not decline a tip ! This is perfectly right, and beautifully illustrates the attitude of the speaker, expressed in one little additional syllable ! 140 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE meaning eyes, but gl&z'onki : this is because Dosto- yevski wanted to convey to his reader the exact manner in which Dmitri Karamazov was struck by the responsive flash in his brother's gaze. It needs a whole paragraph to carry it in English; the ter- mination chosen by Dmitri (glaz'owH) conveys approximately this : ' Ah ! those dear, serious eyes of yours; they, too, can sparkle with the ecstasy of passion ! . . . You understand me I can see it in their gleam, and I love you the more for it. . . .' Dmitri's discovery of a weak spot in his pure- minded brother, and of loving him the more for it, is all expressed in that ending of the word which he has chosen from amongst several other ter- minations. One of the latter, for example, is glaz'ishche, used on fantastically uncanny occasions; thus, in speak- ing of the meeting of a child with a witch, the story-teller will describe her eyes, in a voice of horror, as ' green gl&zishche glittering with a bane- ful light.' Or, the vacant gaze of a half-witted street-corner philosopher would inspire his com- rades with the desire to shake him and say: ' Gey, wake up ! Why are thy gl&zlshche coming out of thine head ?' That same termination goes beautifully with the boots (ordinarily, sapogl) of a man who steps into your house from a muddy road without having wiped them; we dislike dirty boots intensely, and THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 141 the first thing you will call out on this occasion (instead of remarking politely that ' it is very wet indeed ') will be : ' Vytri (wipe) s&ipojishchi-to ! Ish, natoptal !' Well, in this short phrase the termination added to the ordinary word for boots makes one instantly visualize the glance of disgust which the speaker has cast on those clumsy boots, heavy with mud sticking on to them; to is one of the eloquent par- ticles that form no part of speech at all, but are bits of various words; it stands here for further intensifying your demand to see those boots wiped first of all ! Ish is another of those particles, and stands for ' There, just look at him !' While natoptal (the past tense, in singular, masculine, from the verb toptdt' = to tread, with the addi- tional syllable of nuance no) means : ' Hasn't he made a mess on the floor !' Total: Sixteen English words necessary to con- vey the meaning of the three words and two ' particles ' of the Russian original. Sometimes a diminutive ending conveys bound- less mockery. For instance, the piskdr'iki (in the scene of the scandal at the monastery, Brothers Karamdz v) is translated by Mrs. Constance Garnett as ' gudgeons ' and couldn't be translated as any- thing else, because piskar'fe' are gudgeons as well as piskar'i ; but there is a world of difference in the tone of the speaker, who is using the first one in- 142 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE stead of the second : Karamazov selects it to express a world of scorn and most emphatic defiance. 1 various There are caressive terminations given even to termina- tions con- adjectives and adverbs. For instance, Dostoyevski, veying the exact atti- in describing the grey hair of the elder Zoslma, calls tude of the . speaker, it not simply s'edyie (grey) hair, but a'&d'e which every Kussian would also do, because the old man whose appearance is described is good and attractive and sweet and small. One could not pos- sibly say s'ed'en'kiye about the hair of a man if one hated him ! Yet in another language it can be nothing else but simply ' grey ' (s'edyie) unless it is ' greyish,' which is a different thing; and thus the lovable attitude of the speaker is not conveyed here any more than it is in hundreds of similar cases. (By the way: s'edyie stands for grey hair only: grey mice, or donkeys, or coats, etc., are s'eryie.) If you speak of a far distance without specially objecting to its being far, you make the adverb daTeko (far) into a daVokon'Tco ! Or, in trying to persuade your friend to come with you to your destination, you say it is Uiz'ohon'ko, in a coaxing tone of voice, instead of saying simply Uizkc, although both mean ' near ' in English a word which could not possibly be distorted. Or ' early ' is in Eussian rdno. To express unpleasant antici- pation at the thought of compulsory early rising 1 I allude so frequently to this special book, being under the impression that it is the one Russian novel which has really attracted attention amongst the English public. THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 143 you would say ranavdtof Whereas, speaking of rising to enjoy the beauties of the dawn, you would say, with keen appreciation, ' It was so beautiful this morning that I got up mn'ohon'ko /' This latter twist to the adverb is also used in a tone of childish complaint, as in the opera ' Rusalka ' (Mermaid) when the forsaken heroine complains that her husband wakes her up very early for the sole purpose of telling her that he will be absent for the day as usual ! Even some conjunctions carry different degrees of the same meaning with a partial alteration of the word; thus, otchevo means ' Why ?' but if the question is asked in a rude tone, it is expressed by the absence of the first syllable. Thus, you would affectionately reproach your friend: ' Otchevo did you not come and see me when I expected you !' But, if an old comrade thrusts himself into your private den at an inconvenient moment, you are sure to exclaim with irritation: ' Chevo hast thou come at this hour ?' Or, in a crowd in which every- one is eager to get to the front, you will not infre- quently see a fellow who is elbowing his way through, stopped by the none too polite query: ' Chevo dost thou push ? 51 The Russian crowd is 1 It is this sort of ' why ' that would be used in the above- quoted remark addressed to a street-corner philosopher. It should be noted that it is a different word to the genitive of the pronoun ' what ' (chto, chevo, etc.). The rude half of the conjunction ' why ' goes exclusively with verbs, not nouns. 144 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE rougher than an English one, and the same people who will show great depth of feeling in matters of importance remain insensitive where mere polite- ness is concerned. To us politeness does not neces- sarily indicate goodness of heart. Numerous adjectives defining shapes, colours, or any other qualities are given that twist of caressive- ness if the speaker is in a gentle, appreciative mood. So, b'ely means white; but b'&'ea'it means nice and white. Speaking of a pretty white kitten or puppy you are most likely to apply the caressive form of the adjective, b'ePen'ii; but a snow-covered land- scape or a white elephant could not be possibly called otherwise than b'ely! Well perhaps with one exception : if you did wash and scrub a white elephant or a white hippopotamus with your own hands, and took rather a pride in it, you might say, in admiration : ' Look at him ! Isn't he VeVertki now V Likewise, you would call a blue sky golubdye n'ebo ; but a baby's blue blanket would be more likely to be called goluben'koye. (Again, these examples do not mean whitish or bluish at all: in that case they would acquire stiJl different terminations.) Don Quixote was thin, huddy ; whereas a frail, meek boy is Imd'en'ki in the conception of his mother, and simply hud in the definition of a business-like doctor. Sancho Panza was a jirny fellow, fat ; but when THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 145 the Kussian Easter markets are teeming with nice, fat, pink poros'dta, sucking pigs, their owners, the shopkeepers, in inviting the crowds of buyers each to his stall, call out in an appetizing manner twisting both the name of the tasty subjects and their desired quality in an admiring way: Poro- s'atH iim'en'kiye! Poios'onochki prejirnyie ! . . . Pojaluyt'e (be welcome) gospoda, pojaluyt'e ! . . .' Only the adjectives depicting qualities of power, beauty, alertness, as well as those dealing with abstract and wider conceptions, or those defining unattractive qualities, keep their original forms always quite logically, too: because they com- mand respect, admiration, serious thought, or dis- pleasure, and not a merry, lovable or humorous attitude. Such are, for instance, moguchi=powei- ful, pr'ekrasny= beautiful, bystry= quick, lovki= alert, v'echny = eternal, sm'ertny = mortal, po- b 'edny victorious, mlrny= peaceful, etc. ***** Effectively balancing the caressiveness of the Poignancy T> i J.-L -A. A A. of ex P res - Russian language there is its poignancy. A great sions. deal of poignancy has been lost (or perhaps purposely omitted ?) in the Russian works by the translators' dropping almost all the graphic, pointed expressions which are labelled ' slang ' in English. I have already mentioned that our authors do not hesi- tate for a moment to use slang, not only in the mouths of their characters, but in speaking for 10 146 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE themselves. For instance, the words quoted in the footnote below 1 and taken at random from a standard English translation are incomparably less cutting, less sarcastic than they are in the Russian original. And again, greatly trusting and admiring Mrs. Constance Garnett's knowledge of the Russian language, I can only suggest that she must feel cramped and limited by the non-existence of many equivalents in English as well as by the ostracism exercised by English literature over everything not comme ilfaut, even when it is the very expression which would put the spark of life into a bookish phrase. There certainly exists some splendid Eng- lish slang which cannot be translated even into the Russian ; but we feel it a very provoking and very disappointing thing to be at a loss on these rare occasions ! We would never think of improving an author by polishing his language. And it would be exceedingly interesting to know what makes the translators deprive Gor'ki and Dostoyevski of the 1 For instance: Puny weakling, fantastical fellows, to attach himself to a good family, on the slightest encouragement, greediness, orgies of drunkenness, had thrown herself into, he gets rid, father, not over scrupulously, blackguard, telling lies, run at your father with a knife, the piano, uttered his foolish tirade, it was a nonsensical idea of mine, I want to pass for a man, that is what pulls him through, they don't smell it, un- clean, get up ! thou liest, thrashing, girls, drunk, emasculate, dirt, regular fright, quite, what is this to do with, nice looking, etc. These phrases and expressions are not at all slang in English, which they ought to be if they were meant to convey the author's tone in his narrative. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 147 colours which should remain inseparable from their palettes: is it their entire absence from amongst the English paints ? Or have they no passports into English literature ? # * * # * Talking about slang, I would like to mention Some something about Russian swear-words and expres- swear- sions of anger in general. We are not goody- goodies. There seems to be room for everything in the Russian nature and Russian speech. A very popular manner of swearing in Russia is the one summed up in wishing all sorts of uncomfort- able things for the victim : 1 Mayest thou feel empty !' (suggesting both material and spiritual emptiness, hunger and lone liness). ' May crayfish trample thee flat !' ' May It blow thee up as large as a mountain !' ' Mayest thou have no top or bottom P ' This is enough to carry the Saints (the ikons) out!' Or : ' Carry away my grief !' . . . These two exclamations escape us when we hear giftless singing, or playing, or some utter nonsense. There must be a kind of instinctive competition in imagination in this case in every language, I am sure. The more boundless the imagination the better ! I don't mean that there exists no swear- ing or cursing in Russia which is not fit to be ac- knowledged by any language. Gor'ki calls it ' idiotically mean,' and says that it remains dark 148 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE even to the minds of those beasts who utter it. But I would like to say, by the way, that there are many curses centring round dogs, which would cut to the heart those English ladies who call themselves the ' mothers ' of their pet dogs. . . . This, in its turn, jars upon us ! There exist no households in Russia where the dog's outing or food would form a recurring topic of conversation even at meals. The old English expression ' Scratch a Russian, find a Tartar ' ought to be forgotten for more than one reason. Firstly, because a Russian does not need any scratching in order to get at his inner- most self. Really, of our two nationalities it is not the Russian that does need it ! ... It is the best part of a Russian that you always know where you are when you have to deal with him. Secondly or rather consequently it is not the Tartar at all that comes out with (unnecessary !) scratching, but the true, real Russian himself. Because his next best quality is many-sidedness: he allows himself to be openly angry when he feels angry, just as he allows his heart to go out to people when they do appeal to him. We are not capable of concealed fermenting, whether with wrath or exaltation. Therefore the expressions chort voz'mi! (devil take it!) and chort znayet! (devil knows) are much more homely with us than they are in this country, especially as we have two words for devil: b'e<$ is a sinister, right-down THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 149 wrathful personality, while chirt is a spirit of mis- chief unpleasant, but understandable ! When angry, a Russian does not search in his pocket for words, as we say, but he has no need, either, to search for them when he is delighted with you. The things that make a Russian angry most are : injustice, stupidity, cruelty, narrowness, and gift- less rendering of art's creations. Just another few lines before I close this topic. A unique . term to There exists one very