Russian · Book XI — Ivan

I. У Грушеньки

At Grushenka's

125 sentences · 273 notes

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1
Alyosha set off toward Cathedral Square, to the house of the merchant's widow Morozova, to Grushenka.
АлешаAlyoshaалёша · proper noun, nominative, masculine, singularsubject of направился
направилсяset offнаправиться · verb, past, indicative, middle, singular, perfectivemain verb of the sentence
кtowardк · prepositionpreposition marking площади
СоборнойCathedralсоборный · adjective, dative, feminine, singularmodifies площади
площадиSquareплощадь · noun, dative, feminine, singularoblique complement of направился
вtoв · prepositionpreposition marking дом
домthe houseдом · noun, accusative, masculine, singularoblique complement of направился
купчихиof the merchant's widowкупчиха · noun, genitive, feminine, singularmodifies дом
МорозовойMorozovaморозов · proper noun, genitive, feminine, singularin apposition to купчихи
кtoк · prepositionpreposition marking Грушеньке
ГрушенькеGrushenkaгрушенька · proper noun, dative, feminine, singularoblique complement of направился
GrammarPrefixed motion verb + dative goal «Направился» is the perfective reflexive of «направиться» («to set out, head for»). The goal takes «к» + dative («к Соборной площади»), the standard way to name the direction of motion toward a place or person; note the chain of «к»-phrases all in the dative.
Word«Купчиха» — the merchant's wife/widow «Купчиха» is the feminine of «купец» (merchant), here meaning the merchant's widow Morozova. The merchant estate («купечество») was its own legal caste below the gentry; a wealthy «купчиха» landlady places Grushenka's lodgings in a solidly provincial-bourgeois world.
2
Early that morning she had sent Fenya around to him with an urgent request that he come to her.
Grammar«Та» as anaphoric demonstrative The sentence opens with the bare demonstrative «Та» («that one» = Grushenka), the distal «тот» used to pick up a referent just mentioned. Russian routinely fronts «тот/та» this way to track who is meant, a device that lets word order stay free.
GrammarImperfective «присылала» for a single past act «Присылала» is imperfective past — the imperfective here records the bare fact that she had sent (Fenya), the action viewed as background rather than as a sharply completed event. The perfective «прислала» would foreground the result.
GrammarArchaic instrumental ending -ою «Настоятельною» shows the older, bookish feminine instrumental singular ending -ою (modern -ой), a period flavor frequent in Dostoevsky; the whole phrase «с… просьбой» is instrumental of accompaniment after «с».
3
Having questioned Fenya, Alyosha learned that the mistress had been in some great and particular agitation ever since the day before.
GrammarPerfective gerund (деепричастие) Опросив ("having questioned") is a perfective adverbial participle formed from опросить. It marks an action completed just before the main verb: Alyosha first questioned Fenya, then learned. Russian uses these -в/-вши gerunds where English often uses "having done" or simply "-ing."
Word«Барыня» — the mistress «Барыня» is the lady of the house, the mistress, the feminine of «барин». In servants' mouths (Fenya's) it is the ordinary respectful word for one's employer; it recurs throughout the chapter for Grushenka.
Word«Особливый» — archaic for «особенный» «Особливый» («special, particular») is an old-fashioned doublet of «особенный», already dated in Dostoevsky's day. It lends the narrator's report a slightly antique, folk coloring.
4
Throughout these two months since Mitya's arrest, Alyosha had often dropped in at the Morozova house, both on his own impulse and on errands from Mitya.
GrammarIterative «захаживал» — used to drop in «Захаживал» is an iterative imperfective (built on the multidirectional «ходить») marking repeated, occasional visits — "would drop in now and then." The -жив- vowel and the prefix «за-» together give the casual, habitual sense English carries with "used to drop in."
Grammar«По» + dative: motive and errand The paired «по»-phrases both take the dative: «по собственному побуждению» (on his own impulse) and «по поручениям Мити» (on Mitya's errands). «По» + dative regularly expresses the grounds or occasion of an action.
5
Some three days after Mitya's arrest Grushenka had fallen seriously ill and stayed sick for nearly five weeks.
GrammarAspect contrast: «заболела» vs «хворала» The two verbs split the event by aspect: perfective «заболела» («fell ill») names the single onset, while imperfective «хворала» («was sick») stretches the resulting state over "nearly five weeks." This is the classic perfective-event / imperfective-duration pairing.
Word«Хворать» — to be poorly «Хворать» is a homely, slightly folk word for being ill, softer and more colloquial than «болеть». It suits the domestic register of this household scene.
GrammarInverted numeral = approximation Putting the noun before the numeral — «дня три» instead of «три дня» — signals approximation: "some three days, about three days." The genitive singular «дня» after «три» is the regular case after 2–4.
6
One of those five weeks she lay unconscious.
GrammarAccusative of duration; topicalized object first «Одну неделю» is an accusative of duration ("for one week"), and fronting it before the verb makes it the topic — "as for one of those five weeks…" The subject (Grushenka) is dropped, recoverable from the feminine «-ла».
Word«Без памяти» — unconscious The fixed phrase «без памяти» (literally "without memory/consciousness") means insensible, unconscious. The genitive «памяти» is governed by «без», which always takes the genitive.
7
Her face had changed a great deal; she had grown thin and sallow, though for almost two weeks now she had been able to go out of doors.
GrammarInceptive «по-» perfectives Both verbs carry the prefix «по-» marking a completed change of state: «похудела» (grew thin), «пожелтела» (turned sallow). The perfective sums up the whole alteration in her appearance as an accomplished result.
Grammar«…как» clause of elapsed time The construction «вот уже… две недели, как…» means "it's now been almost two weeks since…"; «как» here introduces the point from which the time is counted. «Могла выходить» is imperfective, marking an ongoing ability over that span.
8
But to Alyosha's eye her face had become, if anything, even more appealing, and he loved meeting her gaze whenever he came in to her.
GrammarComparative + «стало» «Привлекательнее» is the predicative comparative ("more appealing") of «привлекательный», and «стало» (became) governs it. «Как бы» ("as it were") and «еще» ("even") hedge and intensify the comparison together.
GrammarImperfective gerund «входя» «Входя» is the present (imperfective) adverbial participle of «входить», marking an action simultaneous with the main verb: "on coming in / as he came in." It shares the subject of «он любил».
9
Something had as it were grown firm and thoughtful in her look.
GrammarReflexive «-ся» = change of state «Укрепилось» (from «укрепиться») uses the reflexive «-ся» to make the verb intransitive — something "grew firm / strengthened itself" rather than being firmed by an outside agent. This middle, change-of-state «-ся» is everywhere in descriptions of inner life.
GrammarSplit «что-то» with trailing adjectives The indefinite «что-то» ("something," specific but unnamed) is the neuter subject, and its modifiers «твердое и осмысленное» are stranded after the verb for effect — the firmness and thoughtfulness arrive as the new, weighted information at the sentence's end.
10
A certain spiritual upheaval made itself felt; there appeared in her some unchanging, humble, yet good and irrevocable resolve.
GrammarReflexive verbs of appearing, subject postposed Both clauses lead with a reflexive verb of "manifesting" — «сказывался» (made itself felt) and «являлась» (appeared) — with the real subject («переворот», «решимость») following. The «-ся» gives a middle, self-emerging sense, and the inversion lets each new thing emerge after its verb.
Word«Переворот духовный» — a spiritual upheaval «Переворот» is literally an overturning, a revolution; «переворот духовный» (with the bookish postposed adjective) names an inner, spiritual turning-point. The word marks one of Dostoevsky's signature crises-of-soul.
Word«Бесповоротный» — irrevocable «Бесповоротный» ("irreversible, irrevocable") is built on «поворот» (a turning) with «без-» + «-ный»: a resolve from which there is no turning back. It crowns the list of adjectives weighing Grushenka's new firmness.
11
Between her brows, on her forehead, a small vertical crease had appeared, lending her dear face an air of inward, concentrated pensiveness, almost severe at first glance.
GrammarPast active participle modifying «морщинка» «Придававшая» is a past active participle (from imperfective «придавать»), agreeing with the feminine «морщинка» ("the crease which lent…"). Such participles compress a «который»-clause into one bookish modifier and govern their own objects here («лицу… вид»).
WordDiminutive «морщинка» «Морщинка» is the diminutive of «морщина» (wrinkle) — a small, fine crease. The tender suffix matches «милому лицу» (her dear face), softening a mark that would otherwise read as ageing.
12
Of her former flightiness, for instance, not a trace remained.
GrammarGenitive of negation in an existential The negated existential «не осталось» forces its subject into the genitive: «следа» («not a trace remained»), and «ветрености» too stands in the genitive ("of her flightiness"). The whole frame «не осталось и следа» is an idiom of total absence — note the emphatic «и» ("not even a trace").
Word«Ветреность» — flightiness «Ветреность», from «ветер» (wind), is fickleness, frivolity, a flighty giddiness — literally being "windy" of character. It names exactly the old Grushenka the narrator says has vanished.
13
It struck Alyosha as strange, too, that despite the whole misfortune that had befallen the poor woman — the bride of a fiancé arrested for a terrible crime almost at the very instant she became his bride — and despite, afterward, the illness, and the almost inevitable verdict of the court looming ahead, Grushenka had nonetheless not lost her old youthful cheerfulness.
Grammar«Несмотря на» + accusative, twice The sentence is built on a doubled concessive «несмотря на…» ("despite"), each governing the accusative («всё несчастие», «болезнь»). The repetition piles up the calamities before the main clause's «не потеряла» finally lands.
GrammarStacked participles Two past active participles do the syntactic heavy lifting: «постигшее» (which had befallen, agreeing with «несчастие») and «арестованного» (a past passive participle, "arrested," agreeing with «жениха»). Such dense participial chains are the engine of 19th-century literary syntax.
Grammar«Все-таки не потеряла» — the long-delayed main verb After all the concessive scaffolding, the main clause is the perfective negated «не потеряла» ("did not lose"), reinforced by «все-таки» ("nonetheless, all the same"). Russian readily holds the finite verb to the very end of a heavily subordinated period.
14
In her eyes, once so proud, there now shone a kind of quietness, although… although, to be sure, those eyes would still flare up now and then with a certain ominous little flame whenever one old worry came over her — a worry that, far from having died down, had even grown larger in her heart.
GrammarLocative-first inversion The sentence opens with the prepositional locative «В… глазах» and ends with the postposed subject «какая-то тихость» — the new thing ("a kind of quietness") emerges last, after its verb «засияла» (shone forth). «Гордых прежде» ("once proud") is an embedded adjective + adverb.
GrammarContrastive past active participles Two past active participles in apposition to «забота» weigh the worry: negated «не заглохнувшая» ("not having died down") set against «увеличившаяся» ("having grown larger"). The «-ся» on the latter is the change-of-state reflexive; «не только… но даже и» braces the antithesis.
WordDiminutive «огонёк» in the instrumental «Огоньком» is the instrumental of «огонёк», the diminutive of «огонь» (fire) — a "little flame." The instrumental tells us how the eyes flared («пламенели… огоньком»); the diminutive makes the ominous gleam small and intermittent.
15
The object of that worry was always the same: Katerina Ivanovna, of whom Grushenka, while she was still lying ill, had even spoken in her delirium.