quaint and very Russian depict word not exactly a swear- word, but an expression of neglect and of distaste for someone. Please remember the respect with which intellect is re- garded in Russia ; but if I succeeded in making that point clear at the beginning of the book (pp. 17, 18), you will not feel surprised for more than one moment that the term of contempt I am about to explain is derived from the noun meaning brains ! Yes, mozgl is brains, and is often used for intellect, just as in the English phrase ' he has got brains ' ; but the adjective mozgl'dvy, or, still worse, moz- gl'aven'ki is a most unpleasant characteristic. Its nature is very subtle, though, and I wonder whether I shall be able to explain clearly. Again I must look for help in Dostoyevski: the old father Kara- mazov was a mozgl'avy starichlshka the last word meaning in itself a nasty, objectionable, little old man. He had brains, yes : but he had brains only, and the other characters in the book call him moz- 150 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE gl'avy with disgust. The word carries an idea of dry-as-dust brains, of a large skull over a shrivelled body, of a leering smile ; on the whole, of an intellect not supported by the blood of the heart, nor even by a healthy physique. Thus the Eussian defini- tion is as unique as it is poignant. We do not use the adjective ' brainy ' with respect, as it is used in English; we do possess it (mozgovoy), but it goes only with medical and anatomical definitions. We do say ' this business needs brains ' ; but the moment the noun is turned into the adjective mozgl'avy it goes with people's characters only and means brainy in a wretched, withered, blood- less, warmthless way. * # * * # I wonder whether the word nadryv contains its exact meaning in its English aspect, ' laceration.' This is one of the beloved words of Dostoyevski, simply because it conveys the atmosphere of that typical Eussian spiritual suffering. Laceration, in English, means not only tearing something which still remains intact as a whole, but also a rending into two distinct parts. Now, nadryv means ex- clusively a rough, but not final rent whether in a substance or a situation: the syllable nod being there distinctly for the purpose of conveying this nuance; because a complete laceration is razryv, and not nadiyv. Both of these words are applied in Eussian to concrete as well as to abstract sub- THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 161 jects. A nadryv in one's faith, or love, or friend- ship, is a universally acknowledged pain. It causes efforts to mend things where a final blow (laceration =raziyv) would be more logical and more bearable. Dostoyevski's ultra-Kussian characters torture themselves with their ultra-noble efforts to do things which are superhuman, but which they regard as essential, highest and purest. Therefore they do not attempt to attain the relief which a final laceration (raziyv) would give them, but go on painfully enjoying a nadryv: i.e., that half-rent which makes them continually try and persuade themselves that their superhuman efforts are not only just and beautiful, but attainable as well. 1 So, Katerina Ivanovna is trying with all her might to love the reckless Dmitri when she loves Ivan. Or, to take a modern example, if a girl engaged to a soldier at the front tried to continue loving him if he lost both his arms and legs, this would be a typical love with nadryv as Dostoyevski means it. Nadryv may also mean a ' breaking- point ' in people's relations; but this English definition would not convey any more than ' laceration ' does that 1 Parallel to the nouns nadryv and razryv, in connection with tearing, there are: Nadl6rn and raslom in breaking; Nadr'ez and razr'ez in cutting. In each case the first definition conveys the incomplete action; whereas the second means that things are completely rent, finally broken and divided. 152 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE particular painful effort moral effort in one's own heart which, is typical of the Kussian nature as illustrated by Dostoyevski. I wonder whether there is a perfect absence of that supernatural effort in the English nature ? Or what is it else that accounts for the absence in the English language of a definition for this subtle human capacity? I must make haste and reassure my reader that not all Russians live at such a red-hot pace ! But Dostoyevski himself did, and therefore instinct- ively made his heroes do likewise. Bits of their personalities are scattered all over the land, if I may say so ; but they do not appear very frequently in their entirety. It was Dostoyevski's vocation to pick them out and to show them to humanity, enveloped in his great love. And the Russians recognized their weak brethren, those great suf- ferers, and made them live in their hearts for ever. But my English friends, after they have read Dostoyevski, ask me with a sincere, guileless smile : ' Do Russian men cry ?' I hope Englishmen would cry, too, if they ever lived in their inner lives at the rate Dostoyevski's men do. They would be unhuman if they didn't. But I cannot very well imagine Englishmen con- fessing even to their most cherished friends, and in moments of superlative excitement, anything resembling Dmitri Karamazov's frank avowal: THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 153 '. . . When I do leap into the pit, I go headlong with my heels up, and am pleased to be falling in that degrading attitude, and pride myself upon it, and think it to be beautiful and in that very depth of degradation I begin a hymn of praise. Let me be cursed, and vile, and base, but I too kiss the hem of the veil in which my God is shrouded. Though I may be following the devil, I am Thy son, Lord, and I love Thee, and I feel throughout me that joy without which the world could not be there. . . .' Or like Ivan Karamazov : '. . . Though I may not believe in the order of the universe, yet I cherish the sticky little leaves in spring. ... I know that I am going to a grave- yard, but it is a most precious graveyard : precious are the dead that lie there, every stone over them speaks of such burning life in the past, of such pas- sionate faith in their work, their truth, their struggle, and their science, that I know I shall fall on the ground and kiss those stones and weep over them; though I am convinced in my heart that it's long been nothing but a graveyard. And I shall not weep from despair, but simply because I shall be happy in my tears, I shall steep my soul in emotion. . . .' The graveyard thus alluded to by Ivan is the world of his education abroad. The Romance ' precious dead J might be surprised with such a 154 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE passionate attitude towards them of a man of twenty-three ! He is not shy to express it. A few lines further on, Ivan adds : ' I love the sticky leaves in spring, I love the blue sky. ... It isn't a matter of intellect or logic one loves nutrom, chrevom. . . .' These last two words are translated : ' With one's inside, with one's stomach. . . .' I cannot let this pass. Chrevo is not the Modern Eussian, but the Old Slavonic, for stomach, which makes all the difference to the colouring of this sentence in the original. The first of the two words, nutrom, is not an every- day definition for inside, either. I understand that the English of the Authorized Bible pre- sents some luxurious choice of beautiful ancient expressions; and, in the given instance, the Old Russian expression corresponds to the lines ap- pearing in the old version of the English Bible twice (1 Kings iii. 26 and Genesis xliii. 30) : ' For her bowels yearned upon her son,' ' For his bowels yearned upon his brother.' The only subtle difference being that ' yearning ' is nearer to the Russian conception toska (p. 91) than to the overpowering thirst for loving which Dostoyevski saw in Ivan's heart. Nevertheless, the quoted biblical expression does convey the idea of the immense difference it would make if adopted in translating, and the justice it would do in that THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 155 way to the original. As it stands now, how an English reader must laugh at the way of ' loving with one's inside, with one's stomach !' How common it sounds in modern, everyday English ! Yet, we apply the definition nutrom not only to loving in an intense, instinctive way, but even to acting in a beautiful manner. The most beloved of our greatest actors and actresses are always those who create their parts, not merely with the help of refined mentality, but also by living in them with every fibre of their bodies and all the inner- most particles of their egos. That is called playing nutrom. Certainly not one genius of the Kussian stage would be able to understand how to follow the minute instructions which English dramatists shower on English actors. It would be utterly impossible to him to play nutrom, i.e., actually living through every moment of the play with the highest intensity of which a human creature is capable, while handicapped by the author in every step and gesture. Thus the expression to love with one's inside, with one's stomach, must look to the English eye ' funny;' it does no justice to the feeling which in this country is usually well screened by decorum. Here is again the same old difficulty the differ- ence in national characteristics. The dislike of the English for mentioning their feelings leaves them unable to invent words to define these 156 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE feelings. As to actually experiencing them, I cling to the bright hope that ' perhaps a hundred, perhaps ten, perhaps one . . .' amongst refined Englishmen has cried for once in his life with exalt- ation, or with the complexity of his spiritual suffering ! ..." I am vile, and I am pleased with myself. Yet I suffer with being pleased with myself ' . . . says Dmitri. ' One lives in his books; Dostoyevski makes one,' writes one of my brilliant English friends; ' but I feel physically exhausted after having been for an hour or two in company with the Karamazovs. Is it the even tenor of my English mind rural and philosophic which refuses to be disturbed by the intensity of their emotions ?' It is inevitable that a great writer like Dosto- yevski should arouse a sense of disturbance in all equable philosophic minds, and although I feel sorry to see my beloved friends exhausted, yet ... I think Dostoyevski may do them a little good ! As it is, I have been pleasantly surprised to hear many a time another English remark on the same author : ' It is most extraordinary : he shows you the vilest situations, describes the darkest crimes, and yet you don't feel indignant with his char- acters. You feel just sorry for them.' This leads to the gist of Dostoyevski's command- THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 157 ment: . . . ' We are all the same. . . . We may be better where we are, but we would have been just the same in their places. . . .' I met one Englishman (just one, labelled by his friends as ' quite mad ') who said : ' I realize that Dostoyevski is undeniably right in stating this.' I have been obliged to use the word command- ment just now because this is the nearest to the gjj which Kussian meaning. There is a blank space in English Russian for the exact conception which every Russian would woui a apply here. Commandment in Russian is zapov'ed* ; Russian. but there is a word somewhat akin to it, yet im- plying less of the authority of the law and more of the wholehearted willingness to obey: it is zav'et. We apply it to a dying person's last words in which a wish is expressed for something to be carried out after his death; we call a parting wish of our be- loved one a zav'et ; a wish of our mother, or dearest friend, is also a zav'et to us: in fact, everything the fulfilment of which we regard as our cherished, sacred duty. Literature and art especially dramatic art have also the fascination of their zavety l to us. The theatre is regarded in Russia not merely as a pleasant pastime, but as an edu- cational factor in our lives, from which we expect material for profound thought; the stage is our 1 In plural. 158 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE beloved school of life. Therefore, the word zavety is constantly applied to our stage, poetry, and even music to art in all its branches. The zavety of Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Shchedrin, Ostrovski, Gogol', Pushkin, Chaykovski, Vasn'etzov, Nest'erev, Be- 1'lnski, are concrete, vivid conceptions to us, per- fectly clear and beloved commandments : Tolstoy's zavet is spiritual peace; Turgen'ev's virgin love; Pushkin's nationalism ; Dostoyevski' s all-for- giveness; Shchedrln's, Ostrovski's enlightenment; G6gol"s, Chaykovski's love for Kussia's vein of art and sadness; Vasn'etzov's and Nest'erev's love for Russia's mysticism; Chehov's and Gor'ki's present problems of her social life; and so on. Therefore I have instinctively tried to define Dosto- yevski's leading idea as his zav'et to us. It is one of those definitions without which the Russian language would cease to be Russian. The nearest English parallel is ' watchword/ but one never hears it applied so often and so lovingly as the zav'et is applied with us; here the same old national difference in the hue of the definitions stands out clearly: In pronouncing ' watchword ' you imagine a strict, strong, unyielding fighter defending his ideas, almost a warrior; in pronounc- ing ' zav'et ' we imagine a grave idealist repeating his dreams on his death-bed, his very eyes asking those who remain after him to continue the message to the world, for which he has already travailed. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 159 The adjective zav'etny is a dear one, and is applied to a cherished memory, to a sacred longing, even to some certain little nook in the world, which, for some personal reason, has become secretly precious to you. ***** The latest pearl in Russian literature is decidedly A new J pearl of Gor'ki's Childhood. In it he describes his early Russian J literature. experiences in a dark corner of Russian life, amongst the industrial artisans at Nljniy Novgorod some forty years ago. That corner was full of ' leaden viles,' as he calls them. ' It was that virile, mean truth which is not yet dead. That truth which should be exposed down to its roots in order to be pulled, with its roots, out of our memory, out of Man's soul, out of the whole of our hard and shameful life. . . . Although these viles are disgusting, and have crushed a number of beautiful hearts to death, yet the Russian is still so healthy and youthful in his spirit that he is overpowering them, and will finally overpower them. It is not only this which is extraordinary in our life that the layer of beastly viles is so rich and so fertile but also the fact that through this layer the Light, the Healthy and the Creative, still victoriously force their way and grow, good and humane.' Even in this very corner of drunken cruelty, a whole world of the people's beautiful speech is 160 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE again revealed to us. Gor'ki's own masterful chisel creates genuine Eussian words at the need of the moment, and they correspond to the similar genuine art of his characters in beautiful harmony. Even before, Gor'ki wrote in a style which was a fascination in itself even to those who were not carried away with his subjects. But his Child- hood is acknowledged as his chef-d'osuvre. It is no wonder that The English Review hastened to produce some of it for the English public 1 ; and also, it is by no means wonderful that the trans- lator was obliged to leave out whole pages ! As I have already mentioned, one feels grateful for this consideration on the part of the English translator towards Gor'ki. If Gor'ki does not know English, he must be surprised at these abbreviations; but if he does, he is sure to be thankful in his heart. Even comparatively small alterations hurt the eye and ear of a Russian who reads this translation. . . . With the very first phrase of the book Gor'ki plunges into the present tense, which obviously ' wouldn't do ' in English (as it is replaced by the imperfect tense throughout) : ' In a half-dark, shut-in room, on the floor near the window, lies my father, dressed in something white and extraordinarily long. The toes of his bare feet are strangely erect, the fingers of his caressive hands are folded on his chest, and are also 1 It has been since published in book form. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 161 crooked; his gay eyes are tightly covered with copper coins; the kind face is dark and frightens me with its uncanny grin.' And so on. Gor'ki keeps to the present tense for several pages, and they lose half of their graphic power in the quiet English past tense. Here is one of the differences between our The favourite two languages : the present tense is decidedly our Russian favourite. So much so that we sacrifice to this weakness even our grammar ! If you want to give a vivid picture of what you have seen or heard, you invariably say it in this way : ' Yesterday I walk along the street and I sud- denly see ' Last week I meet So-and-So and I hear ' Three years ago I am crossing Europe on my way to England when I suddenly come across etc., etc. We cannot help this form of narrative. It dis- tinctly vivifies our speech. Of course, this theoreti- cally-absurd combination of the past times with the present tense is not so striking when those times are not defined: thus, although the picture of Gor'ki's dead father lying on the floor refers to some fifty years ago, the narrative runs smoothly, without mentioning the time at all as if it were all happening now beneath the eyes of the reader which is the purpose of the author and which makes him instinctively apply the national style 11 162 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE of telling a story. All our heroic epos, whether repeated or written, is given in the present tense. You can drop into it at any place of any of your narratives, too. A very popular modern novel is written in the present tense throughout its nine volumes and the author makes you live in it. So here is already a big though seemingly inevitable drawback in the English version of Gor'ki's Child- hood. Another The rays of love shining through the pages of Russian this wonderful book are different from those of of love. Dostoyevski's. They are equally Kussian, but they emanate from types less complex. The wicked passions in the atmosphere of this book are un- bridled and cruel in a more primitive way; but so are the joys. Everything is haul-relief without having the arabesques of refined complexity worked in their surface. And in the place of painful love ' with nadryv ' (p. 150), like Kat'erina Ivanovna's, or Grushen'ka's (for the Pole who left her), we find here those rays of love which bring warmth and sunshine unmolested. Such is also the love of Dostoyevski's Al'osha, Idiot, and Zosima; but then they are far from being simple natures, whereas Gor'ki's Granny stands out as a nugget of gold in her joyful readiness for self-sacrifice and forgive- ness, without a trace of nadryv in her heart: they are born in it as a matter of course. Her large, plump, round-backed figure, with an extraordinary THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 163 mass of jet-black hair falling down to her knees, and her shining black eyes enwrapping you with an almost physical sensation of pulsating, boundless love, will, from now on, remain like another symbol of that only true joy the joy of loving given to humanity. Her funny appearance does not stand in the way. Her powerful spirit emanating it shines from every page of Gor'ki's Childhood ; and one likes to leave oneself exposed to those warmth- giving rays of Granny's, whether she is inspiring her grandchild with the beauties of ancient folk- lore, or abating the quarrels between her drunken sons, or ' swimming out ' in a spontaneous dance. . . . ' Lord, Lord ! . . . How beautiful everything is ! ... Just look round thee how beautiful !' ' This was the cry of her heart,' says Gor'ki ' the motto of all her life,' although even the boy himself was wondering what there was so beautiful in the appalling surroundings of their home ? An artistic vein was one of Granny's charms, which filled people's hearts with exaltation; and Gor'ki's description of her spontaneous dancing in the hut at the dye-works will give perhaps a glimpse of her outstanding personality. ' Granny seemed to be not dancing, but telling a story. There she was, moving slowly, as if deep in thought, looking round from under her lifted elbow, her big body swaying hesitatingly, her feet cautiously feeling their way. Then she stopped, 164 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE as if frightened by something. A momentary wave of anxiety, of discontent, flashed across her features and suddenly they were lit up again by her good, friendly 1 smile, as if she were greeting someone. She swayed to the side, seemingly making room for someone, bent her head, became quite still, as if listening to something, her smile growing brighter and brighter. . . . And suddenly as if some power swept her of! her feet she plunged into wild dancing, like a hurricane ! In an instant she be- came taller, slimmer, and it was quite impossible to take one's eyes off her.' Granny To judge by the simple manner in which Granny God. spoke to her little grandson, God seemed to be quite near to her life. Telling him about the cunning of her sons (each of whom was going to establish dye-works of their own and therefore wanted to lure the best workers from their father's establishment), she explained their tricks with perfect simplicity and chuckling gently: ' They only make God laugh at them !' On another occasion, she tells her little friend and admirer, Gor'ki, that she had had eighteen children born to her: ' Eighteen !' she repeated joyfully; ' they would have occupied a whole street full of houses if they had lived ! I was married before I was fourteen, 1 Caressive ' smile is the usual Russian definition for a good smile, which stands in the original. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 165 you see, and I bore the first child a year later. But God came to like my blood and kept taking my babies to join his angels. It was a pity, but it was joyful. . . . He took the best ones for Himself, and left me the worst ones. So I was very happy to adopt a foundling. I love you so, you little ones !' Her mind found a connection between God and her favourite horse, the mischievous, spoilt Sharap, who would pretend to bite her shoulders with his white teeth, would drag the silk shawl off her head, and would look at her slyly, shaking the rime off his eyelashes, expecting to be treated by her to something which would please his sweet tooth. 1 What, my child ? What, kitten V Granny would say to him, unharnessing him after his long run in the sledges ' up to mischief, art thou ? Well, well, come on, God's toy !' She would speak of her God even to cats and birds and trees and flowers ; and believed that when ' wandering to see the sufferings,' 1 God's Mother visited all Russian provinces her native E'azan', too.' The nightly prayers of this Granny are exquisite ! Gor'ki says that, as a little boy of ten, he found it most interesting to listen to them. She would 1 There is an akapliist in the Greek Church under this title, a poetic allegorical description of human sufferings and of how the Virgin wandered all over the world to see them and pleaded for the sufferers before God. 1G6 THE ftUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE detail to God everything that had happened in the house during the day: ' Thou knowest this Thyself, Lord, that everyone wants to get the best of everything. Well, that's why Michael wants to remain at his father's dye- works. Going over to the other side of the river to the new works he considers unfair to himself; the business over there is untested, the place is new. Meanwhile, his father l prefers Jacob to stay with him. Well, is it a nice thing to like one child more than another ? The old man is obstinate that's what it is. Wouldst Thou not explain all that to him, Lord ? Send him a dream such a one as he may understand how he should decide the business between his children.' ' She bows to the earth,' continues Gor'ki, ' knocks her brow against the bare floor, then, raising herself, again speaks in a persuasive tone full of meaning : ' Wilt Thou not send some joy to Barbara ? In what way has she made Thee angry ? Why is she a greater sinner than the others ? It won't do : she is young, strong, yet has got to live in sadness. And, Lord, remember Gregory : his eyes are getting worse and worse. Why, if he goes finally blind, he will have to go a-begging quite a wrong thing ! He has wasted all his strength on grandfather, but grandfather won't help, will he ? ... Lord, Lord. . . .' 1 Granny's husband. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 167 ' She remains silent for a while, obediently bending down, looking as if she were asleep or frozen, then 'What else?' And she tries to think, knitting her enormous brows : ' Have mercy, Lord, and save all orthodox people me, too, the wretched fool that I am. Thou knowest, I sin not with wicked- ness, but because of my stupid brain !' Finally she adds lovingly, with perfect satisfaction : ' All is known to Thee, rodnoy. . . . Thou knowest everything, Bat'ushka !' By the way, the reader will see here that this special twist to the word ' father ' (bat'ushka) is applied by simple-minded people even in address- ing God, as well as the favourite caressive adjective rodnoy (see p. 59) Really and truly there exist no intonations in the English speech for such a prayer. It needs the nuances of a Russian voice, and then it may be appreciated even by a foreigner's ear. Nearly every morning Granny would find new words of touching admiration for the Virgin. . . . ' Thou pure beauty, source of joy, heart of the heavens, dear golden Sun, blossoming apple-tree !' No wonder a powerful creative impulse of speech was implanted in the young brain of her grandson, who grew up at her side during the impressionable years of his boyhood. Grandfather's God seemed to be of a different nature. Sometimes the old man used to come into 168 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Granny's bedroom before she had finished her morning prayer. He would listen for a while, and, later on, grumble sarcastically : ' Haven't I taught you over and over again, you oak-head, how you should pray ? But you keep to your own silly way like a heretic ! I am astonished God can stand you.' 6 He will understand,' Granny answered, with perfect, smiling conviction. ' He will make it out, whatever we tell Him.' God was so near and human to her mind that once or twice, as the constant quarrelling between her old husband and his sons grew to an appalling extent, she even asked Him : ' Lord, Lord, has Thy clear mind failed Thee in the case of my children ?' And, in her usual talks with her grandson, she once thoughtfully remarked, helping herself from her snuff-box : ' Methinks, there may be cases when even He can't make out whose fault it is. He must be looking and looking down at the earth, watching us all, and at some odd moments He is sure to burst into sobs: "Men, men! My dear, beloved men ! . . . How sorry I feel for you !" . . .' And she would shed tears, making that God of hers still nearer to the future author. But that same dear old funny fat Granny was the same person who stopped the great disaster of the fire which broke out at the dye-works. Being THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 169 interrupted in the midst of her night prayers, she, nevertheless, never lost her presence of mind, and instinctively took charge of the whole business. She, herself, brought out of the flames a bottle of copper-sulphate with her own hands, and made everyone work likewise, at the same high pressure. When the fire was finally extinguished her husband was for once proud of her, and, stroking her big, round shoulder, said: ' Sometimes God is merci- ful to thee, and gives thee a great understanding for an hour or so.' Kecent letters from Russia describing the excel- * i3Q for lent work of the nimble, strong peasant women Russian in our cornfields and hayfields which they take as a matter of course remind me of the praise on the part of this coarse man two generations ago. The attitude of the peasant men towards their women has entirely altered. Their efficiency is heartily appreciated, and men praise them nowadays in a way which is crisp and snappy : Molod etzbaba ! l (See p. 42). Or'eh baba ! Nut of a baba ! Pul'a baba ! Bullet of a baba ! Ogon' baba ! Fire of a baba ! Bogatyr' baba ! (Bogatyr' being the Old Russian word for a hero, and meaning one ' rich of,' i.e., endowed with wonderful qualities. Nowadays the expression ' grey bo- gatyri,' meaning modest bogatyri, is frequently and lovingly applied to the Russian soldiers. 