GrammarRelative «которой» in the prepositional «О которой» is the relative pronoun «который» agreeing with the feminine antecedent «Катерина Ивановна» but taking the prepositional case its own clause demands after «о» ("of/about whom"). The clause is set off by commas, as Russian relative clauses always are.
Word«В бреду» — in delirium «Бред» is feverish raving, delirium; the fixed locative «в бреду» (with the stressed -у́ ending) means "in her delirium." That Grushenka named Katerina Ivanovna even while raving measures the depth of the obsession.
16
Alyosha understood that she was fiercely jealous over her of Mitya — Mitya the prisoner — despite the fact that Katerina Ivanovna had not once visited him in confinement, though she might have done so whenever she pleased.
Grammar«Ревновать кого к кому» — the grammar of jealousy «Ревновать» frames jealousy with the loved one as direct object («Митю», accusative) and the rival marked by «к» + dative («к ней»): she is jealous of Mitya, with Katerina Ivanovna as the threat. English inverts the relation, which is why our "jealous over her of Mitya" reads oddly.
GrammarNegative concord: «ни разу… не» «Ни разу… не посетила» pairs the intensifier «ни» ("not a single time") with the obligatory verbal «не»: Russian requires both, the double negative carrying one emphatic meaning, "not once did she visit."
GrammarConcessive «хотя бы» with conditional «бы» «Хотя бы… могла» uses the irrealis particle «бы» with the past-form «могла» to set up a counterfactual concession — "though she might well have done so." «Когда угодно» ("whenever she pleased") is a free-choice indefinite.
17
All this had become for Alyosha something of a hard problem, for Grushenka confided her heart to him alone and ceaselessly begged him for advice; while he, at times, was utterly unable to say anything to her at all.
Grammar«Ибо» — bookish 'for, because' «Ибо» is the archaic, elevated conjunction "for, because," a Church-Slavonic-flavored alternative to «потому что» that Dostoevsky's narrator favors. It lifts the register a notch above ordinary speech.
GrammarContrastive «же» and negative concord The particle «же» here is adversative — "he, for his part / whereas he" — pivoting from Grushenka to Alyosha. «Совсем ничего… не» stacks negators («ничего» + «не») for emphatic negative concord: he was "utterly unable to say anything at all."
GrammarDative «одному ему» — to him alone «Доверяла… сердце» (confided her heart) takes its indirect object in the dative, «одному ему» ("to him alone"), with «одному» agreeing with «ему». The fronting and «один» together carry the exclusivity.
18
Full of care, he stepped into her apartment.
GrammarAdverb-first inversion for mood Fronting the adverb «озабоченно» ("full of care, anxiously") and then inverting subject and verb («вступил он») throws the emotional manner into relief — the sentence's news is how he entered, not that he did.
19
She was already home; she had come back from Mitya about half an hour earlier, and from the very quickness of the movement with which she sprang up from her chair at the table to meet him, he concluded that she had been awaiting him with great impatience.
Grammar«С полчаса» — approximative + elapsed-time «как» «С полчаса» («about half an hour») uses «с» + accusative to mark an approximate quantity, and «как воротилась» counts time from that point — "it was half an hour since she'd come back." «Воротилась» is an older variant of «возвратилась».
Grammar«По» + dative of evidence «По тому быстрому движению» is «по» + dative meaning "by/from that quick movement" — the basis on which he inferred. «С которым она вскочила» is a relative clause whose «которым» is instrumental, the manner of springing up.
GrammarImperfective «ждала» of expectation «Ждала» is imperfective past — waiting/expecting is inherently a process, so it resists the perfective. The inversion «ждала она его» places the verb of waiting first as the new information he concluded.
20
Cards lay on the table, and a hand of "fools" had been dealt.
GrammarPast passive participle (short form) + «была» «Была сдана» is a periphrastic passive: the short-form past passive participle «сдана» (from perfective «сдать», to deal) plus «была» — "a game had been dealt." The short participle agrees in gender/number with «игра» and states a result.
21
On the leather sofa on the other side of the table a bed had been made up, and on it, half reclining in a dressing gown and a cotton nightcap, lay Maximov, plainly sick and feeble, though sweetly smiling.
GrammarPassive «была постлана» + inverted subject Another short-form passive: «была постлана постель» ("a bed had been made up"), participle from «постлать». The subject «постель» follows its verb, the standard inversion when introducing a new entity into the scene.
GrammarInstrumental-less attire via «в» + prepositional Clothing worn is expressed with «в» + prepositional: «в халате и в бумажном колпаке» ("in a dressing gown and a cotton nightcap"). The verb «полулежал» ("half-lay") shows the productive prefix «полу-» (half-).
Word«Бумажный колпак» — a cotton nightcap Here «бумажный» does not mean "of paper" but "of cotton" — an older sense (from «бумага» once denoting cotton wool); a «колпак» is a soft conical nightcap. The detail paints Maximov as a quaint, old-fashioned invalid.
22
This homeless little old man, ever since he had come back that time — some two months ago now — with Grushenka from Mokroye, had simply stayed on with her and at her side, never once leaving.
WordDiminutive «старичок» «Старичок» is the affectionate diminutive of «старик» (old man) — a "dear/little old man," carrying pity and gentle warmth rather than size. The narrator's tone toward the pathetic Maximov is set by this suffix.
GrammarCorrelative «как… так и» of time The «как…, так и…» frame here is temporal-emphatic: "the moment he came back…, he just stayed on." «Воротился» (perfective) marks the single return; «остался» the resulting fixed state, reinforced by «неотлучно» (never leaving).
23
Having arrived with her then in rain and slush, he had sat down on the sofa, soaked and frightened, and fixed his eyes on her in silence, with a timid, pleading smile.
GrammarPerfective gerund «приехав» «Приехав» ("having arrived") is the perfective gerund of «приехать», marking the completed action prior to the main verbs «сел» and «уставился». It shares the subject «он» (Maximov), as every деепричастие must.
GrammarParticiples as predicate adjectives «Промокший» (past active participle, "having gotten soaked") and «испуганный» (past passive participle, "frightened") describe the subject's state during the action — agreeing with «он» in the nominative, hanging loosely as he sat down.
Word«Слякоть» — slush, foul weather «Слякоть» is slush, mire, the muddy wet of a Russian thaw or autumn rain. Paired with «дождь», it evokes the cold misery of Maximov's arrival.
24
Grushenka, who was in terrible grief and already in the onset of a fever, having nearly forgotten about him in the first half hour after their arrival amid all the bustle, suddenly looked at him somehow intently: he gave a pitiful, lost little snicker into her face.
GrammarChain of past active participles describing Grushenka Three participial phrases stack onto «Грушенька»: «бывшая в… горе» (who was in grief), «начинавшейся лихорадке» (an onsetting fever), and «забывшая о нем» (having forgotten him). This pile-up suspends the subject across a long parenthesis before the dash and the main verb «посмотрела».
GrammarPerfective verbs of single glance and laugh «Посмотрела» (looked) and «хихикнул» (gave a snicker) are both perfective, each a single bounded act; the suffix «-ну-» in «хихикнул» marks a one-off, momentary action ("gave one little snicker").
Word«Хихикнуть» — to snicker «Хихикать/хихикнуть» is to giggle or snicker, a thin, nervous, slightly absurd laugh. The semelfactive «-ну-» gives the single "pitiful, lost little snicker" of the cowering old man.
25
She called Fenya and ordered that he be given something to eat.
Grammar«Велеть» + dative + infinitive «Велела… дать» ("ordered that he be given") is the impersonal-command pattern: «велеть» takes an infinitive, and the person fed stands in the dative «ему». «Покушать» is a polite/homely perfective for "to eat a little."
Word«Покушать» — to have a bite «Кушать» (and its perfective «покушать») is a soft, hospitable word for eating, used especially in inviting or caring for someone. It suits Grushenka's order to feed the bedraggled old man.
26
All that day he sat in his place, scarcely stirring; and when it grew dark and the shutters were closed, Fenya asked her mistress:
GrammarNegated gerund «не шелохнувшись» «Не шелохнувшись» is a perfective gerund (from «шелохнуться», to stir) negated by «не» — "without stirring / scarcely having stirred." Russian regularly uses a negated деепричастие where English says "without doing."
GrammarImpersonal «стемнело» and subjectless «заперли» «Стемнело» ("it grew dark") is a subjectless impersonal verb of natural process. «Заперли ставни» is an indefinite-personal third-plural with no stated subject — "the shutters were closed [by someone]." Both are common Russian ways to report events without naming an agent.
27
"Well, mistress, are they really going to stay the night?"
GrammarParticle «разве» of surprised doubt «Разве» introduces a question colored with surprise or disbelief — "are they really going to…?" Note that Fenya uses the plural «они… останутся» of the single old man: a deferential plural (like English "are they staying?") for a person she half-respects, half-puzzles over.
28
"Yes, make him up a bed on the sofa," Grushenka answered.
GrammarImperative «постели» + dative recipient «Постели» is the imperative of «постлать» (to make up a bed), and «ему» is the dative of benefit — "make up a bed for him." The «-и» imperative ending follows a consonant-final stressed stem.
29
Questioning him more closely, Grushenka learned from him that he really and truly had nowhere at all to go just now, and that "Mr. Kalganov, my benefactor, told me straight out, sir, that he would not take me in any longer, and made me a present of five rubles."
GrammarPerfective gerund «опросив» As in s3, «опросив» ("having questioned") is a perfective gerund prior to the main verb «узнала». «Подробнее» is the comparative adverb "more closely / in more detail."
Grammar«Некуда» — the «не-» negative adverb of place «Некуда деться» means "nowhere to go / take oneself," using the stressed negative adverb «некуда» with an infinitive — the impersonal "there is nowhere to…" pattern (the experiencer would stand in the dative). «Деться» is the reflexive "to get to, betake oneself."
GrammarServile «-с» and respectful plural Maximov reports Kalganov's words with the slovoers «-с» («заявили-с») — the worn-down «сударь» tacked on for fawning politeness — and uses the deferential plural «заявили… подарили» of his single benefactor. Both mark his cringing, dependent register.
30
"Well, God be with you, stay on, then," Grushenka decided in her anguish, smiling at him compassionately.
Word«Бог с тобой» — a resigned blessing «Бог с тобой» (literally "God [be] with you") here is a softly resigned "oh, all right then, very well" — a phrase of indulgent giving-in rather than literal blessing. Grushenka uses it «в тоске» (in anguish) as she lets the old man stay.
GrammarImperative + softening particle «уж» «Оставайся» is the imperfective imperative "stay on," and «уж» is a resigned, concessive particle — "stay on, then / I suppose." «Улыбнувшись» that follows is a perfective gerund of attendant smiling.
31
The old man flinched at her smile, and his lips trembled with grateful weeping.
GrammarImpersonal with accusative experiencer «Старика передернуло» is a vivid impersonal construction: the verb is neuter-impersonal «передернуло» ("a shudder ran through") and the person affected stands in the accusative «старика». Such subjectless verbs of involuntary bodily reaction are a Russian specialty.
32
And so from that time on the wandering sponger stayed on with her.
Word«Приживальщик» — the hanger-on «Приживальщик» (also «приживальщик/приживал») is a hanger-on, a poor dependent who "lives off" («приживаться») a wealthier household — fed and housed in exchange for amusement and deference. It pins Maximov's exact social type, a stock figure of the period.