1 In the case of an unmarried girl the word baba is replaced by d'evka (p. 41). 170 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE This point takes me back for a moment to Gor'ki's Granny it is very difficult to part with her ! the only thing she was afraid of in the veritable hell of her husband's home was black beetles. She could discern the approach of one even at a distance, in the dark; and many a time her grandson had to get out of their bed at her ardent request, and creep about the floor on all fours, whilst she was waiting breathlessly with the blanket right over her head. ' Why art thou afraid of black beetles ?' the boy would ask her. And she would give the clear answer : ' Why, because I can't understand what they are made for. All they do is to creep, creep, creep all over the place ! Good God has given every moth its task; wood-louse is there to indicate that the place is damp; the bug to show that the walls are unclean ; if lice attacks someone it means that he is going to be ill. Everything is clear, but these beasts tarakany who can explain what kind of power there is within them, and what do they come for !' In concluding my pages about Gor'ki's speech and that of his characters, I must give the literal translation of some extracts from a book of his, so bold and natural in their definition. I wonder if they will find their way to the innermost hearing of my reader. . . . THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 171 ' The stillness of the night stroked (my) heart with her warm, hairy hand. Somewhere flared up a human voice. Everything was lovingly intensified by the responsive silence. ... A drunken shriek boiled up in the street.' Or: ' The Works became sick of chewed people, and they flowed in a black stream through the opened black mouth (of the Works). 1 A white dishevelled wind (of a snow-storm) was flaring up and down the streets, driving the people into their houses.' Or: ' Grandfather bristled with his golden hair and beard.' And here is a paragraph in the words of the grandfather of Gor'ki's, who was in his youth a burldk on the Volga, towing with other harnessed men immense barges for thousands of miles against the current: ' One of the fellows would let his song come The soaring out of his heart. The others would join speech as in with him and one suddenly felt as (one does when) the frost gives thee a good slap on the back and the whole river seemed to flow faster and faster, as if it were going to rear and rise on its hind legs right up to the clouds !' ' What nonsense !' is very likely the impression of a literary English mind, but our peasant has 1 The explanatory English words which are not needed in Russian are given in brackets. 172 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE boundless imagination, our writer a carte blanche for depicting it, and our reader the capacity for enjoying it. ***** The evoiu- Dostoyevski finally moulded his zav'et (p. 157) Dostoyev- as he neared the end of his literary career which ski's out- look, was really an incessant torment of inward searching. At its beginning, when his life was granted to him at the last moment on the scaffold platform, 1 and he was sent to the Siberian mines, his attitude towards life was a sweeping revolt against humanity and its destiny, as he then saw them. He lived through that period of spiritual despondency (toska), which branched off into Karamazov- shchina (see p. 133): 1 Man loves destruction and chaos to the verge of passion. . . . Man needs exclusively the free- dom of his own willing. . . . He will curse the whole world which is his only prerogative amongst living creatures and, doing so, he may perhaps achieve the consciousness of being more than a piano-key. . . . Life is pain, life is fear. . . . There can be no solving of problems, no final achievements for humanity, because these would mean the end of pain and of struggle which are man's only reason for existence. Achievement would be like two and two makes four, and two 1 He gives a marvellous description of these moments by the mouth of the ' Idiot.' THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 173 and two makes four is certainly the beginning of death, gospoda, and is not life !' But the years in ' The House of the Dead ' (Siberian miners' prison) and further insight into life have gradually brought the torture of Dosto- yevski's searching spirit to the conclusion that ' Man can love not welfare alone : he can equally love suffering.' ... ' All that is left to man is to love his pain and his suffering.' Here is the gist of Dostoyevski's religious mysticism on the waves of which he has finally launched his soul on its way to Eternity : the joy of suffering. Hence his char- acters throbbing with the reality of such joy: the Idiot, Son'a Marmeladova the Queen of Suffering Father Zoslma, Al'osha, Shatov. In them Dos- toyevski is essentially Eussian. In the first phase of his evolution the one of burning revolt against the gloom of everything he may be called the forerunner of Nietzsche. Nietzsche's ideas can be seen as though at the farther end of a telescope through the conviction of Ivan Karamazov that ' everything is permitted.' Also through the striking pages of Ivan's trying to explain to the idealist Al'osha that no one has the right of being beautiful when all the world is drowned in filth. But in Nietzsche there are no traces of the extremely Eussian childlike faith of Dmitri Karamazov, expressed in the lines : ' There (in prison) we shall rise up to joy, without 174 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE which neither man nor God can exist, because God gives joy, it is His prerogative. . . . We underground creatures, we shall sing glorious hymns to God from the bowels of the earth.' Wholesale repudiation is as utterly Kussian as this capacity for wholehearted mystic joy. Both result from passionate ' searching for Christ ' and from the Russian incapacity for compromise. Even Smerd'akov, a type of concentrated mean- ness, cunning and vulgarity, says : ' No one in our day can shove mountains into the sea except perhaps some one man in the world or, at the most, two, and these most likely are saving their souls in secret somewhere in Egyptian desert.' At this the old cynic Karamazov cries in delight : ' Stay ! so you do suppose that there are two who can move mountains ? Ivan, make a note of it: there you have the Russian all over.' Again, Dostoyevski's aristocratic atheist and individualist to the marrow of his bones declares: ' If Truth 1 existed outside Christ and not within Him, I would stand up by Christ and not by Truth.' All this Russian mystical philosophizing, from the singing of hymns by the ' underground crea- tures ' to the ' contemplating of precipices,' has been instinctively laid down by Dostoyevski as the foundation-stone for all modern Russian phi- 1 The Old Russian istina in this case not prdvda. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 175 losophy, poetry and religious aspirations. His titanic creative power is calling forth the inner- most voices of revolt, of nadryv (see p. 150), and of religious individualism. All three are essenti- ally national, and that is why the zav'ety of Dos- toyevski's go deeper with us than even Turgenev's and Tolstoy's. The literature of this century is throbbing with them. It is often called the litera- A dreary concep- ture of podpolye which is Dostoyevski's title for tion. one of his gloomiest creations saturated with despair. It has been translated as Notes from the Underworld and Notes from the Cellarage. Neither is quite correct. Both cellarage and underworld allow the conception of some sort of animal or vegetable life in them ; but podpolye literally mean- ing under the floor stands for depicting the state of mind and of breath, as it were, which would be the only possible one between the two layers of the floor, as floors are built in Eussia. One can well imagine that state. Breathing in it would be unbearable torment physically; thinking spiritually. Well, the works by the latest Eussian Dosto- authors really are unconscious seedlings of Dos- influence toyevski's first phase of evolution, when he felt Russian himself in a podpolye before arriving at an outlet by way of the joy of suffering. But what these modern authors write they write with the blood of their hearts. To quote a very lucky expression ' There is no bourgeoisie about the Eussians' reli- 176 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE gious aspirations. ' The whole of Andreyev's literary Self clings to the question once laid down by Dos- toyevski : ' Is it possible that I am created as I am, with the only aim of leading me to the conclusion that creating me was but a cheat ? ' Andreyev has come to the conclusion that there is no way out nothing but a dead wall placed before him and the rest of humanity. ' Andreyev ought not to be a writer,' says a promi- nent modern critic. ' A writer is a priest of art, and art's aim is to retouch, to paint, to screen life's cheating in most artful ways. That is why art is eternal: it will go on striving for its aim for ever without being able to attain it.' From this point of view a group of the latest Kussian writers are not artists at all ! The idea which took even Dostoyevski many pages of throb- bing sentences is flung into the face of the content- and-sleek humanity in the one phrase of Andreyev's prostitute : ' It is a shame to be good !' Her life is an eternal mental agony which bars the whole world from her sight- and Andreyev comes with her to the maddening conclusion that being pure, clean and good is a prerogative of only a few, and therefore they should not allow them- selves that luxury. All must go to the fatal wall and be crushed against it. ' If there is no Paradise for every one, then I THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 177 reject it for myself. It would not be a paradise, but merely piggishness. . . . Come, relief and bliss of realized helplessness ! Welcome, inevitable darkness, which will come to replace the deceit of life ! Let us drink for the extinction of all lights ! . . . Drink, Dark People, 1 drink for the Dark- ness to come to all alive ! . . .' Nothing could have a greater extinguishing power than such ideas, but the balance between them and ' the sleek majority ' still rests: the world rolls on ! And even the vehement Kussians are not driven to wholesale self-extermination by the fire of a genius of despair ! One suffers for him, one admires his power of frankness and the spon- taneity of his spiritual searchings but they do not kill the second ingredient of a typical Eussian mind: idealism. These two extremes must needs go together because they replace the balance of placidity. It seems a relief to dwell for a while on the power of Andreyev's speech alone. He is another eagle creating definitions with the beating of his wings. To quote a few lines of his : ' A whisper of silence penetrated to his brain. . . . Delighted Sleep grinned happily, placed his hairy cheek against his, gently put one arm round him and tickled his knees with his warm hand, then 1 In the original ' dark people ' are addressed as Darkness, which adds to the power of the phrase. 12 178 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE put Ms fluffy head on his breast. . . . Hairy Sleep gave a victorious whoop, embraced him in a hot embrace and, in deep silence, with abated breath, they floated out into the bottomless, trans- parent depths. . . . There was the emptiness of eternity.' Dostoyevski's love of suffering is absent from the minds of younger writers, and therefore they do not conquer our hearts altogether. They are priests only of the dark altar of Seeking. Feodor Feodor Sologub finds his religion in Death. Sologub the She stands sweet before him as the only clear goal of death, and solution, the only entity that can be achieved and the only knowledge. This religion permeates the whole of Sologub 's creations. He makes Death the only beauty and succeeds in giving her a fascination. The sweet triolettes about ' beloved north, beloved rain !' given in this book (p. 93) are his. It suffices a Kussian to repeat these lines to himself, giving him a chance to visualize them and he begins to feel as if the sighing moss, the rain and the dripping, trembling birches were really the most loveable of all Nature's charms. But Sologub goes much further than Gogol' and Chehov in his love of sadness. There is a sweeping gloom about Sologub's philosophy: ' The imperfection of human nature has caused the mixing in one goblet of the sweetest joys of love with the base fascination of lust and thus has THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 179 poisoned the drink of life with shame and pain and with the longing for shame and pain.' He cuts the knot by worshipping death, but this philosophy is not typically Kussian. It is only his freedom of deciding for himself on an individual- istic religion which is Russian indeed. As compared to the rejection of everything, a A typical T .11. T sacrament. much more universal and instinctively beloved sacrament of the Russian soul is confession: pokayaniye. We don't necessarily mean by this definition a confession of one certain crime, but the readiness to admit all one's faults and evil thoughts altogether the absence of shame in doing so and the willingness to be scrutinized and judged by others. The best illustration of this psychological point is the Russian word for good- bye. It literally means forgive me, and nothing The fc 5 ue else but forgive me. In one of the aspects of the verb it is prost'i or prost'lt'e (singular or plural), and in the other proshchdy or proshchdyt'e (singular or plural). The so-called lower classes invariably use this expression for good-bye when parting from their beloved ones, from their parents or masters, or even from their helpers. It sounds grave and elating, in spite of its seemingly humiliating nature. Russians put quite a different note into their voices compared to the English when they say good-bye whether it is prost'it'e or proshcJiayt'e. It is much more serious; and people involuntarily use the first, 180 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE being the gravest of the two forms, when the cir- cumstances are in the least grave. The departing cook or nurse, whether she feels herself in the wrong or not, will usually say to her mistress, 'prost'it'e, baryn'a.' The ' prost'l, bat'ushka barin ' l is altogether devoid of its nature in 'Good- bye, sir': in Russian it is extremely natural in its affectionate patriarchal tone. 2 To this is very often added between equals, too another typical expression: N'e pomindyt'e llhom ! which means ' Don't remember me by the wrong I have done you.' Man and woman at the moment of parting after years of mutually painful intimacy and mis- understandings are sure to tell each other with a feeling of gratitude for what there had been beautiful between them and with a feeling of sorrow for having hurt each other: ' Prost'l ! N'e pominay lihom !" The youngest of Alexander II. 