GrammarResumptive «так… и» «Так с тех пор и остался» uses the emphatic «так… и» frame — "and so he just stayed on," rounding off the little narrative of how the sponger lodged himself with her. «Скитающийся» (wandering) is a present active participle modifying «приживальщик».
33
Even during her illness he did not leave the house.
GrammarFronted «даже» + perfective negation Fronting «даже в болезни ее» ("even during her illness") foregrounds the concession; «не ушел» is negated perfective — he did not (once and for all) leave. «Ушел» is the perfective of the prefixed motion verb «уходить/уйти».
34
Fenya and her mother, Grushenka's cook, did not drive him out, but went on feeding him and making up his bed on the sofa.
GrammarContrastive «а» pivoting two clauses «Не прогнали, а продолжали» hinges on «а», the mild contrastive "but/rather": not «но» of opposition but a corrective "instead" — they did not drive him out, but on the contrary kept feeding him. «Продолжали… кормить и стлать» shows «продолжать» governing imperfective infinitives.
Word«Кухарка» — the cook «Кухарка» is a (female) cook, a servant of modest standing in a household. Naming Fenya's mother «кухарка Грушеньки» sketches the small domestic staff Grushenka keeps.
35
Later on Grushenka even grew used to him, and, coming back from Mitya (to whom, the moment she had recovered a little, she at once began going, without even having properly gotten well), she would sit down, to kill the misery, and begin chatting with "little Maximov" about all sorts of trifles, only so as not to think about her own grief.
GrammarImperfective gerund + «от» of source «Приходя» is the present (imperfective) gerund "coming/whenever she came," marking a habitual simultaneous action with «садилась… начинала». «От Мити» is «от» + genitive, motion away from a person.
GrammarNegated gerund «не успев» «Не успев… выздороветь» is a negated perfective gerund — "without even having properly gotten well." «Хорошенько» is the diminutive-adverb "properly, good and well," colloquial and warm.
WordAffectionate «Максимушка» «Максимушка» (here instrumental «Максимушкой») is the tender diminutive of Maximov's name, with the endearing «-ушк-» suffix — "dear little Maximov." Grushenka's adopting this pet-name marks her thawing, half-maternal acceptance of him.
36
It turned out that the little old man could sometimes tell a story or two, so that in the end he became downright indispensable to her.
GrammarImpersonal «оказалось, что» «Оказалось, что…» ("it turned out that…") is a subjectless impersonal with the «-ся» verb introducing a «что»-clause of discovered fact. It is the standard narrative hinge for revealing something not expected.
GrammarPredicate instrumental after «стать» «Стал… необходимым» puts the predicate adjective in the instrumental «необходимым» after «стать» (to become) — the standard predicate-instrumental of an assumed/acquired state. «Ей» is the dative of the person to whom he became indispensable.
Word«Порассказать» — to tell a thing or two «Порассказать», with the attenuative prefix «по-», means to recount a bit, tell a story or two now and again. The prefix lends a light, occasional sense matching «иногда кое-что».
37
Apart from Alyosha, who looked in, however, not every day and never for long, Grushenka received almost no one.
GrammarPast active participle «заходивший» «Заходившего» (genitive, agreeing with «Алеши») is the past active participle of the iterative «заходить» — "who used to look in." It carries the parenthetical "however, not every day," compressing a relative clause about his visiting habits.
GrammarNegative concord «никого… не» «Никого… не принимала» pairs the negative pronoun «никого» (genitive/accusative of «никто») with verbal «не» — obligatory double negation: "she received almost no one." «И» here is the emphatic particle reinforcing the negation.
38
As for her old man, the merchant, he lay at this time already dreadfully ill — "on his way out," as they said in the town — and he did in fact die just a week after Mitya's trial.
GrammarTopic-shifting «же» + apposition «Старик же ее, купец…» uses «же» to switch topic — "as for her old man, the merchant…" «Купец» is in loose apposition to «старик». «Старик ее» is a slightly disdainful way of naming Grushenka's old merchant protector.
Word«Отходить» — to be dying Here «отходил» is the euphemistic "was passing away / on his way out" (cf. «отойти в мир иной»), which is why the narrator frames it in quotation marks as the townsfolk's phrase. We render it "on his way out."
Grammar«Спустя» of elapsed time «Неделю спустя» ("a week later") uses «спустя» with the accusative of duration — the postposed «спустя» is the bookish counterpart of «через». «После суда» («after the trial») adds «после» + genitive.
39
Three weeks before his death, sensing the end was near, he summoned his sons up to him at last, with their wives and children, and commanded them not to leave his side anymore.
GrammarPerfective gerund «почувствовав» «Почувствовав» ("having sensed/felt") is a perfective gerund prior to «кликнул» — sensing the end, then summoning his family. It governs its own accusative object «близкий финал».
Grammar«Повелеть» + dative + negated infinitive «Повелел им… не отходить» ("commanded them not to leave") is the command-pattern: «повелеть» (a solemn, archaic "to command") + dative «им» + infinitive. «Повелеть» itself is elevated, fitting the patriarch's deathbed authority.
40
And from that very minute he strictly forbade his servants to admit Grushenka at all, and if she should come, to tell her: "He bids you, he says, live long in your merriment, and forget him entirely."
GrammarOld «заказать» = forbid; fronted accusative object Here «заказал… не принимать» means "strictly forbade [the servants] to admit" — an archaic sense of «заказать» (to forbid, prohibit). The object «Грушеньку» is fronted for emphasis with topic-shifting «же», while «слугам» is the dative of those commanded.
GrammarReportative particle «дескать» «Дескать» flags reported speech with a tinge of distance or irony — "he says, supposedly, as the message went." It (with «мол», «де») lets the narrator relay the dying merchant's haughty words as quoted, not owned.
Word«В веселии» — bookish locative of «веселье» «В веселии» («in merriment, in your gaiety») uses the elevated -ии locative form (modern would be «в веселье»). The old merchant's parting jab — "live long in your merriment and forget me" — wraps bitterness in a near-biblical cadence.
41
Grushenka, however, sent almost every day to inquire after his health.
GrammarConcessive «однако ж» «Однако ж» (= «однако же») is "however, nonetheless," the «ж» an emphatic shortening of «же». It marks the contrast: forbidden the house, she still sent daily to ask after him.
GrammarImperfective «посылала» of habit + infinitive of purpose «Посылала… справляться» — imperfective «посылала» ("sent" repeatedly, almost every day) plus the imperfective infinitive «справляться» (to inquire) expressing the errand's purpose. The whole records a settled habit, not one act.
42
"There you are at last!" she cried, throwing down the cards and greeting Alyosha joyfully. "And little Maximov here was frightening me that maybe you wouldn't come after all. Ah, how I need you! Sit down at the table; now, what'll you have — coffee?"
GrammarEmphatic «-то» on «наконец» The clitic «-то» on «наконец» heightens the relief — "at long last you've come!" This emphatic «-то» (distinct from the indefinite «кто-то») underscores a known, awaited thing finally happening.
GrammarTwo gerunds, two aspects «Бросив карты» is a perfective gerund (the cards already flung down) while «радостно здороваясь» is imperfective (greeting going on as she cries out) — a neat contrast of completed vs ongoing attendant action around «крикнула».
GrammarPartitive genitive «кофею» «Кофею» is an old partitive genitive (modern «кофе»/«кофию»), "some coffee" — the genitive of a portion offered. The whole «что тебе, кофею?» is elliptical, warm, colloquial: "what'll you have — some coffee?"
43
"All right, then," said Alyosha, settling in at the table. "I'm very hungry."
Grammar«А пожалуй» — assenting hedge «Пожалуй» here is "all right then, I suppose, why not" — a hedged assent, not its other meaning "please." The opening «а» softly picks up the conversation. «Проголодался» is perfective "got hungry," the resulting state "I'm hungry."
GrammarImperfective gerund «подсаживаясь» «Подсаживаясь» is the present gerund of «подсаживаться» (to take a seat beside), action simultaneous with «сказал». The «-ся» is the change-of-state reflexive; «к столу» is «к» + dative goal.
44
"That's it; Fenya, Fenya, coffee!" cried Grushenka. "It's been on the boil for a good while now, waiting for you — and bring some little pies too, and mind they're hot. No, wait, Alyosha, there was thunder over those pies today. I carried them to him at the jail, and he — would you believe it — flung them back at me and wouldn't eat them. One pie he chucked clean onto the floor and trampled. So I said: 'I'll leave them with the warder; if you don't eat them by evening, it means a spiteful venom is feeding you!' — and with that I left. We quarreled again, would you believe it. No matter when I go, we always quarrel."
GrammarInterrogative particle «ли» «Веришь ли» ("would you believe it?") fronts the verb with the enclitic «ли» forming a rhetorical yes/no question. Grushenka studs her excited speech with it; she repeats the plainer «веришь тому» too.
Grammar«Что ни… , так и…» — every time… «Что ни приду, так и поссоримся» is the generalizing concessive frame "no matter when I come, we end up quarreling" — «что ни» + perfective «приду» (perfective present = future-of-each-occasion) correlated with «так и». The «ни» here is the universalizing, not the negating, particle.
Word«Пирожки» — little pies «Пирожки» are small stuffed hand-pies (diminutive of «пирог»), a homely Russian staple. Grushenka carrying hot «пирожки» to Mitya in jail, and his trampling them, turns food into the medium of their lovers' quarrel.
Word«Ехидная злость» — venomous spite «Ехидный» means venomous, malicious, snide (from «ехидна», a viper/echidna); «злость ехидная» (with the bookish postposed adjective) is "a spiteful venom." Grushenka half-jokingly says such spite is what's "feeding" Mitya.
45
Grushenka rattled all this off in one breath, in great agitation.
Word«Залпом» — in one breath, all at once «Залпом» (instrumental of «залп», a volley/salvo) means "all in one go, at a gulp, in one breath." Applied to «проговорила», it conveys Grushenka pouring out the whole tirade without pause.
46
Maximov, immediately growing timid, smiled, his little eyes cast down.
GrammarPerfective gerund + diminutive «глазки» «Потупив глазки» ("casting down his little eyes") is a perfective gerund of attendant circumstance. «Глазки» is the diminutive of «глаза» — Maximov's "little eyes," the suffix marking him as small and pitiable.
Word«Оробеть» — to grow timid «Оробеть» (gerund «оробев») is to lose one's nerve, turn shy and frightened (from «робкий», timid). The inceptive «о-» perfective marks the sudden onset of his cowed shyness.
47
"What was it you quarreled about this time?" Alyosha asked.
GrammarEmphatic «-то» + «же» in one question Two particles color the question: «-то» on «этот раз» topicalizes "this time in particular," and «же» after «за что» adds insistence — "so what on earth did you quarrel about this time?" «За что» is «за» + accusative, "over/for what."
48
"I never expected it at all! Imagine, he got jealous over the 'former one': 'Why,' says he, 'are you keeping him? So you've started keeping him, have you?' He's jealous over everything, jealous over everything to do with me! Even sleeping and eating — he's jealous. Last week he even got jealous over Kuzma once."
GrammarInceptive «приревновал» + «к» of the rival «Приревновал» is the inceptive perfective "got jealous (suddenly)," and the object of jealousy takes «к» + dative: «к прежнему» ("over the former one"). «Прежний» substantivized is Grushenka's mocking name for the Pole, her old flame.
GrammarPhasal «начать» + imperfective infinitive «Содержать начала» ("you've started keeping him") shows the phasal verb «начать» governing an imperfective infinitive «содержать» — phasal verbs (begin, continue, stop) require the imperfective. The inversion puts «начала» last for sneering emphasis.