's assassins, a fellow of nineteen, when being driven to the place of execution, stood up on the dreary and clattering high vehicle and, moving along the streets of Petro- grad, bowed low to the crowds many a time, re- peating: ' Prost'it'e !' It instinctively combines a final good-bye with a pleading for forgiveness. That is why we more often say at an ordinary parting, do-svidanya, au revoir, than proshchdyt'e. The distinction here is still more acute than between 1 See p. 50. 2 Literally: Forgive, mistress. Forgive, father -master. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 181 the French au revoir and adieu : there is little hope of seeing each other again in the word proshchayt'e. The usual reply amongst the peasantry (and on grave occasions amongst all classes of Russians) to the prost'l said at parting is Bog prost'ti=God will forgive you ! Here again is the typical abstinence from passing judgment on other people. Even when asked for forgiveness the Russian doesn't consider himself in the right to judge another at all; and this truly national answer means: God will forgive you: it is not my busi- ness to judge even in the case of your having done me harm. I wonder whether I have made it clear that there is no humiliation in all this, but rather a quiet courage of admitting one's unavoidable demerits and mistakes. There is something characteristi- cally breezy about the Russian psychology ; along- side with this modest demand prosfife there exists A praise for one 's a definition which is perhaps the most striking foes, of all : it is lihoy (adjective), and llho (adverb), which are never conveyed in the translations by any- thing approaching them: nothing under a whole explanatory sentence could convey the distinct, sharp outlines of this most Russian definition. In South-Russian the noun llho means wrong or misfortune ; in Russian proper it is not in use now, although originally it also must have stood for ' wrong ' pure and simple. But the point is, that 182 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE at some time in the depth of the ages the adjective deriving from that noun, lihoy, has acquired an additional meaning: the latter stands for the acknowledgment of elegance and smartness in inflicting wrong of a courageous way of doing harm ! It is really a praise for those who are doing cruel things brilliantly, although with the intention of harming you. . . . There the foreign writers who like to speak of Russia with their hands clasped piously are bound to shut their eyes and ears: there is much in the Russians beyond their mysticism and even beyond the human warmth of heart; it is just this complexity that makes them interesting, because the complexity itself comes from the gift of seeing things from ever so many points of view. To those who really know them, the Russians are much more interesting than they appear in Mr. Stephen Graham's de- scriptions. He profoundly admires them, but his point of view is growing narrower and narrower with each of his books. I have heard many Russians who have read them apply to him, with good-natured condescension, our adjective pr'a- molineyny which means ' running along as straight as a straight line ' ; it does not imply the idea of deep, many-sided observation. Yes, lihoy is an essentially Russian epithet, and a most breezy one too ! It makes you visualize a foe whose art commands involuntary admiration THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 183 lihoy vrag (vrag=foe). With the kazaki ( = Cos- sacks), it is a fine praise : it is the ambition of every one of them to be a lilwy kazdk ; and the combina- tion of these two words instantly draws a picture of a slim, wiry figure on horseback, as if chiselled with his animal out of one piece of steel one who will not be moved either in warfare nor in less dignified forms of struggle (the latter of which, we hope, will never take place again ! . . .). But there is a distinct touch of something aboriginally- poetical, aboriginally-handsome in this praise for a war-like attitude, and probably this is the reason why I have not once come across the epithet lihoy attached to ' a German ' (n'emetz) as yet, in spite of the very richly coloured, very local and very national Russian war-literature: somehow the Germans, as a foe, do not call forth ancient poetical conceptions even in inflicting wrong ! With a shade of bitterness added to it, the same adjective is applied to merciless Fate lihaya svd'ba (fern.) ; or to a brilliantly executed (!) cruel act lihoye d'elo : again there must be the element of aboriginal daring in it, pure and simple, to make that brilliancy fall under this definition; for instance a murder or a pillage, when no traces of the criminals can be found. This reminds me, by the way, of another expression defining the art in crime, however horrible that sounds ! It refers solely to those wicked deeds, the authors of 184 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE which cannot be found out, despite any research and investigation; in such instances one says: tut komdr vosa n'e podtochit I It means ' there is nothing here on which a gnat could sharpen his nose !' i.e., not even a weeniest thing that would show itself on the beautifully-smooth surface. The adverb liho goes mainly with the ' diable- m'emporte ' kind of manners, conveying the idea of a smart dash-and-go before anything else; for instance, to sing liho means to sing so that every- one is bound to listen whether one wants it or not; liho sMchet troyka means a troyka is flying headlong in a magnificent way . . . and the foot- goers should look out sharp ! The same adverb is gaily applied in homely matters: a bright Eussian fellow, brimming over with un-used strength and ready to challenge laughingly the whole of the world, is very much apt to shift his cap to the back of his head, side- ways : this, combined with his mood reflected on his young face, and with the front tufts of his hair sticking out from under the cap with that same roguish challenge, sends for a second through the mind of those who meet him, the expression: shdpka liho na-b'ekr'en' ! There is no verb in it, only the noun shapka ( = cap), and two adverbs which must need go together on this occasion, because the liho means the very spirit with which a fellow would shift his cap na-b'ekr'en' ( = hat THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 185 a-cock): you wouldn't do it unless you felt liho, would you ? We meet lots of them who do, in our town and country. * * * * * Before finishing with the dark colours in the The mystic woman- writings of our youngest authors, I must mention poet. Zinaida Gippius. This woman certainly has a more marked stamp of a genius on her brow than any of the other modern writers. Despite her un- Kussian name, she was born for that Kussian vehemence which brings her, alas, nothing but pain. The brightest of all her poems is the one previously mentioned (p. Ill), ' Kussia speaking to her Singer.' It is not only quaintly poetic in its form, but typical in its spirit, akin to Dostoyevski's spirit: * Who will love my sins ail-forgivingly ? . . . Love the tall weeds alongside my walls, Love my poor drunken peasant !" But it is her uncanny nationalism which makes her speak thus; here she yields herself wholly to her love of country, almost uncanny in its inten- sity; because her general attitude towards human- ity's existence in this planet is all-round helpless- ness and condemnation itself. I feel inclined to startle my reader straight away by a literal translation of the most extraordinary of her poems ' Reality ' ; in other verses of hers he will undoubtedly trace what is called a poetic 186 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE vein, while ' Keality,' I think, would be called a poem nowhere on earth except in Russia ! It needs the Russian passion for exploring the new; and fear of novelty is the last thing that could be expected from Zinaida Gippius. An extra- REALITY. ordinary poem. Sticky and filthy, fraudulent, horrible, Densely-stupid, ghastly, terrible, Slowly-cruel, void of honesty, Shameless, slippery, mean and stifling, Shamming happiness, hiding misery, Vulgar, hollow, sensual, cowardly, Sodden and stagnant, slimy and obstinate, Death or life undeserving equally, Slavish, contemptible, dreary, decaying, Glutinous, selfish, infernal, monotonous, Still in its impudence, dismal in quietness, Sleepily-heavy, wickedly artful, Cold like a corpse, worse than nonentity, Worse than unbearable false false deceitful ! With an impressionable mind it may bring one to the verge of wiping cold perspiration oil one's brow ! And it does now and again with the Rus- sians. But I am not anxious about my English reader. He will either laugh or pucker his nose. I here feel tempted to ask a solution to the prob- lem Why do the English find a ' charm ' in the Russians ? Our ever-searching, ever-analyzing national character, ' sadness which is joy,' joy which is exaltation, burning the candle at both ends and melting it in the middle, ever longing THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 187 for prostor, headlong plunging into Karamazov- shchina including both torment through God and torment through no God all this must be per- fectly strange to the well-balanced British mind. But it is possible that while you outwardly apply the epithet ' charming ' you inwardly substitute for it ' amusing ' ? .... N'ichevo ! This does not hurt us. We make sincere friends all the same, wherever we meet something rodnoye (p. 59) in the English. I wonder whether a picture of the slowly-falling masses of snow, and its impression on Zinaida Glppius, will attract those who are used to the ever- lasting green grass of this snug little island : SNOW. Snow-the- wonderful. Again it falls, miraculous and silent, Soaring, circling, settling gently down. . . . Its painless fall delights my thirsting spirit, It comes reborn of nothing, to exist awhile. It re-appears, a stranger sweet as ever, Oblivious and tempting in its cold. I always wait for it expecting miracles, I feel it near to me, akin in unity. It will depart, entrancing, soundless, stealthy; Its loss does not depress me : as before I'll wait. ... I love thy touch, my gentle one, My only one, my longed-for ! And still it falls soft, powerful, unhurried, Its conquest filling me with boundless pride. Of all the mysteries of earth, thou, Snow the wonderful, It's thee I love, thou Master of my mind ! 188 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE There are not many people who are disturbed by the stillness of a moonlit night, but it invariably upsets our woman poet. My object being to convey as clearly as possible the psychological keys of the Eussian speech, I hope the English reader will allow me another one or two close translations of her poems in spite of their lack of classical English ; I can follow only the sense and the rhythm the lilt. What is What is lacking in the moonlight, thfmoon- In that dim-blue midnight secret ? light ?' In the stringless, silent music, In the sparkling shine of desert ? Gazing at it leaves me longing, Love in moonlight does not soothe me, Beams of moonlight sting acutely, Hurt so coldly, ever wronging. 'Midst the rays of shining power I am powerless and dying. . . . Oh, if wings could grow from moonlight That I could go flying flying ! . . . The Eussian language allows a repetition of the words freely. The English reader must have noticed it in the everyday speech of Dostoyevski's characters. True, with him they repeat more than a Eussian under ordinary circumstances does. But then, you cannot meet whole families composed of or whole drawing-rooms filled with Dosto- yevski's people. In the Eussian original, they speak still more intensely than even the repetition ^ English words and sentences can convey: be- cause W e have several conjunctions quite unknown THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 189 in the English speech, which carry half shades of meaning (for instance, a, which is exactly half-way between the meaning of the ' and ' and of the 'but'; also vprochem, v'ed', odndko, razv'e which do not exist in English at all, and are always trans- lated as the same old ' but '! Also a number of what we call particles, one-syllable little bits of words, which serve the same purpose. 