GrammarAsyndetic «и… и» — even doing X he… «И спит и ест — ревнует» means "sleeping and eating alike — he's jealous," the doubled «и… и» ("both… and / even when") sweeping all his states under the jealousy. The clipped present-tense verbs convey her exasperation.
49
"But he knew about the 'former one,' didn't he?"
GrammarStacked particles «да ведь… же» Three particles open the line: «да» (well/but), «ведь» (appealing to shared knowledge, "after all"), and «же» (insistence). Together they press the obvious objection — "but surely he already knew about the 'former one,' didn't he?" «-то» on «прежнего» topicalizes the known Pole.
50
"Well, there you are. He knew from the very start right up to this very day, and today he suddenly got up and started in scolding. I'm ashamed even to say what he said. The fool! Rakitka had come to see him as I was leaving. Maybe it's Rakitka egging him on, eh? What do you think?" she added, as though absently.
Grammar«Поди» — old imperative as discourse word «Ну вот поди» uses «поди», an old imperative of «пойти», frozen into a colloquial interjection "go figure / there you are / who'd have thought." It marks Grushenka's helpless wonder at Mitya's behavior.
Word«Уськать» — to egg on, set on «Уськать» is a vivid colloquial verb meaning to incite, egg on, sic someone (originally to set a dog on, from «усь!»). Grushenka suspects Rakitin of "setting Mitya on," stoking his jealousy.
GrammarHedging «как бы» «Как бы рассеянно» ("as though absently") uses the hedging «как бы» to qualify the manner — she added it with feigned, studied casualness. The narrator's «как бы» quietly flags that the casualness is a pose.
51
"He loves you, that's what it is; he loves you very much. And just now he's all on edge."
GrammarVerb-first focus + summarizing «вот что» Fronting the verb «любит» before the subject «он» throws the weight onto the loving itself, and «вот что» ("that's what it is") sums up the diagnosis. «Раздражен» is a short-form past passive participle, predicative "is irritated/on edge."
52
"Of course he's on edge — tomorrow they try him. And I'd gone to have my say to him about tomorrow, because, Alyosha, I'm terrified even to think what tomorrow will bring! You say he's on edge — well, how on edge am I! And he goes on about the Pole! What a fool! See, he's certainly not jealous over little Maximov."
GrammarIdiomatic «еще бы» with «бы» «Еще бы!» is the emphatic idiom "of course! you bet! no wonder," built on the irrealis «бы». «Еще бы не раздражен» = "of course he's on edge." Here «судят» is an indefinite-personal plural, "they're trying him (tomorrow)."
GrammarContrastive «я-то» «Я-то» pits Grushenka against Mitya — the emphatic clitic «-то» means "I, for my part / as for me." «Раздражена» is the feminine short-form passive participle, matching the masculine «раздражен» she just quoted of Mitya.
Word«Экой» — colloquial 'what a…!' «Экой» (= «экий») is a folksy exclamatory "what a…!, such a…!" — «Экой дурак!» = "what a fool!" It belongs to lively, lower-register spoken Russian, fitting Grushenka's outburst.
53
"My wife was very jealous over me too, ma'am," Maximov put in his little word.
GrammarThe deferential particle -с The -с tacked onto ревновала-с (and onto заявили-с, ничтожен-с, нужнее меня-с elsewhere in this chapter) is the slovoers, a worn-down form of сударь ("sir/madam"). Added to words, it signals servility or fussy old-fashioned politeness. Maximov, a dependent hanger-on, sprinkles it through his speech; it has no English equivalent — we suggest it with the occasional tacked-on "sir/ma'am" or simply let it fall away.
Word«Супруга» — wife (elevated) «Супруга» is the formal, dignified word for "wife" (vs everyday «жена»). Maximov's reaching for the genteel «супруга моя» about his late wife is of a piece with his fussy «-с»: pretensions of refinement from a ragged dependent.
54
"Well, as for you," Grushenka laughed despite herself, "who would there even be to be jealous of you over?"
GrammarDoubled «-то» and rhetorical infinitive Grushenka frames a teasing rhetorical question: «к кому… ревновать-то?» — "who would there even be to be jealous of you over?" The bare infinitive «ревновать» plus «-то» and emphatic «и» mocks the very idea. «К кому» is «к» + dative for the would-be rival.
Grammar«Нехотя» — reluctant gerund-turned-adverb «Нехотя» ("unwillingly, despite herself") is a frozen negated gerund of «хотеть» now used as an adverb. «Рассмеялась» is the inceptive perfective "burst out laughing."
55
"Over the chambermaids, ma'am."
GrammarElliptical answer in «к» + dative Maximov's deadpan reply «К горничным девушкам-с» ("over the chambermaids, ma'am") completes Grushenka's question by supplying just the «к» + dative rival-phrase, capped with the servile «-с». «Горничные девушки» are housemaids.
56
"Oh, hush, little Maximov, I'm in no mood for laughing now — I'm half angry, even. Don't be eyeing those little pies, I won't give you any; they're bad for you, and I won't give you any cordial either. Just look — I've got him on my hands too; honestly, it's as though I kept an almshouse," she laughed.
GrammarNegated imperative + topicalizing «-то» «Не пяль глаз» is a negated imperfective imperative "don't go gawping/eyeing," the imperfective normal for prohibitions. «На пирожки-то» fronts the pies with topic-marking «-то»: "those pies — don't be eyeing them."
GrammarDative-subject «тебе вредно» «Тебе вредно» ("it's bad for you") is a classic impersonal: dative experiencer «тебе» + the predicative «вредно», no nominative subject. Russian frames "X is bad/good for someone" this dative way.
WordDiminutive partitive «бальзамчику» «Бальзамчик» is the cozy diminutive of «бальзам», a sweet herbal cordial or liqueur; the «-у» ending is a partitive genitive ("any cordial"). The pet-diminutive makes the little treat she withholds sound homier still.
57
"I am not worthy of your kindnesses, ma'am; I am a worthless creature, ma'am," Maximov uttered in a tearful little voice. "You would do better to lavish your kindnesses on those who need them more than I, ma'am."
GrammarGenitive after «стоить» «Не стою благодеяний» — the verb «стоить» (to be worth/worthy of) governs the genitive «благодеяний» ("your kindnesses"), and the negation reinforces it. "I am not worthy of your kindnesses."
GrammarShort adjective «ничтожен» + «-с» «Ничтожен» is the predicative short form of «ничтожный» ("insignificant, worthless") — short adjectives serve only as predicates and carry an absolute, almost confessional ring. Capped with the servile «-с», it is Maximov's abject self-abasement.
GrammarOptative «бы» + comparative «лучше» «Лучше бы вы расточали…» ("you'd do better to lavish…") uses the irrealis «бы» with past-form «расточали» to soften advice into a wish — "it would be better if you bestowed." «Тем, которые нужнее меня» is a correlative «тем… которые» with a comparative governing the genitive «меня».
58
"Eh, everyone is needed, little Maximov, and how is one to tell who needs whom. If only that Pole had never existed at all, Alyosha — he too has taken it into his head to fall ill today. I've been to see him too. So now I'll send him pies on purpose; I wasn't sending them, but Mitya accused me of sending them, so now I'll send them on purpose, on purpose! Ah, and here's Fenya with a letter! Well, just as I thought — from the Poles again, asking for money again!"
GrammarEmbedded question with double interrogatives «Кто кого нужней» packs two interrogatives — «кто» (nom.) and «кого» (acc.) — into one tight clause: "who is more needed than whom." «Нужней» is the predicative comparative of «нужный». The whole is governed by «узнать» ("how is one to tell…").
Grammar«Вздумать» + infinitive — to take it into one's head «Вздумал разболеться» means "took it into his head to fall ill," «вздумать» being the perfective of a sudden whim. «Разболеться» («раз-» + «-ся») is the inceptive "to fall properly ill." Grushenka's irritation at the Pole's untimely sickness rings through.
GrammarPerfective future «пошлю» of resolve «Пошлю» is the perfective simple future ("I'll send [and be done with it]"), repeated with «нарочно» (on purpose) for stubborn emphasis. The conjugated perfective carries future meaning with no auxiliary — a single, willed act of spite.
59
Pan Mussyalovich had in fact sent an exceedingly long and florid letter, after his usual manner, in which he asked her to lend him three rubles.
WordПан — the Polish "Mr." Пан is the Polish title of address ("sir, Mr."), used in Russian to mark the two Poles, Mussyalovich and Vrublevsky, as foreigners standing on their dignity. The narrator's repeated пан, and Grushenka's mocking «прежний» ("the former one"), color them as pompous and faintly absurd. We keep "Pan" untranslated to preserve that flavor.
Word«Витиеватый» — florid, ornate «Витиеватый» means flowery, convoluted, rhetorically overblown (from «вития», an orator). Applied to the Pole's begging letter, «по своему обыкновению» (after his usual manner), it mocks his pompous, padded style.
Grammar«Ссудить кого чем» — instrumental of the sum «Ссудить» (to lend, advance) here takes the person as object («его») and the sum in the instrumental «тремя рублями» ("with three rubles"). «Тремя… рублями» shows the numeral «три» itself declining in the instrumental, with «рублями» agreeing.
60
Enclosed with the letter was a receipt acknowledging the loan, with an undertaking to repay it within three months; beneath the receipt Pan Vrublevsky had signed his name as well.
GrammarPassive «была приложена» + dative complement «Была приложена» is a short-form past passive participle with «была» — "was enclosed/appended," with «к письму» ("to the letter") as «к» + dative. The subject «расписка» follows, again the inversion that introduces a new item.
GrammarInstrumental «с» + genitive of time-span «С обязательством» is «с» + instrumental ("with an undertaking"), and «в течение трех месяцев» ("within three months") uses «в течение» + genitive «трех месяцев», the numeral and noun both genitive. Legal-sounding precision in the IOU.
GrammarReflexive «подписаться» — to sign one's name «Подписался» (from «подписаться») uses the «-ся» as a true reflexive — to put one's own name down, sign oneself. So "Pan Vrublevsky too signed (his name)."
61
Many such letters, all with such receipts, Grushenka had already received from her "former one."
GrammarGenitive after quantity «Таких писем» is genitive plural, governed by «много» ('many') further on in the sentence; quantity words pull what they count into the genitive. Note too how the whole heavy object phrase is fronted before the subject «Грушенька», throwing the new information to the back.
GrammarReflexive «свой» + the genitive «от» «Своего» is the reflexive possessive, pointing back to the subject Grushenka — 'her own former one'. The preposition «от» governs the genitive, and the adjective «прежний» ('former') is used as a noun, with quotation marks marking the wry euphemism for her old Polish lover.
62
This had begun right from Grushenka's recovery, about two weeks before.
GrammarReflexive «-ся» as middle voice «Началось» (from «начаться») uses the clitic «-ся» to make the verb intransitive: not 'someone began it' but 'it began of itself'. The neuter «-ось» agrees with the neuter pronoun «это».
GrammarGenitive of starting point «С» here means 'starting from' and takes the genitive: «с самого выздоровления» — 'from the very recovery'. «Самого» ('very, the exact') intensifies the noun, a common emphatic use distinct from the reflexive «сам».
63
She knew, however, that both Pans had come around to inquire after her health even during her illness.
Word«Пан» — the Polish gentleman «Пан» is the Polish word for 'Mr./gentleman', used throughout for Grushenka's two Poles to mark them as foreign and faintly absurd. «Оба пана» — 'both Pans'; «оба» (m.) / «обе» (f.) is the special word for 'both'.
GrammarImperfective for repeated visits «Приходили наведываться» pairs an imperfective verb of arrival with an imperfective infinitive 'to inquire' — the imperfective signals that they came round more than once, as background habit rather than a single event.
64
The first letter Grushenka received was a long one, on a large sheet of writing paper, sealed with a great family crest and so terribly murky and florid that Grushenka read only half and tossed it aside, having understood absolutely nothing.
GrammarPast passive participle «Полученное» is a past passive participle ('received'), agreeing in neuter singular with «письмо» and condensing a relative clause ('which was received'). Its agent, Grushenka, stands in the instrumental «Грушенькой» — the case of the doer behind a passive.
Word«Витиеватый» — florid, convoluted «Витиеватый» means ornate and twisting in style, full of rhetorical curlicues; with «темное» ('murky, obscure') it skewers the Pan's pretentious prose. The word recurs in this chapter as the keynote of his letters.
GrammarPerfective gerund + double negation «Поняв» is a perfective past gerund ('having understood'), naming a completed circumstance attendant on «бросила». «Ничего… не» is obligatory negative concord — the ни-word and «не» together mean 'nothing at all', reinforced by «ровно» ('absolutely').
65
And besides, she had no time for letters just then.
GrammarDative + «не до» idiom «Ей не до писем» is an impersonal construction: the experiencer Grushenka is in the dative «ей», and «не до» + genitive «писем» means 'had no time/mind for letters'. There is no nominative subject — a hallmark of how Russian frames states of mind.
Grammar«Да и» — 'and besides' Sentence-initial «Да и» is a colloquial connective meaning 'and besides, what's more', adding a clinching afterthought. Here «да» is not 'yes' but a coordinating particle.
66
This first letter was followed the next day by a second, in which Pan Mussyalovich asked her to lend him two thousand rubles for the very shortest of terms.
Grammar«Следовать за» + instrumental «Последовать за» ('to follow after') governs the instrumental, so 'after this first letter' becomes «за этим первым письмом», with demonstrative, adjective, and noun all in the instrumental. The real subject «второе» ('a second') waits at the end.
GrammarInstrumental of the thing lent «Ссудить кого чем» — to lend someone something — takes the lent amount in the instrumental: «двумя тысячами рублей», 'with two thousand rubles'. «Рублей» is genitive plural after the numeral 'thousand'.
67
This letter too Grushenka left without a reply.
GrammarFronted object + emphatic «и» The object «это письмо» is pulled in front of the verb, and «и» here is the emphatic particle 'too / also' — 'this letter too she left unanswered'. Word order and «и» together carry the focus that English marks with stress.
68
After that came a whole string of letters, one a day, all just as solemn and florid, but in which the sum requested as a loan, dropping by degrees, fell to a hundred rubles, then to twenty-five, then to ten rubles, and at last Grushenka suddenly received a letter in which both Pans asked her for one single ruble and enclosed a receipt that both had signed.
GrammarParticiple and gerund stacked together Two non-finite forms pile onto one noun: «просимая» is a present passive participle ('being requested') modifying «сумма», and «спускаясь» is an imperfective gerund ('dropping') describing how the sum «дошла» ('reached') its low point. This dense participial layering is the texture of literary narration.
Grammar«До» + genitive numerals Each step down is «до» ('down to') + genitive: «ста» (gen. of сто), «двадцати пяти», «десяти». The preposition «до» always governs the genitive, and numerals themselves decline.
69
Then Grushenka was suddenly seized with pity, and at dusk she ran round herself to the Pan.
GrammarDative subject of feeling Another experiencer construction: «Грушеньке» (dative) + «стало жалко» ('became pitying / felt pity') — literally 'to Grushenka it became pitiable'. The feeling befalls her; there is no nominative subject.
GrammarMultidirectional «сбегать» — a round trip «Сбегала» (prefixed «с-» + the multidirectional «бегать») here means 'ran over and back', a quick there-and-return errand — distinct from one-way «побежала». «К пану» uses «к» + dative for motion toward a person.
70
She found both Poles in terrible poverty, almost in destitution, with no food, no firewood, no cigarettes, and in debt to their landlady.
GrammarAnaphora of «без» + genitive The hammering repetition of «без» ('without'), each governing the genitive (кушанья, дров, папирос), paints destitution by sheer accumulation of absences. «Без» always takes the genitive.
Word«Нищета» and «папироса» «Нищета» is abject, beggarly poverty, a notch below ordinary «бедность». A «папироса» is the old Russian cardboard-tube cigarette (not a paper-rolled «сигарета»), a period detail of the two Poles' shabby-genteel life.
GrammarPast active participle in the accusative «Задолжавших» is a past active participle ('having gotten into debt') agreeing with «обоих поляков», the animate object of «нашла», hence its genitive-shaped accusative ending. It governs «хозяйке» in the dative — one owes a debt 'to' someone.
71
The two hundred rubles won from Mitya at Mokroye had somehow swiftly vanished.
GrammarPast passive participle + «у» of source «Выигранные» is a past passive participle ('won'), agreeing with «двести рублей». «У Мити» uses «у» + genitive to mark the person the money was won 'off of'. «Мокром» is the prepositional of the village name Mokroye, location after «в».
72
What surprised Grushenka, however, was that both Pans received her with haughty importance and independence, with the utmost ceremony, with inflated speeches.
GrammarImpersonal verb fronted, «что»-clause subject The neuter verb «удивило» ('surprised') leads, with «Грушеньку» as accusative object and the real subject deferred to the «что»-clause — 'what surprised G. was that…'. «Однако же» ('however') uses the insistent particle «же».
GrammarInstrumental of manner + archaic ending The chain «с… важностью… независимостью… этикетом… речами» is instrumental of manner after «с» ('with'). The adjective ending «-ою» in «заносчивою» is the older bookish variant of «-ой», common in 19th-century prose.
73
Grushenka merely laughed and gave her "former one" ten rubles.
GrammarDative recipient + reflexive «свой» «Дать» takes the recipient in the dative: «своему прежнему» ('to her own former one'), again the reflexive possessive pointing back to Grushenka. «Десять рублей» is the direct object, with «рублей» genitive plural after 'ten'.
74
She told Mitya about it then, laughing, and he was not in the least jealous.
GrammarImperfective gerund of simultaneity «Смеясь» ('laughing') is an imperfective present gerund expressing an action going on at the same time as the main verb «рассказала» — 'laughing, she told'. The subject is shared with the main clause.
Grammar«Тот» as tracking pronoun + perfective of onset «Тот» ('that one') refers back to Mitya, a demonstrative used to switch the subject cleanly. «Приревновал» is perfective — the prefix «при-» here gives an inceptive 'flare of jealousy'; «вовсе не» ('not in the least') negates it emphatically.
75
But from then on the Pans fastened onto Grushenka and bombarded her every day with letters begging for money, and each time she would send a little.
GrammarReflexive «ухватиться за» + accusative «Ухватиться за кого» ('to fasten/seize onto someone') is a reflexive «-ся» verb whose object takes «за» + accusative. The «-ся» here marks the grip as self-directed, an intensive seizing-hold.
GrammarContrastive «а» + «та» + imperfective habit «А» is the mild contrastive 'and/while', shifting back to Grushenka, here named only by «та» ('that one'). «Посылала» is imperfective for a repeated habit ('would send each time'), and «понемножку» is a tender diminutive adverb 'a little bit at a time'.
76
And now suddenly, today, Mitya had taken it into his head to be cruelly jealous.
Grammar«Вздумать» + perfective inceptive «Вздумать» ('to take it into one's head') is a perfective of sudden whim, followed by the perfective infinitive «приревновать» whose «при-» again gives the inception of jealousy. The doubled «вдруг… вздумал» underscores the abruptness.
77
"Fool that I am, I ran over to him too, only for a minute, on my way to Mitya, because he too had fallen ill — that Pan of mine, the former one," Grushenka began again, fidgeting and hurrying. "So I'm laughing and I tell Mitya: imagine, I say, that Pole of mine took it into his head to sing me his old songs on the guitar — he thinks I'll go all soft and come back to him. And Mitya, how he leaps up with his curses… So no, there now, I'll send the Pans some pies! Fenya, did they send that girl over there? Here, give her three rubles and wrap up a dozen little pies for them in paper, and tell her to take them along; and you, Alyosha, be sure to tell Mitya that I sent them the pies."
Word«Дура» — self-deprecating 'fool' «Дура» is the feminine of «дурак», a fool — here Grushenka applies it to herself in affectionate exasperation, a very Dostoevskian self-scolding that opens her tumble of speech.
GrammarPrefixed «за-» of a quick stop-in + diminutive «Забежать» (prefix «за-» + «бежать») means to drop in / run by on the way somewhere — exactly 'I ran over to him' en route to Mitya. «На минутку» softens it with the diminutive of «минута», 'just for a wee minute'.
GrammarThe topic clitic «-то» The hyphenated «-то» tacked onto «пан», «Мите», «поляк», «Митя» throughout this speech is the colloquial topic-emphasizer 'as for…, that…' — it foregrounds a known referent and gives the dialogue its breathless, folk-storytelling rhythm. Distinct from indefinite «кто-то».
GrammarPerfective future + «пойти за» (to marry) «Расчувствуюсь» and «пойду» are perfective verbs in present-tense form, hence simple future ('I'll go soft and go off with him'). «Пойти за кого» — literally 'go behind/after someone' — is the idiom for a woman marrying a man.
Grammar«Как» + perfective future for vivid past «Как вскочит» uses a present-form perfective with «как» to narrate a sudden past action vividly — 'and how Mitya leaps up!' This dramatic 'historical' future is a lively colloquial storytelling device.
GrammarChain of imperatives Grushenka fires off perfective imperatives at Fenya: «отдай» ('give'), «уверни» ('wrap up'), «вели снести» ('order [it] taken'). «Снести» here is 'carry/take to', and «вели» + infinitive means 'order someone to do'. The clipped commands convey her bustling resolve.
Word«Пирог» and the diminutive «пирожок» «Пирог» is a baked pie/pastry; «пирожок» its diminutive, a small hand pie. Sending the destitute Poles a parcel of homely pies is a gesture of half-mocking peasant charity — and «с десяток» means 'about ten, a dozen or so'.
78
"Not for anything will I tell him," Alyosha said, smiling.
Grammar«Ни за что» — emphatic refusal «Ни за что» ('not for anything, on no account') is a fixed ни-expression; paired with «не расскажу» it forms negative concord, the doubled negation reinforcing Alyosha's flat refusal. «Расскажу» is perfective future.
GrammarPerfective gerund «улыбнувшись» «Улыбнувшись» is a perfective past gerund ('having smiled / with a smile'), the «-вшись» form attaching the smile to «проговорил» as an attendant act. Dostoevsky's dialogue tags lean constantly on these gerunds.
79
"Eh, you think he's suffering; why, he got jealous on purpose, and to him it's all the same anyhow," Grushenka said bitterly.
GrammarAppeal particle «ведь» «Ведь» appeals to shared knowledge — 'why, after all, you know' — coaxing Alyosha to see what Grushenka already sees. It is one of the modal particles English renders only with intonation, central to her persuasive voice.
GrammarDative experiencer in «всё равно» «Ему всё равно» ('to him it's all the same / he doesn't care') is the classic dative-experiencer idiom: the person affected is dative «ему», intensified by «самому» ('to him himself'). No nominative subject.
80
"How do you mean, on purpose?" Alyosha asked.
GrammarElliptical question «как так» «Как так?» ('how so? / what do you mean?') is a terse colloquial demand for explanation, with the verb left out — Alyosha simply echoes «нарочно» ('on purpose') back as a query. Such verbless rejoinders pace the rapid exchange.
81
"You're a simple soul, Alyoshenka, that's what; for all your cleverness, you understand nothing of this, that's what. It doesn't hurt me that he got jealous over me, such as I am — it would hurt me if he weren't jealous at all. That's how I am. I won't take offense at jealousy; I have a cruel heart myself, I'd be jealous too. What hurts me is that he doesn't love me at all and now got jealous ''on purpose'', that's what. Am I blind or what — don't I see? All at once just now he starts in to me about her, about Katka: she's this and she's that, sent for doctors from Moscow for the trial — for me, sent them to save me — sent for the very first, most learned lawyer too. So he loves her, if he began praising her to my face, the shameless eyes of him! He's the guilty one before me, so he's fastened onto me to make me out the guilty one first and lay it all on me alone: 'You,' he says, 'were with the Pole before me, so it's become permissible for me to take up with Katka.' That's what it is! He wants to lay the whole blame on me alone. He fastened onto me on purpose, on purpose, I tell you, only I…"
Word«Алешенька» — the tender diminutive Alyosha (itself short for Aleksei) is softened further to «Алешенька» with the affectionate «-енька» suffix — the warmest rung of the name-ladder, voicing Grushenka's fondness even as she chides him.
GrammarConditional with «бы» and archaic «коли» This is a contrary-to-fact conditional: «коли бы… не ревновал» (past form + «бы») in the if-clause and «стало бы… обидно» in the result. «Коли» is a bookish, folk-archaic 'if', and «мне обидно» is again the dative experiencer.
Word«Катька» — the pejorative diminutive Katerina Ivanovna is reduced to «Катька», the «-ка» suffix here scornful and dismissive (contrast affectionate «Катенька»). Grushenka's rival is contemptuously cut down to size by the very form of her name.
GrammarReportative particles «де» and «дескать» «Де» and «дескать» are quotative particles flagging reported speech — 'he says, so he claims' — and carrying a tinge of the speaker's skepticism. Grushenka uses them to throw Mitya's words back with mocking distance.
GrammarPurpose «чтобы» + instrumental predicate «Чтобы… сделать» expresses purpose ('in order to make…'). «Сделать кого виноватой» puts the resulting predicate in the instrumental «виноватой» ('to make me [out to be] guilty'), the case for an assumed role. «Себя» is the reflexive 'himself'.
Word«Бесстыжий» — shameless «Бесстыжий» ('shameless, brazen', literally 'without shame') is a coarse, folk-flavored reproach; «бесстыжие глаза» — 'the shameless eyes of him' — is an idiomatic exclamation of indignation at brazen effrontery.
82
Grushenka did not finish saying what she would do, covered her eyes with her handkerchief, and burst into terrible sobs.
GrammarPerfective future inside reported clause «Сделает» is perfective in present form, so future — 'what she would do'. After the negated «не договорила» ('did not finish saying'), the «что»-clause reports the unspoken threat she breaks off.
Word«Разрыдаться» — to burst into sobs The prefix «раз-» on «рыдать» ('to sob') gives an inceptive, intensive burst — 'broke into violent weeping'. The «-ся» makes it the involuntary onset of a state, fitting Grushenka's sudden collapse.
83
"He does not love Katerina Ivanovna," Alyosha said firmly.
GrammarAccusative object kept under negation Note the object «Катерину Ивановну» stays accusative even though the verb is negated. A definite, specific person resists the genitive of negation, so the accusative holds — a meaningful choice over genitive «Катерины Ивановны».
84
"Well, loves her or doesn't — I'll soon find that out for myself," Grushenka said with a menacing note in her voice, taking the handkerchief from her eyes.
Grammar«X не X» — 'whether or not' The bare juxtaposition «любит не любит» ('loves, doesn't love') is a colloquial way of saying 'whether he loves her or not, it's all one' — a dismissive concessive, here also echoing the petal-plucking game.
GrammarImperfective gerund «отнимая» «Отнимая» ('taking away') is an imperfective present gerund running parallel to «проговорила» — she speaks while drawing the handkerchief from her eyes. «От глаз» is «от» + genitive.
85
Her face grew distorted.
GrammarReflexive «-ся» of change of state «Исказилось» (from «исказиться») is a middle-voice «-ся» verb: the face 'became distorted' of itself, with no external agent. The short, intransitive sentence lands the abrupt transformation.
86
With sorrow Alyosha saw how suddenly, from being gentle and quietly cheerful, her face turned sullen and spiteful.
Grammar«Из» + genitive → «стать» + instrumental The transformation is framed «из X стало Y»: 'out of' the former state (genitive «кроткого и тихо-веселого») the face 'became' the new one (instrumental «угрюмым и злым» after «стать»). The instrumental is the predicate-of-becoming case.
Word«Кроткий» — meek, gentle «Кроткий» ('meek, gentle, mild') is a morally weighted word in Dostoevsky, an evangelical virtue (the «кроткие» shall inherit the earth). Its sudden loss into «угрюмый и злой» ('sullen and spiteful') measures the shadow crossing Grushenka.
87
"Enough of this nonsense!" she snapped suddenly. "It's not for this at all that I called you. Alyosha, my dear, tomorrow — tomorrow, what will become of it? That's the thing that torments me! Me alone it torments! I look at everyone, and nobody gives it a thought, nobody cares a bit. Do even you give it a thought? Tomorrow they try him! Tell me, how will they try him there? Why, it was the lackey, the lackey who did the killing, the lackey! Lord! Surely they won't condemn him for the lackey, and nobody will stand up for him? Why, they never even troubled the lackey at all, did they?"
GrammarStacked negative pronouns + genitive of negation «Никто… не», «никому… дела нет» pile up negative concord (ни-words plus «не»/«нет»). «Дела нет» is the genitive of negation in an existential 'there is no concern', with the experiencer in the dative «никому» — 'nobody has any care for it'.
Word«Лакей» — the lackey Smerdyakov «Лакей» is a manservant/footman, here Smerdyakov, the Karamazovs' servant whom Grushenka (rightly) names the real killer. The threefold repetition hammers the class outrage that a mere lackey should hang the crime on Mitya.
Grammar«Неужто» + «же»: incredulous question «Неужто» (a folksy variant of «неужели», 'surely not? / can it really be?') opens an incredulous rhetorical question, sharpened by the particle «ж» (= «же»). «За лакея» — 'on account of the lackey'.
88
"He was strictly questioned," Alyosha remarked thoughtfully, "but everyone concluded it wasn't him. Now he's lying very ill. He's been ill ever since, ever since that falling sickness. He really is ill," Alyosha added.
GrammarImpersonal-plural 'they' + imperfective «Опрашивали» is a 3rd-plural verb with no stated subject — the indefinite 'they questioned him', a common impersonal device. The imperfective suits the drawn-out process of questioning, against perfective «заключили» ('concluded').
GrammarLong vs short adjective «больной / болен» Russian contrasts the long form «больной» (here attributive-like, the chronic invalid who lies ill) with the short predicative «болен» ('is ill', a state). Alyosha's closing «болен» asserts the bare fact of his present condition — the short form's natural job.
89
"Lord, you ought to go to that lawyer yourself and tell him the whole thing face to face. They say they sent for him from Petersburg for three thousand."
GrammarConditional «бы» as soft command Past form «сходил» + «бы» yields not a hypothetical but a gentle exhortation — 'you really ought to go'. The «бы» softens the imperative into urging advice; «к адвокату» is «к» + dative of the person visited.
Word«С глазу на глаз» — face to face A fixed idiom 'eye to eye', i.e. privately, one on one. Note the archaic stressed-«у» genitive «глазу» frozen into the phrase — a fossil of an older form preserved only in such set expressions.
90
"The three of us put up the three thousand — I, brother Ivan, and Katerina Ivanovna — but the doctors from Moscow she sent for at two thousand on her own. The lawyer Fetyukovich would have taken more, but this case has gotten such notoriety all over Russia, they're talking about it in all the papers and journals, so Fetyukovich agreed to come more for the glory of it, because the case has become too famous. I saw him yesterday."
Grammar«Втроем» — collective adverb «Втроем» ('the three of us together, as a threesome') is a collective numeral adverb (cf. «вдвоем»), naming the joint agents listed after it. «Три тысячи» — accusative object, with «тысячи» genitive singular after «три».
GrammarConditional «бы» for an unrealized outcome «Больше бы взял» (past «взял» + «бы») is the irrealis: 'would have taken more' [but didn't]. «Больше» is the suppletive comparative of «много/большой». The «бы» frames the counterfactual against what actually happened.
91
"Well, and what then? Did you talk to him?" Grushenka flared up hurriedly.
GrammarReflexive «вскинуться» of sudden movement «Вскинуться» ('to start up, flare up') is a perfective «-ся» verb of abrupt self-directed motion — Grushenka jerks to attention. The «вс-» prefix adds the upward, sudden burst; «торопливо» ('hurriedly') colors her eagerness.
92
"He heard me out and said nothing. He said he had already formed a definite opinion. But he promised to take my words into consideration."
GrammarReflexive «-ся» + «у» of possession «У него составилось мнение» — literally 'an opinion had formed itself at him', i.e. he had formed one. «Составилось» is middle-voice «-ся», and «у него» (the «у»+genitive possessive) makes him the locus rather than a grammatical agent.
93
"What do you mean, into consideration! Ah, the scoundrels! They'll ruin him! Well, and the doctors — what did she send for the doctors for?"
Word«Мошенник» — scoundrel, swindler «Мошенник» is a rogue, cheat, or con-man. Grushenka flings it at the whole legal apparatus ('they'll ruin him!'), her peasant distrust of courtroom cleverness boiling over.
GrammarTopic «-то», then «та» for the rival «Доктора-то» foregrounds the doctors with the topic clitic «-то»; «та» ('that one [woman]') is the cold demonstrative for Katerina Ivanovna, whom Grushenka won't name. «Выписать» here is 'to send for / summon from afar'.
94
"As expert witnesses. They want to bring out that my brother is mad and killed in a fit of derangement, not knowing himself," Alyosha smiled quietly, "only my brother won't agree to that."
Grammar«Как» + accusative role «Как эксперта» — 'as an expert [witness]' — uses «как» to assign a role, with the animate noun in the genitive-shaped accusative «эксперта». The elliptical answer omits the verb, picking up 'sent for' from the previous line.
GrammarGerund «не помня» + reflexive «себя» «Не помня себя» ('not knowing/remembering himself', i.e. beside himself) is an imperfective gerund phrase with the reflexive object pronoun «себя». It is also a set idiom for acting in a frenzy, fitting the insanity defense.
95
"Ah, but that would be the truth, if he had killed!" Grushenka exclaimed. "He was deranged then, utterly deranged, and it's I, I, the vile creature, who am to blame for it! Only he didn't kill, didn't kill! And the whole town is against him, saying he did. Even Fenya, even she testified in such a way that it comes out as if he killed. And the shop, and that clerk, and what they heard earlier in the tavern! Everyone, everyone is against him, all clamoring away."
GrammarCounterfactual «если б» exclamation «Если б [бы] он убил» (past + reduced «б») is contrary-to-fact: 'if he had [actually] killed'. The exclamatory conditional voices Grushenka's anguished 'if only that were the truth' — the very thing she insists is false.
Word«Подлая» — vile, base «Подлый» means base, mean, contemptible; Grushenka brands herself «подлая» ('vile creature') in a spasm of self-accusation. The noun-like use of the adjective, set off in apposition to «я», intensifies the self-flagellation.
Grammar«Галдеть» — to clamor «Галдеть» is an expressive, slightly contemptuous verb for a noisy babble of many voices all at once. The imperfective «галдят» paints the whole town as an ongoing din of accusation against Mitya.
96
"Yes, the evidence has multiplied dreadfully," Alyosha remarked grimly.
Word«Показание» — testimony, deposition «Показание» is a witness's formal statement or testimony (from «показать», 'to show/depose'). «Показания умножились» — 'the testimony has multiplied' — is the legal register threading through this trial-eve conversation.
97
"And Grigory — Grigory Vasilyich — why, he sticks to his story that the door was open, he hammers away that he saw it, you can't budge him; I ran to him, talked with him myself. He even curses!"
Word«Стоять/ломить на своем» — to stick to one's story «Стоять на своем» and the rougher «ломить на своем» are idioms for obstinately holding one's ground; «не собьешь его» ('you can't knock him off [it]') is the perfective future used impersonally ('one can't budge him'). The cluster paints Grigory's mulish certainty.
98
"Yes, that may be the strongest piece of evidence against my brother," Alyosha said.
GrammarSuperlative with «самый» «Самое сильное» is the periphrastic superlative — «самый» ('the most') declining with the adjective «сильное» to agree with neuter «показание». 'The strongest piece of evidence', the bookish-neutral way to form a superlative.
99
"And as for Mitya being deranged — why, he's just like that even now," Grushenka began suddenly with a peculiarly troubled and mysterious air. "You know, Alyoshenka, I've long wanted to tell you about this: I go to him every day and I'm simply amazed. Tell me, what do you think — what is it he's now begun talking about all the time? He starts talking and talking — and I can't understand a thing; I think, it's something clever he means, well, I'm a fool, it's not for me to understand, I think; only suddenly he started telling me about a babe, that is, about some little babe, 'why,' says he, 'is the poor babe?' 'It's for the babe's sake that I'll go to Siberia now; I didn't kill, but I must go to Siberia!' What is that, what sort of a babe — I understood not the least little thing. Only I burst out crying as he spoke, because he said it so well, weeping himself, and I wept too, and suddenly he kissed me and made the sign of the cross over me with his hand. What is that, Alyosha, tell me — what is this 'babe'?"
Word"Дитё" — the babe Дитё is a colloquial, tender form of дитя ("child"); дитятя is a folksy diminutive Grushenka adds. Mitya's cryptic talk of the "poor babe" (бедно дитё) refers to the dream of the starving child from Book IX, the moral vision that turns him toward accepting Siberia. We keep the archaic, tender flavor with "babe."
GrammarInceptive «за-» + repetition for habit «Заговорит» (perfective, prefix «за-» = 'starts to speak') doubled evokes his recurring outbursts; «ничего… не могу» is negative concord. The mix of inceptive perfectives and helpless imperfective «понимать» dramatizes her bafflement.
Word«Ничегошеньки» — not the teeniest thing «Ничегошеньки» is «ничего» with a doubled affectionate-emphatic diminutive «-шеньки», an intensely colloquial 'not the least little bit'. The cooing suffix on a negative is pure spoken Grushenka.
100
"It's Rakitin who's taken to visiting him for some reason," Alyosha smiled, "though… this isn't from Rakitin. I wasn't with him yesterday; I'll go today."
Grammar«Повадиться» + imperfective infinitive «Повадиться ходить» ('to get into the habit of visiting') is a reflexive «-ся» verb of acquired habit, taking an imperfective infinitive for the repeated action. Slightly disapproving in tone — Rakitin keeps turning up.
101
"No, it's not Rakitka, it's his brother Ivan Fyodorovich who's unsettling him, he's the one who visits him, that's what…" Grushenka said, and suddenly seemed to break off.
Word«Ракитка» — the belittling «-ка» Grushenka clips Rakitin to «Ракитка», the «-ка» suffix here familiar-contemptuous, brushing him aside as she names the real influence. The form itself dismisses him.
GrammarReflexive «осечься» + hedging «как бы» «Осеклась» (perfective «-ся» of «осечься», 'to stop short, falter in speech') marks her sudden self-arrest. «Как бы» ('as if, sort of') is the narrator's hedge — she 'seemed' to break off, sensing she has said too much about Ivan.
102
Alyosha stared at her as though thunderstruck.
GrammarPast passive participle «пораженный» as predicate «Уставиться на» ('to stare fixedly at') is reflexive «-ся». «Как пораженный» ('as though struck/thunderstruck') uses a past passive participle adjectivally — 'as one struck' — agreeing with Alyosha in the nominative.
103
"What do you mean, visits? Has he really been visiting him? Mitya told me himself that Ivan hadn't come even once!"
Grammar«Разве» — incredulous 'really?' «Разве» opens a question of astonished disbelief ('do you mean to say he really visited?'), expecting that the answer overturns what the speaker assumed. The imperfective «ходил» asks about the fact of visiting at all.
Grammar«Ни разу… не» — not even once «Ни разу не приходил» is negative concord — «ни разу» ('not a single time') + «не» — emphatically denying any visit. The imperfective «приходил» negates the occurrence itself.
104
"Well… well, there I go! I've let it slip!" Grushenka exclaimed in confusion, suddenly flushing all over. "Wait, Alyosha, hush, so be it, since I've already let it slip I'll tell the whole truth: he's been to him twice — the first time just after he'd arrived back then — that was when he came galloping straight from Moscow, before I'd even taken to my bed — and the other time he came a week ago. Mitya told him not to tell you about it, told him absolutely not to, and not to tell anyone either; he came in secret."
Word«Проболтаться» — to blurt out a secret «Проболтаться» (reflexive «-ся», prefix «про-») means to let something slip, blab inadvertently. Grushenka's self-catching cry 'I've let it slip!' confesses her own loose tongue in the same breath.
Grammar«Так и быть» + archaic «коль» «Так и быть» is a fixed concessive 'so be it, very well then'. «Коль» (a clipped folk-archaic «если», 'since/if'), reinforced by «уж», resigns her to confessing now that the cat is out.
Grammar«Велеть» + infinitive; archaic «сказывать» «Не велел сказывать» — 'ordered [him] not to tell'; «велеть» takes a dative addressee and an infinitive. «Сказывать» is a folk-archaic synonym of «говорить/сказать», and «потаенно» ('secretly') belongs to the same elevated-old register coloring Mitya's clandestine arrangement.
105
Alyosha sat in deep thought, turning something over in his mind.
GrammarIndefinite «что-то» + imperfective musing «Что-то» ('something [specific but unspecified]') uses the «-то» that marks a real-but-unnamed referent. The imperfective «соображал» ('was working out') views his mental effort as an ongoing process.
106
The news had plainly struck him.
GrammarPerfective «поразить» of a single blow «Поразило» (perfective) registers a single, completed effect — the news 'struck' him at one stroke. The neuter subject «известие» is fronted, the object «его» tucked before the verb in the unmarked given-new flow.
107
"Brother Ivan does not talk to me about Mitya's case," he said slowly, "and indeed he has spoken to me very little at all these two months, and whenever I came to him he was always displeased that I had come, so that I haven't gone to him for three weeks now. Hm… If he was there a week ago, then… over this week some sort of change has really come over Mitya…"
GrammarImperfective for habitual scarcity + «-ою» form The imperfective «говорил» frames a sustained state over two months ('spoke very little with me'). «Со мною» shows the older instrumental pronoun ending «-ою»; modern Russian prefers «со мной».
GrammarIterative «бывал» + short adjective «недоволен» «Бывал» (iterative imperfective of «быть») means 'used to be, would repeatedly be'. The short-form predicative adjective «недоволен» ('displeased') states the recurring mood — the short form is the predicate-only one.
GrammarIndefinite «какая-то» + perfective change «Какая-то перемена» — 'some sort of change' — pairs the «-то» indefinite (a real but unidentified change) with feminine agreement. «Произошла» is perfective: a change has come about as a completed fact.
108
"A change, a change!" Grushenka caught it up quickly. "They have a secret, they had a secret! Mitya told me himself there's a secret, and, you know, such a secret that Mitya can't even calm himself. And before he used to be cheerful — well, he's cheerful even now too — only, you know, when he starts tossing his head like that, and pacing the room, and tugging at the hair here on his temple with this right finger, then I just know there's something troubled on his soul… I just know it!.. But before he was cheerful; and even today he's cheerful!"
GrammarInstrumental of the limb + «по» + dative «Мотать головой» ('to shake one's head') puts the body part in the instrumental «головой» — the means of the motion. «По комнате» ('about the room') uses «по» + dative for wandering movement over a space.
Word«Теребить» — to fidget, tug «Теребить» means to pluck or worry at something fitfully with the fingers. The minute physical tic — tugging the hair at his temple («на виске») — is Dostoevsky's way of bodying forth Mitya's inner unrest, which Grushenka reads like a barometer.
109
"But you said he was on edge?"
GrammarShort adjective «раздражен» «Раздражен» is the short predicative form ('is irritated / on edge'), the only form that can stand as a bare predicate. Alyosha quotes her word back as a one-word question, the «А» a soft conversational pivot.
110
"He's on edge, yes, and cheerful too. He's on edge all the time, yes, but just for a minute, and then he's cheerful, and then suddenly on edge again. And you know, Alyosha, I keep wondering at him: such terror ahead, yet sometimes he even laughs at the silliest trifles, just like a child himself."
GrammarReflexive «дивиться» + «на» of wonder «Дивиться на кого» ('to marvel/wonder at') is a reflexive «-ся» verb governing «на» + accusative. «Всё» here is adverbial 'continually, still' — she keeps marveling at him.
Grammar«Точно» 'just like' + topic «-то» «Точно» here is the comparative 'exactly like, as if' (not 'precisely'). «Сам-то дитя» — 'a very child himself', with «сам» ('himself') foregrounded by the topic clitic «-то». The image rounds off the portrait of Mitya's childlike volatility.
111
"And is it true that he forbade you to tell me about Ivan? Did he really say: don't tell?"
Grammar«Велеть» with dative + negated infinitive «Велеть» governs a dative addressee «мне» and an infinitive «говорить»; negated, «не велел говорить» = 'forbade [me] to speak'. «Про Ивана» ('about Ivan') uses «про» + accusative, a colloquial alternative to «о».
112
"He did say: don't tell. It's you most of all he's afraid of, Mitya is. Because there's a secret here — he said himself there's a secret… Alyosha, my dear, go, find out: what is this secret of theirs, and come and tell me, — Grushenka flared up and suddenly began to plead, — settle it for me, poor thing that I am, so that I may at last know my accursed fate! That's what I called you for."
GrammarFronted object + «и» focus + «бояться» + genitive «Бояться» ('to fear', a «-ся»-only verb) governs the genitive, here «тебя». The object is thrown to the front with topic «-то» and focal «и» — 'it's you above all he fears' — a textbook information-structuring inversion.
GrammarChained perfective imperatives Grushenka pleads in a run of perfective imperatives: «сходи» ('go [there and back]'), «выведай» ('find out, ferret out'), «приди… сказать» ('come [to] tell me'). The perfective imperative urges a single decisive errand.
Word«Участь» — fate, lot «Участь» is one's appointed lot or destiny, a bookish-elevated word weightier than everyday «судьба». «Проклятая участь» ('accursed fate') lifts Grushenka's plea into near-tragic register as she begs to know her doom.
113
"You think it's something about you? But then he wouldn't have spoken about the secret in front of you."
GrammarCounterfactual «бы» reasoning «Тогда бы он не сказал» (past + «бы») argues from a hypothetical: 'in that case he wouldn't have spoken'. Alyosha reasons by counterfactual — the conditional «бы» without an explicit «если». «При тебе» — 'in your presence', «при» + prepositional.
GrammarNon-specific «-нибудь» «Что-нибудь» ('something or other, anything') uses «-нибудь» for a non-specific referent — 'is it something [whatever it might be] about you?' — contrasting with the specific «что-то» elsewhere in the chapter.
114
"I don't know. Maybe he does want to tell me, but doesn't dare. He's warning me. There's a secret, he says, but what secret — he didn't say."
GrammarTopic «-то» + focal «и» + contrastive «да» «Мне-то… и хочет сказать» foregrounds 'me' with topic «-то» and focal «и» — 'me he does want to tell'. «Да не смеет» uses «да» as the contrastive 'but' — '…but doesn't dare'. The particles carry her shaded guesswork.
115
"And what do you yourself think it is?"
GrammarIntensive «сама» + «же» insistence «Сама» ('[you] yourself') intensifies the pronoun, and «что же думаешь» uses the insistent particle «же» to press — 'but what do you yourself think?' Topic «-то» on «сама» nudges the focus onto her own opinion.
116
"What do I think? It's the end of me, that's what I think. The end is what the three of them have prepared for me, because Katka is in it. It's all Katka — it all comes from her. 'She's this and she's that,' meaning I'm not like that. He's saying it in advance, warning me in advance. He's resolved to abandon me — there's the whole secret! The three of them thought it up — Mitka, Katka, and Ivan Fyodorovich. Alyosha, I've long wanted to ask you something: a week ago he suddenly comes out and tells me Ivan is in love with Katka, because he visits her so often. Did he tell me the truth or not? Tell me on your conscience, cut me to the quick."
GrammarDative of the one it befalls «Конец мне пришел» — 'the end has come for me', literally 'an end came to me' — places the affected person in the dative «мне». Russian frames doom impersonally, the disaster arriving 'to' the experiencer.
WordScornful «-ка» names vs. the full triad The contempt is built into the morphology: Mitya and Katya are cut down to dismissive «Митька, Катька», while Ivan keeps his dignified name-and-patronymic «Иван Федорович». The mismatch of name-forms is itself characterization of how Grushenka ranks the three.
GrammarImperatives + idiom «режь меня» Two imperatives close the plea: «говори» ('speak') and the imperative «режь» ('cut [me]'), here figurative — 'cut me to the quick, give it to me straight'. «По совести» ('in conscience, honestly') is «по» + dative.
117
"I won't lie to you. Ivan is not in love with Katerina Ivanovna, so I think."
GrammarPerfective future «солгу» «Солгу» is the perfective future of «солгать/лгать» ('to lie'), in present-form: 'I will not [tell a] lie [to you]'. «Тебе» is the dative addressee. Alyosha's flat future-tense promise of honesty.
GrammarShort adjective «влюблен» + «в» of object «Влюблен в кого» ('in love with') uses the short predicative participle/adjective «влюблен» plus «в» + accusative for the beloved. Negated, «не влюблен» states the bare fact — the short form's predicate role.
118
"Well, that's just what I thought then, too! He's lying to me, the shameless one, that's what! And now he's gotten jealous over me so as to lay the blame on me later. Why, he's a fool, he doesn't know how to hide his tracks, he's so open about everything… Only I'll give it to him, I will! 'Do you,' he says, 'believe that I killed' — that's what he says to me, to me, that's what he reproached me with! God be with him! Well, just wait — that Katka will fare badly with me at the trial! I'll say just one little word there… I'll tell everything there!"
GrammarPurpose «чтобы» + perfective infinitive «Чтобы… свалить» ('so as to dump/pin [it] on me') is a purpose clause; with a same-subject infinitive «чтобы» governs the bare infinitive rather than a past form. «Свалить на кого» ('to shift blame onto') takes «на» + accusative.
GrammarGenitive object idiom «хоронить концы» «Хоронить концы» (literally 'to bury the [rope-]ends') is an idiom for covering one's tracks; «концов» appears in the genitive here under the negated «не умеет». The folksy image fits Grushenka's shrewd read of guileless Mitya.
GrammarAposiopesis with insistent «ж» The unfinished threat «я ж ему!» ('I'll show him!') trails off — the verb suppressed for menace. «Ж» (= «же») drives the insistence, the breaking-off (aposiopesis) leaving the retaliation to the imagination.
Word«Словечко» — the loaded little word «Словечко» is the diminutive of «слово» ('word'), but here it is menacing, not cute — 'just one little word' she could drop at the trial to undo Katka. The diminutive sharpens the threat by its mock-casualness.
119
And again she wept bitterly.
GrammarInceptive perfective «заплакать» «Заплакала» (prefix «за-» + «плакать») is the inceptive perfective 'burst into tears, began to cry'. The «за-» of onset is one of Russian's commonest ways to mark the start of an action as a single event.
120
"Here is what I can firmly declare to you, Grushenka," Alyosha said, rising from his place. "First, that he loves you — loves you more than anyone in the world, and you alone; in this you must believe me. I know it. I do know it. Second, I'll tell you that I don't want to wring the secret out of him; but if he tells me himself today, I'll say to him outright that I promised to tell you. Then I'll come to you this very day and tell you. Only… it seems to me… there's no trace of Katerina Ivanovna in this; the secret is about something else. And surely that's how it is. It doesn't look at all as if it were about Katerina Ivanovna — so it seems to me. But for now, goodbye!"
GrammarImperfective gerund «вставая» «Вставая» ('rising, getting up') is an imperfective present gerund framing the simultaneous action behind his speech — he speaks as he rises. «С места» ('from his place') is «с» + genitive.
GrammarComparative «более всех» = superlative sense «Более всех» ('more than everyone') uses the comparative «более» with a genitive of comparison «всех» to yield superlative meaning — he loves her above all others. A common way Russian builds 'the most' from a comparative.
GrammarReal conditional «если… то» + perfective future Unlike the «бы» counterfactuals, this is a real (open) condition: «если скажет, то скажу» — both perfective futures, 'if he tells me, then I'll tell'. The «если… то» frame pairs a genuine condition with its consequence.
GrammarGenitive of negation in «нет… и в помине» «Нет и в помине» ('there's not a trace, not so much as a mention') is an emphatic existential negation; its subject obligatorily takes the genitive — «нет Катерины Ивановны». The idiom flatly denies her any part in the secret.
121
Alyosha pressed her hand.
GrammarDative «ей» + accusative «руку» The perfective «пожал» (he pressed/shook) takes the thing pressed in the accusative, «руку», while the person whose hand it is stands in the dative «ей» — literally 'pressed to-her the hand'. Russian routinely marks the affected possessor of a body part with a dative rather than a possessive pronoun.
GrammarPerfective past for a single act «пожал» is the perfective past of «пожимать/пожать»: one completed gesture, viewed as a whole, moving the narrative forward a single step. An imperfective «пожимал» would have made it lingering or repeated.
122
Grushenka was still weeping.
GrammarImperfective «плакала» = ongoing state The imperfective past «плакала» paints weeping as a process still under way, reinforced by «всё ещё» ('still', 'all this while'). This is background description, not a single event — exactly what the imperfective is for.
123
He saw that she had put very little faith in his words of comfort, yet it had done her good all the same merely to have let her grief break loose, to have spoken it out.
Grammar«поверить» governs the dative The verb «поверить» ('to believe, give credence to') takes its object in the dative, here «его утешениям» ('his words of comfort'). So she did not believe to his comforts — the case, not word order, tells you who trusted what.
GrammarTwo «что»-clauses: report vs. anticipated content The subordinator «что» opens both the reported perception («что она... поверила») and the delayed-subject clause that «то» points forward to («что хоть горе сорвала»). Each dependent clause is set off by a comma, the standard Russian frame.
GrammarDative-experiencer impersonal «ей хорошо» There is no nominative subject here: the person who feels stands in the dative «ей», and the predicate is the invariable «хорошо» with neuter past «было» — 'it did her good / she felt better'. This experiencer-first frame is one of Dostoevsky's favourite ways into a character's inner state.
GrammarPerfectives «сорвала» and reflexive «высказалась» Two perfective pasts name the relief as accomplished wholes: «сорвала» (vented, literally 'tore off' her grief) and the reflexive «высказалась» ('spoke herself out'). The «-ся/-сь» on «высказалась» turns the act inward — to unburden oneself by speaking — rather than taking an external object.
Word«сорвать горе» — to vent one's grief «сорвать» literally means to tear or pluck off; paired with «горе» (grief) it is an expressive idiom for letting pent-up sorrow burst out. The image is of grief ripped loose rather than merely 'expressed'.
GrammarParticle «уж» softening and insisting Here «уж» (a worn-down «уже») is less 'already' than an emphatic, conceding particle — 'all the same', 'at any rate' — colouring the clause with the narrator's reassuring tone. Such modal particles carry attitude that English must render with stress or added phrasing.
124
He was sorry to leave her in such a state, but he was in a hurry.
GrammarImpersonal «жалко ему было» + infinitive Another subjectless construction: the experiencer «ему» is dative, the predicate the invariable «жалко» ('it was a pity / he was loath'), with neuter «было», and the source of the feeling is the imperfective infinitive «оставлять» ('to be leaving'). Fronting «жалко» throws the emotional weight to the head of the sentence.
GrammarPrepositional «в... состоянии» of state «в таком состоянии» ('in such a state') stands in the prepositional case after «в» marking location/condition, with the demonstrative «таком» agreeing in case, gender, and number with «состоянии».
GrammarContrastive «но» and imperfective «спешил» «но» sets the pity against the haste, and the imperfective past «спешил» ('he was hurrying') gives the haste as an ongoing condition, not a single act — the standing pressure under which Alyosha acts.
125
He still had a great deal to do.
GrammarImpersonal «предстояло ему» — what lay ahead The neuter «предстояло» ('there lay before / was in store') runs impersonally, with the dative «ему» naming the one it faced. There is again no nominative subject; the thing awaiting him is expressed quantitatively below.
GrammarGenitive after «много» Quantity words like «много» govern the genitive: «дела» here is genitive singular of «дело» ('business, matter'), giving 'much to do'. The quantifier-plus-genitive is the standard way Russian counts uncountable amounts.
GrammarVerb-first inversion for emphasis Opening with the verb «предстояло» and ending on the new information «много дела» follows Russian's topic-comment rhythm: what is given (the awaiting) comes first, the weighty news — how much work — lands last.

The particulars

The text: Братья Карамазовы, Fyodor Dostoevsky. Book XI — Ivan.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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