1 They all come in with the repetition of words constantly, and the difference they make can be here explained only graphically. When the English translator is reduced to repeating, ' But you thought so ? You thought so ?' the Russians, and especially Dostoyevski's and Andreyev's Russians, say: ' But you thought so ? V'ed' you thought je so odnako ?' All these je, da, to, li, by, v'ed', a, d'e, an, chay, znay give whole chords of colour in Russian, sug- gesting doubt, obstinacy, sarcasm, conviction, etc., on the part of the speaker which are not depicted in any other words and therefore, meeting no equivalents in English, inevitably remain untrans- latable. Without dwelling on this additional technical difference, I just want to point out the manner of mere repetition of words, which does not actually emphasize or twist their meaning, but adds quaint 1 They exist to some extent in Greek, as well as some parallels to our syllables of nuances. 190 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE music to the poetry. The prolific poets of the last two decades, Bal'mont and Val'eri Br'ussov, drop into that manner frequently; but I shall try and translate another little poem by Zinaida Gippius in which she does the same. In Russian it sounds transparent, lucid, and delicately, daintily tristful: My window is high above the ground, Above the ground, I see but the setting sun large and round, So large and round. The sky looks vast and indifferent, So indifferent, It takes no pity on my heart, On my poor heart. Alas, I'm dying with sadness that's gnawing me, Gnawing me, Longing for things unknown to me, Unknown to me. Where has it come from ? I cannot grasp it. ... Cannot grasp it. I am drawn by things which have not passed yet, Not passed yet. My heart is praying for miracles, Miracles, High above earthly pinnacles, Pinnacles ! . . . A It is easy to notice that with all her Russian Russian's longing, vehement mentality, Zinaida Gippius knows not the other end of Russian nature: she is not given the joy of prostor, the delight of razmah and razdolye all those glorious qualities which make a Russian one with the land and which find for him a way out from his toska through THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 191 this very responsiveness and exuberance of vitality. Even Dostoyevski's love for the ' underground creatures ' and an atheist's tenderness for ' the sticky little leaves in the spring,' as well as Son'a's ardent desire that the man whom she loves should go out on a crossing and kneel and kiss the earth which he had insulted by his crime and confess about it aloud even these sad passions result from breadth of spirit. It is this breadth which has created the expressions prostor, razdolye, razmah, udal' ! (pp. 25, 70, 71) ... Openness! Freedom! Not in the name of narrow personal comfort, but in the name of acknowledging each of one's aspirations without shrinking, without shirking, without fear of ridicule, without false shame. The mind of Zinaida Gippius and her contemporaries finds its way only into the darkest corners of reality. They are blind to the rays of light. Their chutkost' is used up exclusively in one direction sharing people's sorrows. After speaking about them an average Russian feels inclined to take a deep breath of fresh air, to stretch out his arms and to call up in his memory the visions of G6gol"s Troyka, Gor'ki's Granny, Al'osha's and the Idiot's lovable personalities, Chehov's Monk, Tolstoy's Pet'a and Natasha and the soldier Platon Karavayev, Alexey Tolstoy's foaming sea, Igor' Sever'anin's ' halcyon day of spring ' well, even the folk-lore heroes standing out in the fascinating vigour of their 102 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE primitive ' dear strength ' (the absolutely un- translatable sllushJca bogattyrsJcaya), etc., etc. some It is all these which keep unwavering one's thoughts, trust in Eussia's future: not Andreyev's kind of dead- wall future, but the future in which there will be room for sadness and even for joy or suffering because the effects of a sad history cannot be finally effaced but which will throw open wider than ever Kussia's gates to the innate power of loving, the freedom of thinking and the sense of art. These have come up intact from the depth of aboriginal national spirit. The sense of art is a plant that has been growing uninter- ruptedly from the heart of the Kussian soil. Its bloom is rich. And amongst its daintiest flowers is the one which seldom stands plucking and cannot live in any atmosphere except its own without losing its fragrance: and this is the Russian speech. ***** A The other day we were discussing the Russian parallel, language with Mr. Nevill Forbes, who knows it wonderfully well the only Englishman, in my knowledge, who is actually able to appreciate ' the flavour and luxury of the Old Slavonicisms in it,' to use his own expression. ' It is certainly more magnificent than English,' said he, and added : ' I should say, the difference between the two is like that between the robes THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 193 of a Russian Bishop and those of an English Bishop !' This is a witty remark. But, being Russian, I feel inclined, for justice sake, to dwell for a moment on that lucky comparison. It is not only the robes of our Bishops. . . . However agnostic or atheistic we may feel, the scene surrounding the Bishop, or even the look of a small log-built church in the course of a service, makes a quaint impression on us. I am not talking of any religious elan or of the moral influence of our clergy ! Far from that. . . . But, once that the outer appearance of a Russian Bishop (as compared to an English one) is taken as an item to convey the idea of Russian language (as compared to the English) graphically, I want to be fair and to include in the comparison the surrounding atmosphere as well. In every church, at every service (except in Lent) the Russian clergy's robes are of that same gorgeous style as those of a Bishop's, only on a smaller scale. Very well they stand for the ' flavour and luxury ' of our language. But the long-haired and golden- robed priest is surrounded by a crowd of naive, childlike believers, who do not all sit down or all kneel at the same time (in fact, they never sit because there are no seats in the Russian churches at all), or all read from the same prayer- books (because prayer-books are not brought to 13 194 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE church in Kussia), or all sing (because there is always a choir of nice voices only), but who repre- sent a rare picture of frank individualism and absence of self-consciousness. Everyone prays as his own heart dictates him at the moment some kneeling a long, long time, some remaining standing, with their look fixed on the golden gate shielding the altar and, probably, unaware of anything around them; others, again, involun- tarily yawning with (perhaps permittable) fatigue but hastening to cross themselves vigorously and to make several ' earth-bows ' (touching the ground with their foreheads) to make up for their weakness ! . . . And on various occasions hun- dreds of little wax-tapers flickering in the hands of the people in that motley crowd where everyone finds various ways for self-expression including a frank knock on a neighbour's back, with a one- farthing-taper and a message finding its way from the back of the crowd to light it at the altar's gate ' To Nicholas the Wonderworker who pleases God.' The Saint gets it duly, together with the firm belief of those present that their little lights will eventually lead them to the gates of Heaven. Well, if they don't, they certainly envelop the crowd in a warm glow. And, to my mind, the distinct touch of this warm, picturesque light enwrapping the scene forms the other half of the graphic parallel : the warmth and ' caressiveness ' THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 195 of the Russian speech, (it is impossible to do with- out this word when speaking about Russia !) is not one atom less characteristic of it than its magnificence. And, gladly accepting the graphic comparison of the two Bishops' robes, I only want to add the comparison of the above-described scene in a Russian church to the one of an English congregation. However great and deep the re- ligious mood of the latter may be, there is no visible medium for individual self-expression about it: everyone is doing exactly what everyone else does, beginning and ending at the same time whether it is kneeling, sitting, singing or saying a prayer. ' When is the time for them to say their own prayers ?' seriously asked me once a simple, religious Russian woman, obviously finding that there was no chance to pray ' in freedom, inwardly,' as her own heart was longing to. A religious Russian needs the atmosphere of the church, but he prays in it independently. Well, in my picture of comparison (not so far- fetched as it may seem at the first glance) the individual self-expression with a Russian crowd at prayer stands for the freedom with which thou- sands of Russian words adopt various forms according to the speaker's mood at the given moment; while the thousands of little lights glowing everywhere in the hands of that crowd correspond to those innumerable words of appre- 196 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE elation, encouragement, sympathy, forgiveness, spiritual caress, love and tenderness with which the Kussian language is lit up so warmly, so beautifully . . . and so untranslatably ! ***** When English people say in a tone of modest dignity that they ' do not wear their hearts on their sleeves,' it always strikes us for a second that we are horrid people who do so ! ... But another moment and the real point reveals itself to our mind: a conscientious effort of self -analysis brings with it the revelation that we don't wear our hearts on our sleeves either ! But, that some power, without asking our permission, has concealed little X-ray cameras just against our hearts. . . . NO senti- This reminds me of a review of Mr. Stephen mentality -either in Graham's book The Way of Martha and the Way religion or love, of Mary. The critic * finds that ' Mr. Stephen Graham in recent years has taken himself over- seriously as an interpreter of Eussia to Western Europe ' ; and says that ' the Eussians we find in Mr. Stephen Graham's book are absolutely unlike the Eussians that we find in Chehov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoyevski. . . . They are senti- mentalized out of all life-likeness.' I can only back up the critic. He sees the Eus- sians better than Mr. Stephen Graham does because the latter hardly allows us any sense of 1 Daily News, January 3. THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 197 humour. It would be a quaint revelation to him if he realized some day that the Russians ... do not seem to appreciate his love for them. Even his call ( Love Russia !' makes them smile. Both in private correspondence and in the best liberal Press coming from Russia I can see this ungrate- fulness leaking out. 1 The overwhelming majority of Russians are unable to appreciate Mr. Graham's somewhat strange though sincere manner of burning incense to their goodness. After all we are but ordinary mortals ! However different national characters may be, we have not grown more than other nationalities out of the natural human habit of being human just human; and being ' sentimentalized out of all life-likeness ' calls forth our sense of humour. If we are per- mitted to know ourselves a little better than the most ardent foreign admirer of Russia does, I would like to point out that the ' warmth ' taking such a large part in Russian life and speech does not kill the sense of humour at all ! I would like to speak up just for that sense of humour rather innate in the Russians, in the place of senti- mentality with which Mr. Graham perhaps un- consciously endows us. However much warmth there is in a Russian and in his speech, this warmth is ever so far from the superficial, shallow nature of sentimentality. The 1 See The Times Literary Supplement, March 16, 1916. 198 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE absence of the latter ought to be clear from that word bat'ushka alone, which, perhaps, Mr. Graham also understands as * little father ' (at least I never heard of an explanation of this common mis- understanding from his pen). I tried my best to show in due place how detestably-sickly this manner of translating the fine Old Eussian grave and serious manner of addressing sounds to us. Only those Eussians who have no * sense of lan- guages ' at all and don't trouble about the exact meaning of words (there are some Eussians of this kind too !) can light-heartedly consent to this interpretation so unfortunately established. One cannot even imagine the two Eussian words for ' little father ' ever pronounced in our land at all ! They would be ' mal'en'ki ot'etz ' or ' mal'enki bat'ushka ' and would sound absurd ! The combining of this particular noun with this particular adjective is absolutely unthinkable; it could not be borne by a Eussian mind. What is more, shoulder to shoulder with * bat'ushka ' stands its variety ' bat'ka ' and everyone who has lived in Eussia ought to know what a delightful couple these two make ! In order to be short and clear I will invite my reader for a moment back again to the little village church . ... It is not unlikely that the wretched old priest had a little too much just before the service. Well, in that case more than one amongst his THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 199 congregation will smile to himself and say : ' Olio ! Bat'ka is a bit tovo (a bit of that) F Not for a second would the usual manner of addressing a priest (bat'ushka) come into a Kussian's mind on such an occasion: it would be bat'ka unless it is merely pop ! I think, that bat'ushka and bat'ka, coming from one root, are excellent in depicting the contrasting proximity of seriousness and humour. But both of them are miles away from sentimentality. A little peasant fellow who had just had a spanking from his father (which is not common amongst the peasantry and quite absent with the educated classes) will explain the richness of his complexion to a sympathetically-inquisitive comrade in two words: ' Bat'ka pr'ib'il.' 1 Calling his father by this word bat'ka instead of ot'etz, or bat'ushka, or t'at'ka (all standing for ' father ' in a nice way), he will thus express his attitude at the given moment: namely, one of criticism, but at the same time one which it is not worth while dwelling upon. The peasant's criticism passed on his spiritual father's weakness is of the same nature: the next moment he will be deep in his mood of devotional worship far from being formal or perfunctory, but in free accord with what he feels moved to do and not thinking of the priest's lack of dignity at all. There is no decorum in 1 has beaten me. 200 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE the attitude of our peasantry towards their priest- hood: if there were any, the funny everyday word pop (for priest) would never have come into being. Both in pop and in bat'ka there is a world of humour. What is more, a demure, funny little priest would be called popik, which is the quint- essence of fun ! That is just the case : we laugh on many occasions where Mr. Graham probably does not want to see us laughing; consequently he ignores certain points of Eussian life. The comic element when observed in the sphere of orthodoxy and ' holiness ' is with us a perfectly natural target for fun. If you only could read in original the untrans- latable Sobor'an'e (The Cathedral-ians) by L'eskov what a wealth of that very Eussian humour which goes hand in hand with good-natured forgiveness ! Again, Chehov's tenderness for the failures of mankind: isn't it interwoven with humour now subtle, now farcically -naked which means a fear- less openness of good heart ? Is it anywhere near sentimentality ? Why, even the vague English definition ' lovers ' could be sooner related to sentimentality than our most decisive denomination (I'ubovniki) which draws a circle round the word for lovers (see pp. 15, 16) leaving no room for the question what sort of lovers they may be. Passion is certainly understood by this term; but no senti- mental parading. If there is any ' display ' about THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 201 it say, in a man's going with his secret lover to the stalls of the Opera House pretending to be her ordinary acquaintance or a stranger then there is challenge and humour in it, but no desire to be sweetly called ' lovers ' by grannies and school- girls. His friends who know about his uvlecheniye (see p. 124) will express their understanding with- out words and will enjoy the situation as one of buoyant humour, feeling themselves a kind of con- spirators. This touch is not comparable with the atmosphere of the English morals, visible or con- cealed, just as ' popik ' and ' bat'ka ' are not com- parable with ' our vicar ' and as the two languages are not really comparable in their whole. The lack of common denominator in each of these spheres is striking. So it is with regard to cases of profound emotions. The times, when Yronski's appearance in a theatre box with Anna Kar'enina whom he regarded as his wife was taken as impudence, are gone now. Russia has been developing since then in every way A little but one. . . . Only the sphere of home politics sion. in Russian life is rather unlike the others, and the road along it is somewhat barricaded in spite of the progress on its right and left. But we, true to our cherished dreams, still hope that the war will automatically overthrow this striking inconsis- tency. But this one particular sphere of our dreams can hardly be called sentimental: there is an element 202 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE of tragedy in it; and the absence of humour in this case is rather pardonable. Elsewhere, deepest emotions don't exclude a smile with the Russians. An old, essentially Russian exclamation in the form of an address is a typical illustration: ' Eh, thou, gor'e-bogatyr' !' . . . Bogatyr is a folk-lore definition for a hero richly endowed with victorious spiritual and physical power; while gore means grief, disaster; combining the two seemingly incommensurable conceptions and throwing them at a fellow without any further comment carries with it a world of sympathy (for some reckless, fruitless effort) combined with a smile. Don Quixote was a real gor'e-bogatyr' ! Russia would not have produced the genius of Gogol' and of Ostrovski if this laughter through tears were not innate in her very blood. The A ' snap- jack ' is to a sunlit room what humour of a snap- is to Russian tenderness. (I vainly asked a number Russian f m y friends what is the English word for the little patch of brilliant light which one sends fluttering about the room in one's childhood by means of reflecting sun-rays on a piece of broken looking-glass; no one could tell me. At last I got the ' snap-jack,' without a moment's hesitation, from a dear village landlady who commands an extraordinary vocabulary. It sounds most appro- priate !) That is why we do not quite recognize THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 203 ourselves in the paintings by Mr. Stephen Graham : there is much colour in them, but the room is too hot and there is no ' snap-jack ' in it ! Therefore I am very anxious that the reader of this book educated on such representations should not draw a final vision of the Eussians exclusively with the help of their lovable and caressive terms discussed in its pages. They are not ' pretty ' these terms ! You must not call them so. For one thing, we have no word for ' prettiness.' The adjective ' pretty ' we have (horoshen'ki), and we apply it to pretty women's faces, their frocks and hats, to knick-knacks, to jewellery, to small gardens, small houses, small animals. But we have no word for prettiness. And it would never occur to us to call the words bogatyr', chutki, laskovost', rodnoy, prostor, razdolye, prost'lt'e, bat'ushka, etc. 1 ' pretty ' words. They are beautiful, because their meaning is deep. Nor are pop, or bat'ka, or baba, or sapojlshche, or mozgl'aven'ki 2 pretty, either ! If I add just one more word to the last set, my idea can be conveyed in a charac- teristic saying: this word is popadyd, and means the pop's wife 3 ; and the saying (applied when one is talking about the variety of tastes in this world) runs: ' Some like the pop, some 1 See pp. 18, 23, 25, 50, 168, 179. 2 See pp. 126, 141, 149, 199. 3 I expect my reader knows that a man cannot take holy orders in Russia without being married. 204 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE popadya, and some the tail of piggy !' Or, here is a variety: ' Some like a melon, some water- melon, and some the pop's daughter !' 1 Those Kussian hearts can also be bursting with ' naughty ' fun; we have no word for ' naughty,' but I think we understand its English shades of meaning; we find it too much rubbed into the astonishingly well-trained babies of this country, while the facial expression usually accompanying this blame when it is addressed to ' grown-ups '- makes us smile ! They can be very furious, those Russian hearts ; very indignant, burning with hatred, wicked, wilful, nonchalant; even cruel on the one cumbered road. . . . But the X-rays go on doing their work on all these occasions just the same ! And this is the most characteristic feature about the Russians. ***** Final dig I would not like my reader to run away with ' the idea that I am unaware of all the scientific arguments which philologists can hurl at me. I think I know most of them, and I would like my reader to know what I think of them. The main argument will be, that all this flexi- bility of words which we enjoy so much is merely an evidence of the primitive stage in the develop- ment of our language ; that other languages had it 1 KTO non, KTO nonaflbio, a KTO CBHHOH XBOCTHKT. ! KTO jHoSurt fltiHio, KTO ap6y3i>, a KTO nonoBy THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 205 once upon a time all these eloquent terminations and twists to the words but have dropped them as an unnecessary ballast. Then they will say that it is easier to learn the English, freed from that ballast, than any other language; and that this is, after all, the all-important advantage- making the English speech attractive to a number of nations on this globe. Well, I quite agree that the purely grammatical terminations can be called a ballast; and perhaps we would not notice or mind if they withered gradually and fell of? one by one leaving four out of the thirty-two terminations to a verb's stem. But when my English critics tell me that a selec- tion of precise adjective epithets works just as well as a special twist given to the noun itself in order to illustrate the speaker's attitude, I find it a little inconsequent: it is not in accord with the general English power through brevity. When people complain ' I have no time !' and a wonder- ful friend of mine answers simply and inspiringly 'Make time, make time!' as if this were as easy as making crumbs out of bread and does so him- self this fills me with admiration. But, stringing a row of adjectives, as in ' dirty, nasty, objec- tionable, wretched, little old man,' instead of our simple way of merely adding two certain syllables to the noun meaning old man, does not look like making time to me ! The other alternative in 206 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE English for such cases (as I equally gather from my friends) is to make faces ! Instead of saying something like ' Wipe your }>oot-ishche !' as would be the ominous twist to the Russian word for clumsy big boots heavy with mud the English people are supposed to convey their attitude of disapproval by a facial expression and tone of voice accompanying ' those boots !' This would be all right if they did; but they don't. Such things are always asked in the politest and kindest manner imaginable (if they are asked at all !) and we never see ' faces ' on our English friends' faces. The perfectly justifiable tend of their real thoughts on such occasions remains deep below. It is like an enchanted circle of mutual influence : innate reticence does not allow the English people sufficient colouring in their speech for fear of making it ' flowery ' and ' ridiculous ' (reasons which equally account for the lack of expression in the general English manner of reading aloud or re- citing) while their speech thus having been pruned close to its stem in its turn does no more send out shoots of tender green filled with springly 1 sap. 1 I know that there is in English no adjective ' springly ' deriving of the soun spring (the season of the year, and not a spring in the mattress), but I am unable to manage without it. In Russian we have it in two forms, ancient and modern: v'eshn'i, v'es'enn'i. While the mattress-spring has nothing to do with it: it is npy>KHHa, with its own adjective prujinny ; and the third English spring for leap is with us different again : THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE 207 So we could not possibly accept this argument as carrying the point in favour of the English language for its being freed of ' unnecessary ballast.' To our mind, this part of the ' ballast ' is the very sun-colour of our speech. The last argument, about English being ever so much easier than Eussian, is beyond debating, of course. But if the Kussians had the choice offered to them either to have their language preserved as it is and have it spoken only by a limited number of foreigners, or to have it pruned like the Modern English and to hear it spoken by other peoples all round the world they would prefer the first, the unpractical alternative ! They wouldn't be Russians if they didn't. INDEX OF MARGIN HEADINGS PAOE English conceptions not existing in Russian - 4 An open question - - 9 A side-light - 10 A clash in a definition - 1 4 The attitude of the Russian mind in general - 16 and regarding fools and cleverness - 17 and responsiveness - 18 Quality causing responsiveness - 20 illustrated by an instance at an English school - - 20 Too much of it 22 The beloved Russian conception: Prostor - - 25 Foreign words in the Russian language - 28 The all-powerful syllables or nuances - 29 The characteristics and flexibility of the verb ' to be ' - 34 Further transformations of words - - 37 The power of terminations - - 40 A new word for the Germans - 43 A new reading of an old word - 44 The Russian method of address - 45 An ordinary term of sociability - 49 Misunderstood terms of affinity - 50 Indispensable Russian form of address - 53 Another side-light - - 54 N'ichev6 - 57 A very Russian word for affection - - - ^59 The order of words - 60 A reminiscence - 63 G6gol' the nationalist - - - - - 67 A term of endearment for Russia - - - 67 208 INDEX OF MARGIN HEADINGS 209 PAGE G6gol' on prost6r - - 68 Conceptions without which a Russian could not live - - 69 An important digression - 72 Tr6yka - 75 The possibility of G6gol's vision - 79 The new idea of nationalism - 81 No danger for England - 81 A typical Russian word for quick wit - 82 ' Man,' ' woman,' and ' marriage ' - 85 * Chin,' ' chin6vnik,' and Peter the Great - - 87 An example of transference of ideas - - 90 A very Russian conception - 91 The ' sadness that gives joy ' -93 The oneness with Nature - - 95 Looking backward - -97 A mainspring of Russian character - - 97 Difference between the English and the Russian conceptions of belief - - 98 Two words for ' Truth ' - 99 ' Behind-the-soul-ness ' - 99 Some Russian sayings - 102 No * slang ' in Russian - 103 Untranslatable names - 106 Creating new words - - 108 A characteristic poem - m The part played by Old Slavonic - - in A query . n 5 The keys to the fairy-tale, child-young nature of the Russian Language n 7 An explanation via other channels - - 118 Some simple derivations . n 9 Subconscious will reflected in verbs - - 121 No compromise - 122 An everyday capacity . 124 Baba a very Russian conception - - 126 An historical anecdote - 128 Two historical definitions wrongly translated - 131 A special twist to the nouns - 133 14 210 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE PAGE Tenderness and Love winding their way throughout the language - 138 Various terminations conveying the exact attitude of the speaker - - 142 Poignancy of expressions - - - 145 Some Russian curses - 147 A unique term to depict a dismerit - -149 ' Nadryv' - - 150 Another word without which the Russian language would cease to be Russian - 157 A new pearl of Russian literature - - 159 The favourite Russian tense - - 161 Another very Russian aspect of love - - 162 Granny and her God - - 164 Praise for the Russian baba - - 169 The people's speech as presented by Gor'ki - - 171 The evolution of Dostoyevski's outlook - 172 A dreary conception - - 175 Dostoyevski's influence on latest Russian literature - - 175 Feodor Sollogub the admirer of death - 178 A typical sacrament - - 179 The true meaning of good-bye - 179 A praise for one's foes - 181 The mystic woman-poet - 185 An extraordinary poem - 186 Snow-the-Wonderful - - 187 ' What is lacking in the moonlight ?' - 188 Abundance of conjunctions - - 188 A Russian's longing - - 191 Some hopeful thoughts - 192 A suggestive parallel - 192 No sentimentality either in religion or love - 196 A little digression - - 201 The presence of a ' snap- jack ' in Russian life - 202 Final dig at English - - 204 RUSSIAN WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS USED AND EXPLAINED IN THE TEXT (IN ORDER OF THEIR APPEARANCE) Bzykatsa Vyshedshi Razv'erzl'is' hl'ab'i n'eb'esnyia ! Zdrastvuyt'e - Naslajd'eniye - Schastye Baryn'a, baryshn'a - L'ubovnik (-ki, plur.) M'elochn6y M'eloch, m'elochnost' Durak, durachdk Otzyvchivy Chtitki - T'ajela na podyom - Otzyvchivost' Chtitkoat, chutki - Chuty6 - Pr'iv'&tl'ivy - Laskovy Laskovost' Prostor - Razdolye Blagodar'fc Spasibo - Br'esti - L'et'et' - Rvat' - Vitsa - M6r'e - Holm - BpHKaTBCH Btiuie.a.uiH CiacTte BaptiHH, JlK)60BHHKT>, JIK)60BHHKH na OTSLIBHUBOCTB HyTKOCTB, Hyxbe - IlpHB r BTJIHBLltt JIaCKOBOCTL - ITpocTop-b - CnacnSo - BpecTH, HaSpecTH, BaGpecxH, HaoSpecTH - PAOK 4 6 !- 10 1 1 - 13 - 13 14 - 16 - 17 !7 - 17 18 18 18 20 20 20 22 - /-) ^ - 2 3 25 - 25 29 29 , BaopsaTb - BHTbCH, BSBHTbCH - Mope, BsMopbe - XOJIMI> - 211 30 30 30 30 30 30 212 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Bit' Stol Pr'estdl - Vrat' - Lgat' Trus Jat' P'et' Shchupat' Chuvstvovat' Zvat' Brat' Stat' Da vat' - Sy&zd, razy^zd, pody6zd, vydzd, priyezd, vyiezd, obyezd, proy&zd, nay&- zdy - Byt' Zabyvchivost' Zab^tye Obmorok Yest' - U m&n'a yest' vr&m'a Byl6ye - Btid'e - Bylo Byt Bytov6y Bfcdushscheye - Duh Dtihi - Duhl - V6zduh - Duhota - Dusha - Dunov&niye - Otdyh - no6nTb, Bbi(5nTb, Ha6nTb Grojrb - BpaTb, JlraTb - Tpyc-b, Tpycoearb , nan-BBaTb Ilfynaxb, namynaxb BpaTb, H GxaTb, nacTaxb, BCiaTb, ycxaTb, nepecTaxb, npHCTarb, aacTaxb nepe^asaTb, , 061,- npo'fea.n'b, H-BT-b npo- , npo6biTb, c6biTb, y6biTb, BbiCbiTb, npuSbiTb, aa- 6biTb - - 3a6biTbe EcTb - y MGHH ecTb BpeMH BbiJioe, CbiJib - BbiJio - BUTT, - EbiTOBott .OjxoTa - Ayuia - 3 i 31 31 31 31 31 32 32 32 3 2 32 32 33 33 33 34 34 34 34 35 35 36 36 36 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 RUSSIAN WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS 213 Otdyhat' Dushistost' Yedinodiishiye Velikodiishiye - Prostodfrshiye - Dobrodtishiye - Duhovenstvo - Vzdoh - Dhshechka Duhovnaya Duhovaya Otdfrshina Izdyhat' Pravda - Pravilo - Pravo Pravil'nost' - Pravleniye Upravleniye Pravitel'stvo - Pereprava Sprav'edlivost' Vypravka Popravka Napravleniye - Pravovedeniye Pravoslaviye - Vodit' - Zavodit' - Privod - Zavod - Svod Nevod - Vzvod - Perevod Podvoda Str6y - Stroynost' Postroyka Stroyeniye Ustroystvo Nastroyeniye - Nastroyshchik IIpocToayiiiie .IJoGpoAyiiiie - flyXOBGHCTBO - B3flOXT> - ,H,yiiie4Ka IIpaBHJio npaso - ripaBHJIBHOCTb npaBJienie VnpaBJieme - IIpaBHTeJILCTBO IlepenpaBa BbinpaBKa IIonpaBKa Hanpasjieme - Cxpott - CTpOttHOCTb - HocTpoliKa CTpoenie YcTpOfiCTBO - HacxpoeHie - HacxpoftmnKT> PAOK 37 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 214 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Starina - - Ciapima PAGE 41 Starost' - - GxapocTb 41 Starik - - CTapnKT> 41 Staretz - - CTapeijt 41 Starichdk - GxapHHOKT, 41 Starikashka - - CTapuKaiima - 41 Starichishka - - CTapHqiiuiKa - 41 Staryo - - Orapbe - 41 Mal'chik - MajibmiK-b 41 Mal'chishka - - MajibHHUina - 41 Mal'chugan - Majib i iyraH-b - 41 Mal'chonka - - MajibqoHKa, MajibHyraiiJKa, MajibHyraH t iHK'B, Ma:ib4HHbKa 41 D'evochka - - .H'BBOHKa 41 D' evch6nochka J^'BBHOHOMKa - 41 D'evushka J^'BByiiiKa 41 D'evchonka - - ^'BBHOHKa - 41 D'evitza - JJ-EBima 41 D'eva JI'BBa. 41 D'evka - - 3'BBKa - 41 Syn - GbIHT> 41 Synok - - CblHOKT, 41 Synochek - CblHOieKT, 41 Synishche - CbiHume 41 Doctf - - J^OHb 41 Dochka - - ^OHKa - 41 Doch'en'ka - ^oqeHbKa - 41 Dochurka - JJoiypKa 4 1 M61odost' - MoJIO^OCTb 42 Molod'etz - MojiOAeirt 42 Byl' molodzu n'e ukor - BbiJib MOJio^uy ne yKopT> - 42 Molod'6j - MojioAemt 42 Germantzy - FepMaHi;bi 43 N'emtzy - H-feMI^bl - 43 N'emdy - - HfiMOfi - 43 Slav' an' e - GjiaBHHe - . 43 Soldat'ik - Coji,n;aTHKT> 43 Germanetz - repMaHeu,T> 44 Germanchuk - - FepMaHHyK-L - 44 N'emetz- - Hi>Meivi> 44 N'emchura - H^M^ypa 44 Gospod'ln - FocnoAHHi. 47 Gospoja - - FocnojKa 47 RUSSIAN WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS Golubchik Golubchik barin Hey, vy, goltibchiki ! Golubushka-baryn'a Bat 1 ushka Matushka Gosudar' Gosudar' - bat' ushka Mllostivyie gosudar'i (ma?c.) Milostivyia gosudaryn'i (fern.) Gospoda Brafczy - Tulupchik D'et'l, d'dtki, d'et'lshki, d'etochki, d'etvora Karapuz Puzyr' - N'ichev6 Rod Pr'irdda - Rodstvo - Narod - Urojay - Rojdeniyo Rodina - Rojdestvo Rodnoy, rodnaya, rodnyie N'emtzev Anglichau'e Pobil'i - Soyuzn'iki Izgnal'i - Amerikantzam Pravdu - Pokazal'i Sapogi gannon'ikoy - Sapogi butylkam'i - Larapadka, lampada T'^plitsa Nadod'en'eg - N'ichev6 mn'e n'e nado - Fati, BH, FojiyCyniKa BaTiouiKa MaTyuina 6aTiouiKa MiiJiocTHBbie rocy^apn MHJIOCTHBHH - BpaTijLi T0 1 IKH, Kapany3T> npnpo.ua PofljCTBO PO^HOH, GOK)3HHKH HarnaJin GanorH Canom fl,1iTHUIKH, MITE ne 215 PAGR 49 49 49 50 50 S 1 52 52 53 53 53 54 55 56 56 56 57 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 60 61 61 61 61 61 61 61 61 62 62 63 63 65 65 216 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE N6gi tvoyi tzeluyu Rosslya, Rus* Ty Dal' Razd61ye D61'a - Raz-dva Raz-dva-tri Razmah - Razsv't Sv'et - Razgtd - Gul' anye Gul'at' - Razgul'atsa - Razgovoritsa - Razv'es'elltsa - Razoyt'ls' Razospatsa Uvrechdniye - Razverndtsa - Troyka - Prist'ajnyia Duga Korennoy Razmetnulas' Rovn'em-gladn'em Eh ! Ek ! Skazano-sd'elano ! Muj, muj china Chin Jena, jenshchina On& vyhodit zamuj On j enitsa Mylitsa - Paritsa - Jen'lh - N'e v'Mat' - N'ev'&sta Bezchinstvo - Bez Chin6vn'ik Horn TBOH Poccifl, Pycb - Tu - Pa3Maxi> CB-BTT> - Pa3ryjii> PasryjiHTbCH - PaSFOBOpHTbCH PasoitTHCb PasocnaxbCH - PasBepnyTbcn TpottKa KopenHott Pa3M6THyjiacb Bxt ! 9KT, ! CiweTKa - ! - HHHT> >Kena, Ona OHT> JKGHHTCH MblJIHTbCH EapHTbCH He B63HHHCTBO Besi. HHHOBHHKT> PAOR 66 68 68 68 70 70 70 70 7 1 7' 7 1 72 72 72 72 72 72 72 72 73 74 75 76 76 76 76 76 79 82 83 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 87 87 87 RUSSIAN WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS 217 PAGE Dubinka ,ZJy6nHKa 89 Nyt' HblTb - 90 Da bros't'e vy nyt' ! ,ZJa SpocbTe Bbi HbiTb ! 90 Nytyd - HbiTbe - 91 Toska - Tocna - 91 Toskovat', toskuyet ToCKOBaTb, TOCKyeTb 91 Eh, toska zayela ! - BXT>, Tocna aa-fejia ! - 92 Tom' it' - ToMHTb 93 M'ily - Mnjibitt 94 Dorog6y - Jloporoft 94 Burlakl - EypjiaKii 94 Pravda - HpaB.ua 99 Istina HCTHHa 99 Istinnaya pravda HcTHHHan npaBfla - 99 Zadushevny 3a,nyiiieBHbift - 100 Dusha moya - JJyiiia MOH IO2 Po dushd Ho flynrB 102 N'e po dushe - He no j^yui'h - 102 S'eb'e na um'd CeS'fe na ywfe - IO2 N'e mytyom tak katanyem He MbrrbCM-b TaKi> KaTaHbeivn> - 102 Na vs'akago mudretza Ha BCHKaro MyApei^a ^OBOJibno dovol'no prostoty npOCTOTbl 102 Krayuha Kparoxa 102 Za pazuhoy 3a nasyxott - 103 Bo jest venn o ! - BoTKeCTBGHHO - I 13 Glaza - Tjiasa - 114 Ochi Oqn - 114 Budushcheye - Byymee 114 Gr'adushcheye TpH^ymee 114 Potomuchto - HoTOMyqio 114 Zov 30BT> 114 Klich .... Kjin^-b - 114 S'ila Cnjia 114 Moshch - Momb - 114 Priznaniye HpH3Hanie 114 Dobr6 - Ro6p6 - 114 Blago - Bjiaro - 114 Sud'ba - CyAi>6a ----- 114 Rock - POKT> 14 Rany - Panti 14 Yazvy - H3BbI 114 Yesli - ECJIH 14 K6H .... KOJIH ----- 14 Cpawb - Tenepb - HblHG - 218 THE KUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Glub'ina - TjiySima Puchina - nyqiraa Styd - Sram T'ep'er' - Otdyhat' Pochivat' Gor'e - - Tope Skorb' - - Cnopl Eto - BTO S'iye - - Cie Guby - - Fy6bi Usta - - y CT a Potzeluy Lobzaniye - - JIoGaame Iskusheniye - - IIcKyuieme Soblazn - Drugoy - Inoy Bezostanovochno N'eustanno Duma Mysl' - - Mbicjib T'eio - - T-BJIO - Plot' - - HjIOTb - S-hodstvo - CxoflCTBO Podob'iye Rab, rabota, rabstvo Volna, voln'eniye volno- vatsa Ya hochu Mn'e, Ya Mn'e hochetsa Ne hochetsa rabotat' Hdchetsa otdohnut' - Spat' hochetsa ! Hochetsa molodost'i ! Hochetsa 1'ubv'l Ya hochu jenltsa Mn'e hochetsa jenltsa Zamuj h6chetsa ! Hot'elos' - - - Xorfcjiocb BeBOCTanoBOHHO HeycTanno ., paSoTa, paSciBO Bojina, BOJineme, H xony MH-B, H MH-B xo i ieTCH He XOHGTCH paGoTaTb XoneTCH oTfloxnyTb Cnaib XOHGTCH XoqexcH MOJIO,O;OCTH ! XOHGTCH JIK)6BH H XO^y JKGHHTbCH - MH-B xo'ieTCH i _ I'AU K 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 114 120 I 2O 121 121 121 121 121 121 121 121 121 121 122 122 RUSSIAN WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS Uvlechdniye - Uvlekatsa Vy m'en'a uvlekayet'e Baba - Molod'dtz baba ! Boy baba ! Babushka Duraki, durachyo - Po-babyi Ban' a Gr6zny - Ujasny - Groza - Grom Pogr6m - Gremuchaya rtut' - Sinutny - Ugoldvshchina Prestupldniye - Ugolovnoye Golova - Kaz'6nshchina Kazna - Kaz'onny Kaz'onnaya, kaz'onnoye - Kaz'onnyie Kaz'onnaya dusha - Jidy, jidki, jidishki, jid'en'ata Yevrey, yevreyi (plur.) Bil'et'ik, bil'et Glaz'onki, glaza Glazki - Glazishche Sapogi - Vytri sapojishchi-to, natoptal ! Top tat' - Piskariki, piskari S'edyie, s'ed'en'kiye S'eryie - Daleko, dal'okon'ko Blizko, bliz'ohon'ko ish BM MGHH yBJienaexe Ba6a - Mojiofle^, 6a6a ! Bott 6a6a ! - Ba6yuiKa IIo Bane - Fposa - GMyTHbltt ITpecTynjieme VrojiOBHoe Fojiosa Kaana - , Kasennoe KaaeHHbie ayuia 219 PAOB - 124 - 124 - 126 - 126 - 127 - 127 - 12 7 - I2g - 129 - 130 132 132 132 132 133 134 134 J34 134 134 134 135 135 135 , 3KH- Espett, espen , rjiaaa CanorH BbiTpw cano>KHinH-To, iiuib na IIHCKapH TonTaTb G-fepwe - .I^ajieKo, BJIHBKO, 136 137 139 139 139 140 140 141 141 141 142 142 142 142 220 THE EUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE Rano Ranovato, ran'ohon'ko - Otchevd, chev6 B'ely, b'el'en'ki Golubdye, golfcben'koye - Hud6y, hud'en'ki, hud Jlrny Poros'ata, poros'atki, po- ros'onochki Jirn'en'kiye, prejirnyie Pojaluyt e, gospoda ! Mogtichi Prekrasny Bystry - Lovki - V'echny Sm'ertny Pob'ddny Mirny Chort vos'mi ! Chort znayet ! B'es Mozgi, Mozgl'avy Mozgl'aven'ki Mozgov6y Nadryv - Razryv - Nadlom - Razldm - Nadr'ez - Razr'ez - Nutr6m, nutro Chr'evom, chrevo Zapov'ed' Zav'et, zav'ety Zav'&tny Or' eh baba ! - PM'a baba ! - Ogon' baba ! - Bogatyr' baba ! Tarakany Burlak - Podpdlye Pokayaniye Pano PanoBaTo, panexoHbKo nero 6-fejieHLKitt FIopocHTa, nopocHTKH, nopoce HOHKH - npe>KnpHbie - , rocnoaa ! - - BblCTpbltt JIOBKitt CMepTHbltt B03bMH ! Hoprb snaerb ! B-fec-b - Moarn, MoaroBott HaflpbiB-b PaapbiBi, Paap-fea-b HyxpOM-b, nyxpo qpeso 3aB-feTHbitt - Optx-b 6a6a ! IlyjiH 6a6a ! - OroHb 6a6a ! - BoraTbipb 6a6a ! Tapananbi - BypJiaKi, PAOE 142 M3 H3 M4 144 145 - 145 - 14'' - 14 5 - i45 - 145 - 145 - i45 - 145 - 145 - 145 - 148 - 148 - 148 - U9 - 149 - 15 - 15 - 15 - is 1 - 1 5 l - is 1 - 1 5 l - 1 54 - 1 54 - J 57 - 157 - i59 - 169 - 169 - 169 - 169 - 170 - i/ 1 - 175 179 KUSSIAN WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS Prost'i, prost'it'e - Proshchay, proshchayt'e - Prost'it'e, baryn'a - Prost'i, bat'ushka barin - N'e pominayt'e 1'ihom Do sv'idanya - Bog prost'it - Lih6y, liho Lihoy vrag Kazaki - Lih6y kazak - Lihaya sud'ba Lihdye d'elo - Tut komar n6sa n'e podt6- chit Liho skachet trdyka Shapka liho na b'ekr'en' - Udal' - Silushka bogatyrskaya Bat'ka - Pop Bat'ka prib'll - Ot'etz - T'at'ka - Pdpik - Eh, ty, g6r'e-bogat^r' ! - Hor6shen'ki - Popadya Kto popa, kto popadyu, a kto svin6y hvost'ik ! - Kto 1'ub'it dyn'u, kto arbuz, a kto pop6vu ddchku ! V'eshni, v'es'enn'i - - BeuiHitt, IlpOCTH, npOCTHTG - Ilpomaft, IIpocTHTe, IlpOCTH, 6aTK)UIKa 6apHHT> - He noMHHattTe JIHXOMT> - - J\0 CBHj;aHbH - Bon> npocTHTt - - JlHXOtt, JIHXO - - JlHXoft Bpan> - KaaaKH - Jliixott KaaaKt - Jlnxan cya6a - Jlwxoe fl-fejio - - Ty-FL KOMapt Hoca ne noflTOHH-n, JInxo cKaueTt TpottKa IIIanKa JIHXO Ha 6eKpem> GnJiyuiKa BaTLKa BaTbKa npH6Hjn> 3xi>, TLI, rope-Goraxbipb ! XopouieHbKitt KTO nona, KTO nona^bio, a KTO CBHHOtt XBOCTHKT. ! - KTO JiioSHTb AbiHio, KTO ap6y3T>, a KTO nonoBy AOHKy ! - - 221 PAGE 179 179 180 1 80 1 80 1 80 1 8 1 I8l 183 183 183 183 183 1 84 1 84 184 191 192 1 99 199 199 1 99 199 200 202 203 203 204 204 - 204 FROM THE INTRODUCTION Mjflo - - MLIJIO Pyl' - HbiJib - Myl'ny puzyr' - - MbiJibHtift nyatipb - Dal'ni put' - - JJajibHift nyTb Byt' v ssylke - - BbiTb BT> CCMJIK-B Vys' - - - Bbicb xi xi xi xi xi xi 222 THE RUSSIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE R^b'i jir - Pu6itt ttttipT. . Lazit' - - JlaawTb . Vyt' - BblTb . Ubyl' - - vsbuib - . B'ely lob - B'fejiLitt Jio6i> - M'ily - - Mnjibiti - . Myt' - - MblTb . Zyb' - - 3bi6b - . Unylayajizn' - - VHUJiaH >KH3Hb Zlost' - - 3jIOCTb - . T'ep'er' - - Tenepb - . D'et'i - - fl-BTH - . Z'el'en' - - 3ejienb - . R'ab' - - PH(5b - . T'em'en' - TeMGHb - . Vz'at' - - B3HTb - . N'ed'el'a - Helium - . Zd'es' - - 3,n; r BCb - . St'ep' - - Grenb - . L'ubov' - - JIioGoBb- . Os' - Ocb . L'ud'i - - JlroflH - . T'ech' - - TeHb - . Pr'el'est' - IIpejiecTb . D'en'gi - - UenbrH - . D'es'at' - - JJeCHTb - . P'er'el'et'et' - - IlepejierfeTb . Dr'an' - - JJpHHb - - Podl'etz- - IIoAJiei^'b . Brat - Bpan> - - Brat' - Bpaxb - . Von! - - BOHT> ! - . Von' - BoHb . Mol - MOJIT> . Mol' - Mojib . Krov - - KpOBT, - - Krov' - - KpOBb - - Pyl llmiij . Pyl' - - IlhlJIb - The rest of the Russian words occurring in the Introduction given in Russian type wherever they come in. PAGE xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xi xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii xii are BILLING AND 8ON8, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (415)642-6233 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW JUL5 1987 JUL9 1988 RECEIVED BY air 1987 DEPT. DECEIVED DEC i 9 1991 CIRCULATION DEPT. THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY