Russian · Book XI — Ivan

VIII. Третье, и последнее, свидание со Смердяковым

The Third and Last Interview with Smerdyakov

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1
While he was still only halfway there, a sharp, dry wind sprang up, the same that had blown early that morning, and a fine, dense, dry snow began to fall.
Ещеstillещё · adverbmodifies полпути
наatна · prepositionpreposition marking полпути
полпутиhalfwayполпути · noun, locative, masculine, singularoblique complement of поднялся
поднялсяsprang upподняться · verb, past, indicative, middle, singular, perfectivemain verb of the sentence
острыйsharpострый · adjective, nominative, masculine, singularmodifies ветер
сухойdryсухой · adjective, nominative, masculine, singularcoordinated with острый, modifies ветер
ветерwindветер · noun, nominative, masculine, singularsubject of поднялся
такойsuchтакой · determiner, nominative, masculine, singulardeterminer of ветер, correlative with как
жеsameже · particlemodifies такой
какasкак · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of был
былhad beenбыть · verb, past, indicative, active, singular, imperfectivemain verb of the как-clause, subject elided (ветер)
вonв · prepositionpreposition marking день
этотthatэтот · determiner, accusative, masculine, singulardeterminer of день
деньdayдень · noun, accusative, masculine, singulartemporal complement of был
раноearlyрано · adverbmodifies утром
утромin the morningутро · noun, instrumental, neuter, singulartemporal adjunct of был
иandи · conjunctionlinks the coordination
посыпалbegan to fallпосыпать · verb, past, indicative, active, singular, perfectivecoordinated with поднялся
мелкийfineмелкий · adjective, nominative, masculine, singularmodifies снег
густойdenseгустой · adjective, nominative, masculine, singularcoordinated with мелкий
сухойdryсухой · adjective, nominative, masculine, singularcoordinated with мелкий
снегsnowснег · noun, nominative, masculine, singularsubject of посыпал
GrammarPerfectives that launch the storm Both verbs are perfective past — «поднялся» (rose up) and «посыпал» (began to scatter down) — each marking a single bounded onset. They push the narrative forward event by event, against the descriptive background.
GrammarWord order: subject held to the end The adjectives «острый, сухой» precede their delayed noun «ветер», which itself comes after the verb «поднялся». Russian's free word order lets the new information — the wind and its qualities — fall as the rhythmic weight of the clause.
Word«посыпать» — to strew, sprinkle down Literally 'to strew/sprinkle', here of snow beginning to come down thickly. The dry, granular «мелкий, густой, сухой снег» it scatters is the fine powder snow of a hard Russian frost, not soft flakes.
2
It struck the ground without clinging to it, the wind whirled it about, and before long an outright blizzard had set in.
GrammarGerund «деепричастие»: 'without clinging' «прилипая» is an imperfective present gerund (-я), expressing a simultaneous attendant circumstance — the snow falls and at the same time does not stick. Negated with «не», it shares the subject of «падал».
GrammarReflexive «-ся» as a change of state «поднялась» (from «подняться») uses the reflexive clitic «-ся» in its intransitive, middle sense: the blizzard 'rose up' of itself, with no external agent. The same root «подня-» recurs from the previous sentence's «поднялся ветер».
Word«метель» — snowstorm, blizzard A driving blizzard of wind-whipped snow. The word, and the snowstorm motif itself, carries deep literary resonance in Russian (Pushkin, Tolstoy); here «совершенная метель» — 'an outright blizzard' — sets the disordered, fevered mood of Ivan's last walk to Smerdyakov.
3
In that quarter of the town where Smerdyakov lived we have hardly any street-lamps at all.
GrammarDemonstrative «тот» with a relative clause «В той части» uses «тот» (that, farther) in the prepositional, agreeing with «части», and sets up the relative clause «где жил Смердяков». This correlative pairing of «тот»-phrase + relative is the spine of the sentence.
GrammarGenitive after «нет» Existential «нет» ('there is no…') governs the genitive plural «фонарей» — the absent thing stands in the genitive, not the nominative. The particle «и» here intensifies: 'hardly any street-lamps at all'.
4
Ivan Fyodorovich strode through the darkness, not noticing the storm, instinctively picking out his way.
GrammarTwo gerunds painting the walk A pair of imperfective present gerunds — «не замечая» (not noticing) and «разбирая» (making out) — hang adverbially off «шагал», describing how Ivan strides. Note that negated «замечать» takes the genitive «метели».
Word«шагать» — to stride; «мрак» — gloom «шагал» is the imperfective of measured, deliberate striding (one «шаг» = a step). «мрак» is a bookish, weightier word for darkness than «темнота» — a poetic 'gloom' fitting the scene's foreboding.
5
His head ached, and there was an agonizing pounding in his temples.
Grammar«у него» possession for bodily states Russian frames 'his head ached' not with a possessive but with «у» + genitive «него» plus a nominative «голова»: literally 'at him the head ached'. This «у + genitive» construction is the standard way to say someone 'has' a symptom.
GrammarImpersonal «стучало» — a pounding with no subject «стучало» is a subjectless neuter verb: there is no nominative doer, only the sensation of pounding 'in the temples'. Such impersonal neuter predicates are Russian's idiom for unbidden physical and mental states.
6
In his wrists, he could feel it, there were spasms.
GrammarFronted location, inserted clause The locative phrase «В кистях рук» is fronted for emphasis, the main clause is «были судороги» ('there were spasms'), and «он чувствовал это» is dropped in mid-sentence as a parenthetical. The order foregrounds the body before the sensation is named.
Word«кисть руки» — the wrist/hand «кисть» literally is a brush or cluster; «кисть руки» names the hand from the wrist down. «судороги» are cramps or convulsive spasms — part of the cluster of physical symptoms (headache, yellow eyes) signalling Ivan's oncoming brain-fever.
7
A little before he reached Marya Kondratyevna's small house, Ivan Fyodorovich suddenly came upon a solitary drunk, a little peasant of small stature in a patched homespun coat, who was walking in zigzags, grumbling and cursing, and then suddenly broke off his cursing to strike up a song in a hoarse, drunken voice:
GrammarA chain of past active participles The little peasant is buried under a string of imperfective past active participles in -вший (-шего), all in the genitive to agree with «мужичонка»: «шагавшего», «ворчавшего», «бранившегося», «бросавшего», «начинавшего». This dense participial chain is a hallmark of Dostoevsky's bookish narration.
WordPejorative diminutives: «мужичонко» and «зипунишко» Both nouns carry the belittling suffix «-онк-/-ишк-»: «мужичонко» is a wretched little peasant (from «мужик»), «зипунишко» a shabby little «зипун» (a coarse peasant homespun coat). The suffixes drip contempt and pity at once.
Word«зипун» — peasant's homespun coat A «зипун» was a long, collarless coat of coarse undyed homespun cloth worn by peasants. The patched («заплатанный») diminutive «зипунишко» marks the man as poor even by village standards.
GrammarInstrumental of respect: «ростом» «ростом» (instrumental of «рост», height) means 'in respect of height' — 'small in stature'. The instrumental routinely marks the dimension along which a quality holds.
8
Ah, Vanka's gone off to Piter, And I shan't wait for him at all!
GrammarCompound (imperfective) future with «буду» «не буду ждать» is the analytic imperfective future: «буду» (future of «быть») + the imperfective infinitive «ждать». It names an ongoing, drawn-out 'I shan't be waiting for him', fitting the song's mournful refrain.
9
But each time he broke off at this second line and again began to curse somebody, then again would suddenly take up the same song.
GrammarImperfective past for repeated action The imperfectives «прерывал», «начинал», «затягивал», reinforced by «всё» ('keep on') and «опять» ('again'), depict a cyclic, repeated pattern of breaking off and starting again — exactly the work the imperfective does against perfective single events.
Word«затягивать песню» — to strike up a song «затянуть/затягивать песню» is the idiomatic phrase for drawing out the first long notes of a song — 'to strike up'. It evokes the dragging, drawn-out delivery of a drunken folk tune.
10
Ivan Fyodorovich had long since been feeling a dreadful hatred toward him, without yet giving him a single thought, and now he was suddenly conscious of it.
GrammarGerund with genitive: 'without yet thinking of him' «не думая» is an imperfective present gerund; «об нем» is the prepositional after «о/об» ('about him'). The phrase folds a whole concessive clause — 'though he was not yet even thinking of him' — into one adverbial.
Word«осмыслить» — to become conscious of Here «осмыслил» does not mean 'comprehended' abstractly but 'suddenly became aware of, registered to himself' the hatred he had long been feeling unawares — a precise Dostoevskian psychological verb for a feeling surfacing into consciousness.
GrammarImperfective duration vs. perfective flash «давно уже чувствовал» (imperfective) marks a long-standing background feeling; «вдруг… осмыслил» (perfective) marks the sudden instant of realizing it. The aspect contrast itself stages the psychology: a buried emotion abruptly grasped.
11
At once he felt an irresistible urge to bring his fist down on the little peasant from above.
GrammarDative subject of «захотелось» The impersonal reflexive «захотелось» takes its experiencer in the dative — «ему» — with no nominative subject: 'there came over him an urge'. This dative-of-the-affected, with «хотеться», is exactly how Russian renders an involuntary impulse welling up.
Word«пришибить» — to strike down dead «пришибить» is a blunt, violent colloquial verb: to fell with a blow, to club down (often to the point of killing). «сверху кулаком» — 'down from above with his fist' — makes the murderous gesture vivid and foreshadows Ivan's nearness to violence.
12
Just at that moment they drew level with each other, and the little peasant, lurching violently, suddenly bumped into Ivan with all his weight.
GrammarReciprocal «-ся»: drawing level together «поверстались» carries reciprocal «-ся» — the two men 'drew level with each other'. The archaic verb «поверстаться» (to come abreast, to match up) is itself a period flavour.
GrammarPerfective past gerund of prior action «качнувшись» is a perfective past gerund (-вшись): the lurch happens, and then — its consequence — «ударился» ('bumped'). The -вши(сь) form marks the action as completed just before the main verb.
Word«мужичонко» as nominative — a pejorative form Dostoevsky writes the subject as «мужичонко» (and «мужичонка» when oblique), a dialectal/pejorative diminutive of «мужик» in -онко. The form itself signals the narrator's (and Ivan's) contemptuous, distancing view of the wretched little man.
13
Ivan shoved him off furiously.
Grammar«Тот» as referent-tracker «Тот» ('that one') here picks out Ivan — the more distant of the two just-mentioned men — keeping subjects straight without a name. This referent-tracking use of «тот»/«этот» is how free word order stays unambiguous.
14
The little peasant went flying and flopped down like a log on the frozen ground, moaning painfully just once — o-oh! — and fell silent.
GrammarPerfective past gerund «простонав» «простонав» (-в, perfective past gerund of «простонать», to groan out) names a single completed groan accompanying the fall. The prefix «про-» plus «один раз» bounds it as one brief utterance — 'o-oh!'.
Word«шлёпнуться» / «как колода» «шлёпнуться» is an expressive, slightly comic verb — to flop or plop down heavily. The simile «как колода» ('like a log/block') stresses the man's dead, senseless weight as he hits the «мерзлую землю», the frozen ground.
15
Ivan stepped toward him.
GrammarPerfective «шагнул» — one single step «шагнул» is the perfective of «шагать»/«шагнуть»: a single, bounded step toward the man, contrasting with the durative «шагал» (strode) used earlier. The dative-governing «к» («к нему») marks direction toward.
16
He lay on his back, completely motionless, unconscious.
Word«навзничь» and «без чувств» «навзничь» is the adverb for lying flat on one's back (its opposite is «ничком», face-down). «без чувств» — literally 'without senses' — is the set phrase for 'unconscious'. Both are crisp, slightly literary touches.
GrammarGenitive after «без» The preposition «без» ('without') always governs the genitive — here «чувств», genitive plural of «чувство». «без чувств» is one of many fixed «без + genitive» idioms.
17
"He'll freeze!" thought Ivan, and he set off again toward Smerdyakov's.
GrammarPerfective present-form = future «Замерзнет» is the conjugated form of the perfective «замёрзнуть», and a perfective so conjugated means the future: 'He'll freeze (to death)!' There is no auxiliary — the single completed future sits in the ending.
GrammarInceptive prefix «за-»: 'set off striding' «зашагал» (perfective) uses the prefix «за-» in its inceptive sense — to begin an action — so it means 'set off walking', not merely 'walked'. Russian builds many 'began to…' perfectives this way.
18
While they were still in the entryway, Marya Kondratyevna, who had run out to open the door with a candle in her hands, whispered to him that Pavel Fyodorovich (that is, Smerdyakov) was very poorly, sir, not so much that he was bedridden, sir, but almost as if he were out of his mind, sir, and had even ordered the tea taken away, refusing to drink it.
WordDeferential plural for a single person Marya speaks of Smerdyakov in the polite/respectful plural — «больны», «лежат», «велели», «не захотели» are all plural verbs for one man — the servant's register of deference. It mirrors the way servants refer to a master.
Word«оченно» and «не в своём уме» «оченно» is the substandard, rustic variant of «очень» ('very'), placed in Marya's mouth as folk speech. «не в своём уме» — 'not in his own mind' — is the idiom for being out of one's senses, deranged.
19
"What, is he raving, or what?" Ivan Fyodorovich asked rudely.
GrammarParticles «ж» and «что ли» «ж» (= «же») adds insistent impatience to «Что» ('what on earth?'), while the tag «что ли» appended to a question softens it into a guess — 'is he raving, or what?'. Together they carry Ivan's rough, irritated tone where English needs added phrasing.
Word«буянить» — to act up violently «буянить» means to make a violent, rowdy scene — to rage, brawl, kick up a row, as a drunk or a madman might. Ivan asks whether the sick Smerdyakov has become unmanageable.
20
"Nothing of the kind, on the contrary, he's quite calm, sir, only don't you talk with him too long…" Marya Kondratyevna begged.
GrammarRespectful plural and the imperative Again Marya uses the deferential plural for Smerdyakov («тихие-с… с ними») and addresses Ivan with the imperative «разговаривайте» (плюс the polite plural «вы»). «разговаривайте» is the imperfective imperative — 'don't be talking with him too long'.
Word«Какое!» — 'nothing of the kind!' Exclamatory «Какое!» (literally 'what [a thing]!') is a colloquial way of brushing aside what was just said — 'far from it', 'nothing of the kind'. Marya uses it to deny that Smerdyakov is raving.
21
Ivan Fyodorovich opened the door and stepped into the cottage.
Word«изба» — peasant cottage An «изба» is the traditional Russian peasant log house. Calling Marya Kondratyevna's dwelling an «изба» quietly fixes its humble, rustic class — the world Smerdyakov has retreated into.
Grammar«в избу»: accusative of motion «в избу» is accusative (not prepositional «в избе») because «в» here expresses motion into — stepping into the cottage. The two perfectives «отворил» and «шагнул» chain two completed actions.
22
It was heated just as it had been the time before, but some changes were noticeable in the room: one of the side benches had been carried out, and in its place there now stood a large old leather sofa, mahogany-stained.
GrammarShort-form passives stating a result The passage is built on short-form passive participles plus «было/были»: «натоплено было» (it had been heated), «была вынесена» (had been carried out), «была постлана» (later). Each states a resulting condition of the room, the agent left unnamed.
GrammarVerb-first presentation of the new thing The clause opens with «на место ее явился» and only then names «диван» — the sofa, the new element, lands at the end. This verb-before-subject order spotlights the appearance of the object.
Word«лавка» and «под красное дерево» A «лавка» is a fixed wooden bench along the wall, standard furniture of the peasant «изба». «под красное дерево» means 'mahogany-stained' — finished to imitate mahogany; the cheap imitation of a fine wood is a telling social detail.
23
A bed had been made up on it, with fairly clean white pillows.
GrammarShort-form passive «постлана» «была постлана» is the past passive of «постлать» (to make up a bed), short-form feminine agreeing with «постель», joined to «была» to state a result: 'a bed had been made up'. The bed-on-a-sofa, with fairly clean pillows, marks Smerdyakov's invalid state.
24
On the bed sat Smerdyakov, still in that same dressing gown of his.
GrammarLocative-first, subject last The location «На постели» opens and the subject «Смердяков» closes — the standard topic-first, new-information-last flow that lets the eye settle first on the bed, then on the man.
Grammar«тот же» + reflexive «свой» «в том же своем халате» stacks «тот же» ('that same') with the reflexive possessive «свой» ('his own'): the dressing-gown belongs to Smerdyakov, the clause's subject. «всё» adds 'still'. «свой» here, not «его», keeps the reference firmly to Smerdyakov himself.
25
The table had been moved up in front of the sofa, so that the room had grown very cramped.
GrammarShort-form passive + impersonal «стало» «перенесен был» is a short-form past passive (the table 'had been moved'); «стало тесно» is an impersonal 'it became cramped', with the neuter «стало» and no subject. Russian narrates the room's transformation through these subjectless, result-stating forms.
Word«пред» — archaic 'before' «пред» is the bookish/archaic variant of «перед» ('in front of'). With the accusative «диван» it signals motion to a position before the sofa. The short form is a small period-literary touch.
26
On the table lay some thick book in a yellow wrapper, but Smerdyakov was not reading it; he seemed to be sitting there doing nothing at all.
GrammarIndefinite «-то»: «какая-то» «какая-то» (with the clitic «-то») marks a specific but unidentified book — 'some thick book or other'. The «-то» series flags a real referent the narrator cannot or will not name.
GrammarNegated imperfectives; «ничего не» «не читал ее» negates the imperfective process (he was-not reading it), and «ничего не делал» shows negative concord — «ничего» plus «не» together mean 'was doing nothing at all', two negatives for one negation.
27
With a long, silent gaze he met Ivan Fyodorovich and, to all appearances, was not in the least surprised by his coming.
GrammarInstrumental of means, fronted for weight «Длинным, молчаливым взглядом» is the instrumental of means ('with a long, silent gaze') and is pushed to the front for rhetorical emphasis, before the verb «встретил» and subject «он».
GrammarDative object of «удивиться» «удивиться» governs the dative of the thing surprised at — «его прибытию» ('at his coming'). «нисколько не» ('not in the least') stacks an intensifier with «не» in negative concord.
28
His face had changed greatly; he had grown very thin and sallow.
GrammarPerfective verbs of change with «по-» «похудел» (grew thin) and «пожелтел» (turned yellow) are perfectives with the inceptive/result prefix «по-», each marking a completed change of state. «изменился» adds reflexive «-ся» for the intransitive 'changed'.
Word«пожелтеть» — to turn yellow/sallow The yellowing of Smerdyakov's face (and, soon, Ivan's eyes) is clinically suggestive — jaundice, decline — and thematically marks the sickness pervading the scene. Russian forms such 'turn [colour]' verbs freely with «по-» + colour root.
29
His eyes had sunk, the lower lids had turned blue.
GrammarTwo perfectives, no conjunction «впали» (sank) and «посинели» (turned blue) are perfectives set side by side without a connective, a clipped paratactic rhythm. «по-» again marks the completed colour-change of «посинеть».
30
"So you really are ill?" Ivan Fyodorovich stopped short. "I won't keep you long, and I won't even take off my coat. Where can one sit down here?"
GrammarShort adjective «болен» and particles «да… и» «болен» is the short-form (predicative) adjective 'ill', the bookish predicate form. The opening «Да» and the «и впрямь» ('really, truly') are emphatic particles voicing Ivan's surprise — 'So you really are ill?'.
GrammarPerfective future in the negative «не задержу» and «не сниму» are perfective verbs in present-form endings, i.e. the simple future: 'I won't keep (you)', 'I won't take off'. The perfective stresses a single, definite non-occurrence.
GrammarTopic-emphasising clitic «-то» The hyphenated «-то» on «сесть-то» is the emphatic topic particle (distinct from the indefinite «-то»): it underscores the given action 'sitting down' — 'where is one even to sit here?'. «у тебя» is the familiar 'at your place'.
31
He went around to the other end of the table, drew a chair up to it, and sat down.
GrammarThree perfectives moving the action «зашел» (went round), «придвинул» (drew up), «сел» (sat down) are three perfectives in a row, each a single completed step, narrating the action crisply forward.
GrammarPrefix «при-» of bringing near «придвинуть» = «при-» ('toward, up to') + «двинуть» ('to move'): to move something up close. The matching «к столу» (dative after «к») reinforces 'up to the table'.
32
"Why do you stare and say nothing? I've come with just one question, and I swear I won't leave you without an answer: did the young lady, Katerina Ivanovna, come to see you?"
Grammar«не уйду» — perfective future of resolve «уйду» is the perfective future of «уйти» (to leave); negated, it states a firm single intention — 'I will not leave'. «от тебя» (genitive after «от») and «без ответа» (genitive after «без») both follow genitive-governing prepositions.
Word«барыня» — the lady, the mistress «барыня» is the gentry mistress, the lady of standing — from «барин», the master. From the servant-world Smerdyakov inhabits, Katerina Ivanovna is naturally 'the barynya'; Ivan adopts the word in asking whether she came.
GrammarPresent-tense imperfectives, pronoun dropped «смотришь» and «молчишь» are 2nd-person present imperfectives; the subject «ты» is dropped because the -ишь ending already shows person. «Что» here is adverbial — 'why do you stare and stay silent?'.
33
Smerdyakov was silent a long while, still looking quietly at Ivan as before, but suddenly he waved his hand and turned his face away from him.
GrammarPresent gerund «смотря» of simultaneity «смотря» is an imperfective present gerund: while he was silent he was at the same time 'looking quietly at Ivan'. «по-прежнему» ('as before') and «всё» ('still') stress continuity.
GrammarPerfective «по-» of brief duration «помолчал» uses «по-» in its 'do-for-a-while' sense — 'was silent for a while' — bounding the silence; then the perfectives «махнул рукой» (waved his hand) and «отвернул лицо» (turned his face away) deliver two decisive gestures.
Word«махнуть рукой» — a gesture of dismissal «махнуть рукой (на кого/что)» idiomatically means to give up on, to wave away as hopeless. Smerdyakov's wave is contemptuous resignation toward Ivan and his questions.
34
"What's the matter with you?" Ivan exclaimed.
Word«Чего?» — colloquial genitive of «что» «Чего» is the genitive of «что», used colloquially where standard speech might say «что» — here an abrupt 'what's the matter with you?'. The genitive form lends a rougher, more spoken tone.
35
"Nothing."
36
"What do you mean, nothing?"
GrammarElliptical echo question Ivan's «Что ничего?» echoes Smerdyakov's «Ничего», compressing 'what do you mean by nothing?' into a bare two-word retort. Such verbless, elliptical comebacks are the natural texture of clipped Russian dialogue.
37
"Well, she came, and what of it — it's all the same to you. Leave me be, sir."
GrammarDative in «всё равно» «вам всё равно» ('it's all the same to you') puts the experiencer in the dative «вам» — the indifference is felt by you. The «ну… ну и» framing is dismissive: 'well, she came, and what of it'.
Word«отстать» + the servile «-с» «Отстаньте» is the imperative 'leave me alone, get off me'. The clipped «-с» tacked on keeps the formal-deferential register even as Smerdyakov pushes Ivan away — a chilling mix of servility and insolence.
38
"No, I won't leave you be! Tell me, when did she come?"
GrammarPerfective future vs. imperfective imperative «не отстану» is the perfective future ('I will not leave you be'); «Говори» is the imperfective imperative of urging — 'come on, tell me'. The imperfective imperative presses for the act itself, more insistent than a polite perfective would be.
39
"Why, I'd quite forgotten even to remember her," Smerdyakov smiled contemptuously, and then suddenly, turning his face back toward Ivan, fixed him with a kind of frenzied, hate-filled look, the very same look with which he had gazed at him during that interview a month before.
Grammar«забыл» + infinitive: 'forgot even to remember' «помнить… забыл» pairs the imperfective infinitive «помнить» with the perfective «забыл»: literally 'I even forgot to remember about her' — a contemptuous hyperbole. «и» here means 'even'; «об ней» is the colloquial variant of «о ней».
GrammarArchaic perfective gerund «оборотя» «оборотя» is an old-fashioned perfective past gerund (from «оборотить», to turn) — modern Russian would say «оборотив» or «повернув». The archaic -я form is a period-literary flavour; it marks the completed turn just before «уставился» ('fixed his stare').
Word«исступлённый» — frenzied, beside oneself «исступление» is a state of frenzy, of being beside oneself; «исступлённо-ненавистный» fuses it with hatred — a 'frenzied, hate-filled' look. The word belongs to Dostoevsky's vocabulary of extreme, ecstatic psychological states.
GrammarInstrumental antecedent + relative «каким» «тем самым взглядом» is instrumental ('with that very look'), and the relative «каким» picks up the instrumental in its own clause ('with which he had gazed'). The case is governed independently in each clause.
40
"It's you yourself who seem to be ill — look how drawn you are, there's no face left on you," he said to Ivan.
GrammarEmphatic «сами»; short adjective «больны» «Сами» is the intensifier «сам» ('[you] yourself') in the polite plural, throwing the illness back on Ivan; «больны» is again the short predicative 'ill', here plural to match «вы». «кажись» is the folk variant of «кажется» ('it seems').
Word«ишь» and «лица на вас нет» «ишь» is a folksy exclamatory particle ('look at that!', 'why,'). «осунуться» means to grow drawn and haggard in the face. «лица на вас нет» — literally 'there's no face on you' — is the vivid idiom for looking utterly stricken or ghastly.
41
"Never mind my health — answer what you're asked."
GrammarImperatives + impersonal «спрашивают» «Оставь» and «говори» are imperatives (perfective and imperfective). «спрашивают» is the 3rd-person-plural impersonal — 'they ask' = 'what one is being asked', a subjectless 'they' that names no agent. «об чем» is colloquial for «о чём».
42
"And why have your eyes turned yellow — the whites are entirely yellow. Are you in great torment, then?"
Grammar«Чего» = 'why'; «у вас» of bodily possession Colloquial «чего» here means 'why' (not 'what'). «у вас глаза пожелтели» again uses «у» + genitive «вас» for the possessor of the symptom: 'your eyes have turned yellow'. «пожелтели» is the perfective completed change.
GrammarReflexive «мучаться» and tag «что ли» «Мучаетесь» is the reflexive «мучиться» (to be in torment, to suffer) in the present — the «-ся» turns 'torment' into 'be tormented'. The tag «что ли» makes it a probing guess: 'are you in great torment, then?'.
43
He smiled contemptuously and then suddenly burst out laughing outright.
GrammarReflexive perfectives of laughter «усмехнулся» (smirked, gave a sneer) and «рассмеялся» (burst out laughing) are perfective «-ся» verbs. «рас-» here is the inceptive 'break into', so «рассмеяться» = to start laughing outright — note «совсем уж» ('quite, by now') heightening the shift from sneer to full laughter.
44
"Listen, I've said I won't leave you without an answer!" Ivan shouted in terrible irritation.
GrammarReported clause with «что» «что» introduces the reported content of what Ivan said — a subordinate fact-clause set off by a comma. Inside it, «не уйду» is the perfective future of firm intent (cf. s32). «в страшном раздражении» is «в» + the prepositional case (раздражении) — a prepositional phrase of state, not instrumental (the instrumental would be «страшным раздражением»).
45
"Why do you keep badgering me, sir? Why do you torment me?" Smerdyakov said with suffering.
Grammar«Чего» = 'why'; verbs of pestering Twice «Чего» means 'why'. «пристаёте» (from «приставать», to pester, badger — «ко мне», dative after «к») and «мучите» (torment) are present imperfectives of repeated annoyance. The «-с» on «пристаете-с» keeps Smerdyakov's deferential mask even in complaint.
46
"Eh, the devil! You're no concern of mine. Answer the question, and I'll leave at once."
Grammar«нет дела» + dative + «до» The idiom «мне до тебя нет дела» = 'you are no concern of mine': dative «мне» of the person, genitive «дела» under «нет» (genitive of negation), «до тебя» (genitive after «до») naming what one has no concern with. «и» intensifies the dismissal.
GrammarImperative + perfective future «Ответь» is a perfective imperative (answer, once); «уйду» is the perfective future 'I'll leave'. The pairing — 'answer, and I'll leave at once' — is a conditional bargain expressed by simple coordination with «и».
47
"I've nothing to answer you!" Smerdyakov dropped his eyes again.
GrammarNegative «нечего» + dative + infinitive «Нечего… отвечать» is the negative impersonal construction 'there is nothing to answer'; «нечего» is the fused negative of «что» governing an infinitive, and the person stands in the dative («мне… вам»). These «не́чего/не́где/не́когда» + infinitive patterns are a core Russian idiom.
Word«потупиться» — to cast down one's eyes «потупиться» (to drop one's gaze, lower the eyes) is a slightly literary verb for averting the eyes downward — here in sullen refusal, 'dropped his eyes again'.
48
"I assure you I'll make you answer!"
Grammar«заставить» + infinitive: causative «заставлю» (perfective future of «заставить») means 'I will make/compel', and it takes the accusative person «тебя» plus an imperfective infinitive «отвечать» — 'I'll make you answer'. This causative «заставить + infinitive» is the standard 'force someone to do' frame.
49
"Why do you keep fretting so?" Smerdyakov suddenly fixed his eyes on him, not so much with scorn now as with something almost like loathing. "Is it because the trial begins tomorrow? Why, nothing will come of it for you — be assured of that at last! Go on home, lie down and sleep in peace, and fear nothing."
GrammarReflexive «беспокоиться»; «всё» = 'keep on' «беспокоитесь» is the reflexive «беспокоиться» (to worry, fret) — «-ся» makes it intransitive 'be anxious'. «всё» here is the adverb 'continually, keep on'; «Чего» = 'why'. Together: 'why do you keep fretting?'.
GrammarParticle «ведь»; impersonal «ничего не будет» «ведь» appeals to shared knowledge — 'why, after all'. «ничего вам не будет» is impersonal ('nothing will come to you'), with «ничего… не» in negative concord and the dative «вам» of the affected. It is Smerdyakov's chilling reassurance that the trial will not touch Ivan.
GrammarA volley of imperatives Four imperatives pile up: «уверьтесь» (be assured), «Ступайте» (go on — an old, slightly elevated 'go'), «ложитесь спать» (lie down to sleep), «не опасайтесь» (fear nothing — «опасаться» governs the genitive «ничего»). The mock-soothing string mimics consoling a child.
Word«гадливость» — disgust, loathing «гадливость» is physical revulsion, the loathing one feels at something repugnant (from «гад», a vile creature). That Smerdyakov now looks at Ivan with «гадливость» rather than mere «презрение» (scorn) marks a sharp escalation. «какою-то» is the older instrumental of «какая-то».
50
"I don't understand you… what have I to fear tomorrow?" Ivan brought out in astonishment, and suddenly a kind of dread really did breathe cold upon his soul. Smerdyakov measured him with his eyes.
GrammarDative + infinitive of obligation; «бояться» + genitive «чего мне бояться» fuses two things: the dative «мне» of the person under a modal infinitive ('what have I to fear'), and «бояться» governing the genitive «чего» (one fears 'of' something). «бояться» is also a verb that exists only in the «-ся» form.
Word«пахнуть холодом на душу» «пахнуть» (perfective, a single waft) with the instrumental «холодом» ('with cold') gives the haunting image 'a dread breathed cold upon his soul'. The instrumental of means turns an abstract fear into a physical draught of cold air.
Word«обмерить глазами» — to measure with one's eyes «обмерить» literally is to measure all round; «обмерить глазами» is the idiom for sizing someone up with a slow, appraising stare. Smerdyakov coolly takes Ivan's measure.
51
"You don't un-der-stand?" he drawled reproachfully. "What a thing it is, for a clever man to want to put on such a farce!"
GrammarDrawled present tense for mockery The syllable-by-syllable «по-ни-ма-ете?» is the present imperfective «понимать» stretched out in print to render Smerdyakov's slow, taunting drawl — «протянул… укоризненно» ('drawled reproachfully'). The same device returns in «Зна-е-те?» below.
Word«охота», «этакий», «комедь» «Охота (же) + dative + infinitive» is the colloquial 'what makes one want to…!' ('the idea, that a clever man should…'). «этакую» is the folksy form of «такую» ('such'). «комедь» is a substandard, mocking variant of «комедия» — 'this farce'. «из себя представлять» = to put on, act out.
52
Ivan looked at him in silence.
GrammarAdverb «молча» from a gerund «молча» ('in silence, silently') began life as the present gerund of «молчать» but has frozen into a plain adverb. «глядел» is the imperfective of steady looking — Ivan goes on gazing in silence.
53
This unexpected tone alone, an unprecedentedly haughty one with which this former lackey of his now addressed him, was extraordinary in itself.
GrammarRelative «который» in the instrumental The relative «с которым» is «с» + the instrumental of manner ('the tone with which…'), referring back to «тон»; it agrees with «тон» in masculine singular but takes its own clause's case. (Note the verb here is construed with «к нему» — «обращаться к кому-то» + dative — so «с которым» is an instrumental-of-manner adjunct, not the complement of «обращаться с».) This is a textbook «который»-clause embedded in a heavy literary sentence.
GrammarShort adjective «необычен» as predicate «необычен» is the short-form predicative adjective ('was extraordinary'), the bookish way to state the quality of the subject «тон». «небывало высокомерный» ('unprecedentedly haughty') stacks adverb + long adjective in the attributive slot.
54
Such a tone there had not been even the last time, after all.
GrammarGenitive subject of negated «не было» «Такого тона… не было» puts the subject in the genitive «тона» because the existence is negated — 'there had not been such a tone'. This obligatory genitive with «не было» is the genitive of negation at work.
55
"I tell you, you've nothing to fear. I'll give no testimony against you, there's no evidence. Look how your hands are shaking. Why are your fingers twitching like that? Go on home — ''it was not you who killed him''."
GrammarTwo negatives: «нечего» and genitive «нет улик» «нечего вам бояться» repeats the negative-infinitive idiom (dative «вам» + 'there is nothing to fear'). «нет улик» again negates existence, forcing the genitive plural «улик» — 'there is no evidence'. Both lean on Russia's negation-genitive machinery.
GrammarLegal «показать» + negative concord «показать (на кого-то)» here is the courtroom sense 'to give testimony / depose against someone'. «Ничего… не покажу» is the perfective future with negative concord — 'I'll give no testimony against you'. The line is Smerdyakov's pledge of silence at the trial.
Word«с чего» and «пальцы ходят» «С чего?» is colloquial 'what for / why on earth?'. «пальцы ходят» literally 'the fingers move/go' — i.e. twitch and tremble. The emphatic «-то» foregrounds the trembling fingers as the telling sign of Ivan's guilt-stricken nerves.
GrammarEmphatic subject pronoun: «не вы» Normally a Russian subject pronoun is dropped, but here «вы» is kept and negated — «не вы убили» — precisely to contrast and stress: 'it was not YOU who killed him'. The retained, fronted pronoun throws the whole weight of the accusation onto its implied opposite.
56
Ivan gave a start; he remembered Alyosha.
GrammarDative experiencer of «вспомниться» «вспомнился» (reflexive «вспомниться») is the involuntary 'came to mind': the rememberer stands in the dative «ему», and the thing remembered — «Алеша» — is the nominative subject. Russian frames an unbidden memory as something that 'recalls itself to' a person.
57
"I know it wasn't I…" he began to stammer.
GrammarThe particle «было» of an interrupted action «было» (here a frozen particle, not the verb) after a perfective marks an action begun but checked or undone: «пролепетал было» = 'he began to stammer (but...)'. It signals an intention nipped off — Ivan starts to speak and is at once cut short.
Word«пролепетать» — to babble, stammer out «лепетать» is to babble like a child or a flustered speaker; the perfective «пролепетать» means to stammer something out. Against his confident words ('I know it wasn't I'), the verb betrays Ivan's faltering, frightened delivery.
58
"You know?" Smerdyakov caught him up again.
GrammarDrawled present, echoing the question back Again the present «знаете» is stretched syllabically to render Smerdyakov's mocking drawl as he throws Ivan's own «знаю» back at him. «подхватил» — 'caught (it) up' — names exactly this seizing on the other's word.
59
Ivan leapt up and seized him by the shoulder:
GrammarPerfectives «вскочил… схватил»; «за плечо» Two abrupt perfectives — «вскочил» (leapt up) and «схватил» (seized) — drive the action. The idiom «схватить за плечо» uses «за» + accusative «плечо» to name the body-part grabbed; Russian regularly marks 'by the [part]' this way.
60
"Tell me everything, you reptile! Tell me everything!"
GrammarImperfective imperative of urgent demand «Говори» is the imperfective imperative — it commands the very act, urgently and impatiently ('out with it, tell it all!'), where a perfective «Скажи» would ask for one finished utterance. The doubled, imperfective command conveys Ivan's frenzy.
Word«гадина» — reptile, vile creature «гадина» (from «гад», a reptile/vermin) is a strong term of abuse — 'reptile, loathsome creature'. It belongs to the same root as the «гадливость» (loathing) of s49, binding Ivan's curse to the disgust the whole scene exudes.
61
Smerdyakov was not frightened in the least.
Grammar«нисколько не» — negative concord «нисколько» ('not at all') is an «ни»-word and so demands the verbal «не» alongside it: literally 'not-at-all not-was-frightened', two negatives building one emphatic denial. This obligatory negative concord is a fixed rule of Russian.
GrammarReflexive «-ся» as change of state «испугаться» (perfective of «пугаться») is a middle/inchoative «-ся» verb: not 'frightened himself' but 'became frightened'. The «-ся» turns the transitive «испугать» (to frighten someone) into an intransitive verb of inner change.
62
He only riveted his eyes upon him with a senseless hatred.
GrammarInstrumental of manner; archaic ending «-ою» «с … ненавистью» pairs «с» + instrumental to give the manner ('with hatred'). The adjective «безумною» carries the old bookish feminine-instrumental ending «-ою» for modern «-ой» — a 19th-century literary flavour Dostoevsky uses constantly.
Word«приковаться глазами» — to rivet one's eyes «приковаться» literally means 'to be chained/riveted' (from «ковать», to forge); with «глазами» (instrumental, 'by means of his eyes') it is the vivid idiom 'to fix one's gaze immovably on'. The metaphor of being shackled in place gives the stare its intensity.
63
"Well then, if that's how it is, it was you yourself who killed him," he whispered to him furiously.
Word«Ан» — colloquial 'but then, on the contrary' «Ан» is a folksy, peasant-speech particle introducing a rebuttal: 'ah but', 'well then, contrary to what you say'. It instantly marks Smerdyakov's lower-class, sly register against Ivan's educated speech.
GrammarEmphatic clitic «-то» on «вы» The hyphenated «-то» pins the stress on «вы»: 'it was YOU who…'. Distinct from the indefinite «-то» of «кто-то», this clitic singles out a known topic for contrastive emphasis — Smerdyakov throwing the guilt back onto Ivan.
Word«коль» — archaic 'if' «коль» (also «коли») is an old, folk-poetic conditional conjunction for «если», 'if'. «коль так» = 'if that's how it is'. Like «Ан», it colours the line as rustic, deliberately archaic speech.
64
Ivan sank down onto the chair, as if he had worked something out. He gave a malicious smile.
GrammarPerfective gerund «рассудив» — a prior, completed act «рассудив» is the perfective past «деепричастие» of «рассудить» (to reason out, decide): 'having worked something out'. It names an action finished just before the main verb «опустился», all packed into one indeclinable form. «как бы» ('as if') hedges it into Ivan's surmised inner state.
GrammarReflexive «-ся» on «усмехнуться» «усмехнуться» exists only in the «-ся» form: a perfective, semelfactive 'to give one smirk'. The «-ну-» suffix marks a single, momentary act, against the drawn-out «усмехаться».
65
"Is this all still about that other time? About the same thing as last time?"
Word«тогдашнее» — 'that time's business' «тогдашний» is the adjective from «тогда» ('then'), 'pertaining to that earlier time'; neutered into «тогдашнее» it stands as a noun, 'the matter of back then'. «про» + accusative ('about') is the colloquial counterpart of «о» + prepositional.
66
"Yes, last time too you stood before me and understood it all, and you understand it now as well."
Grammar«предо» and the polite plural «стояли» «предо» is the archaic/euphonic variant of «перед» ('before, in front of'), governing the instrumental «мной». The verb «стояли» is plural because Smerdyakov addresses Ivan with the deferential «вы», which always takes plural agreement.
GrammarImperfective present: 'and you understand even now' «понимаете» is imperfective present, framing comprehension as an ongoing state Ivan cannot escape. Set against the past «понимали», the verb pair traces the same knowing carried from 'then' into 'now'.
67
"I understand only that you're out of your mind."
GrammarZero copula: 'that you [are] mad' «ты сумасшедший» has no verb 'to be' — the present-tense copula is simply absent, the subject and predicate noun set side by side in the nominative. «что» here is the subordinator 'that', opening the reported clause.
68
"Doesn't a man ever tire of it! We sit here face to face — what would be the point, one would think, of fooling each other and playing out a farce? Or do you still want to lay it all on me alone, to my very face? You killed him, you are the chief murderer, and I was only your accomplice, your faithful servant Lichard, and it was at your word that I carried out the deed."
GrammarDative experiencer + insistent «же» Impersonal construction: «надоесть» ('to grow tiresome') takes the dative «человеку» ('to a man'), with no nominative subject — 'doesn't a man ever get sick of it'. The particle «же» adds exasperated insistence, the texture of spoken Russian.
GrammarHypothetical «бы»: 'what would be the point of fooling' «бы» + the infinitives «морочить» / «играть» builds an irrealis rhetorical question — 'why on earth would one fool each other'. «чего» is the colloquial genitive standing for 'why / what for'.
Word«комедь» — dialectal 'comedy', i.e. play-acting «комедь» is the folk, vulgar form of «комедия»; «комедь играть» = 'to put on an act, play a farce'. The clipped form keeps Smerdyakov's speech earthy and ironic.
Word«Али» — folk 'or, or else' «Али» is the archaic/dialectal variant of «или» ('or'), used to open an alternative question. Like «Ан» and «коль», it stamps the line as peasant speech.
Word«приспешник» and «верный Личарда» «приспешник» is a contemptuous 'henchman, accomplice'. «Личарда» alludes to the faithful servant Licharda in the popular old Russian tale of Bova Korolevich — Smerdyakov bitterly casts himself as Ivan's loyal lackey, a literary self-mockery.
GrammarEmphatic «и есть» — 'are the very one' The rare surviving copula «есть» plus emphatic «и» asserts identity flatly: 'you ARE the chief murderer, and that's that'. «убивец» is a coarse, dialectal form of «убийца» (murderer).
69
"Carried out? Why, did you really kill him?" Ivan went cold.
Grammar«разве» — incredulous question «разве» introduces a question of disbelief: 'you mean to say you actually killed him?'. Paired with the opening «Да» (here 'why, but') it conveys Ivan's stunned refusal to credit what he hears.
GrammarInchoative «по-…» : 'went cold' «похолодеть» is a perfective formed with the inchoative prefix «по-», 'to grow cold (all over)'. Used of Ivan it is figurative — a sudden chill of dread — and stands as the dialogue tag in place of 'said'.
70
Something seemed to give way in his brain, and his whole body began to tremble with a fine, cold shudder.
GrammarIndefinite «что-то» + reflexive «сотряслось» «что-то» ('something', specific but unknown) is the subject; «сотряслось» is the middle «-ся» of «сотрясти» ('to convulse'), here intransitive 'something shuddered/gave way'. «как бы» softens it to 'something seemed to'.
GrammarCognate instrumental: 'trembled with a … shudder' «дрожью» (instrumental of «дрожь») is a cognate object naming the manner of «задрожал» — 'trembled with a fine, cold trembling'. The adjectives carry the archaic «-ою» instrumental endings, an elevated 19th-century touch.
71
Now Smerdyakov himself looked at him in surprise: probably Ivan's fright, by its very sincerity, had at last struck him.
Grammar«уж» and intensive «сам» «уж» (a worn-down «уже») adds insistent emphasis, 'now at this point'; «сам» ('himself') stresses that even Smerdyakov, normally unmoved, was startled. Both are small focusing words that steer the reader's attention.
GrammarInstrumental of means + free word order The subject is «испуг» (Ivan's fright), the object «его» (Smerdyakov), and «своею искренностью» (instrumental, 'by its very sincerity') the means. Russian's case endings let the subject sit last for emphasis — the news is what finally struck him.
72
"Can it really be that you truly knew nothing?" he stammered mistrustfully, grinning crookedly into his face.
Grammar«неужто» + genitive of negation «ничего» «неужто» (folk «неужели») marks astonished disbelief, 'can it really be'. The object «ничего» stands in the genitive because the verb is negated — the genitive of negation, here with the negative pronoun 'nothing'.
GrammarImperfective gerund «усмехаясь» — simultaneous action «усмехаясь» is the present «деепричастие» of «усмехаться», an imperfective adverbial naming what Smerdyakov does while speaking: 'grinning crookedly'. It shares the subject of «пролепетал» and adds attendant manner.
73
Ivan went on staring at him; it was as though his tongue had failed him.
Grammar«у него» possessive + reflexive «отнялся» Literally 'by him the tongue as if was taken away' — the «у» + genitive «у него» frames Ivan as the affected possessor, while «отнялся» is the middle «-ся» of «отнять», 'went numb / failed'. A very Russian way to say 'his tongue failed him'.
74
Ah, Vanka's gone off to Piter, And I shan't wait for him — rang out suddenly in his head.
GrammarCompound imperfective future «буду ждать» «не буду ждать» is the analytic imperfective future: «буду» (future of «быть») + imperfective infinitive «ждать», 'I shall (not) wait'. It names ongoing, durative waiting, as a perfective simple future could not.
75
"Do you know what: I'm afraid you're a dream, that you're a phantom sitting there before me?" he stammered.
GrammarZero copula vs. a finite verb «ты сон» ('you [are] a dream') has no copula — predicate noun in the nominative beside the subject. But the parallel «ты призрак … сидишь» recasts the image with a real verb «сидишь» ('you sit'), making the phantom unnervingly present.
76
"There's no phantom here, sir, except the two of us, sir, and a certain third one besides. Without a doubt he is here now, this third one, between the two of us."
GrammarGenitive of negation with «нет» Negated existence «нет» ('there is no') forces its subject into the genitive: «никакого … призрака» ('no phantom whatever'). «никакого» also triggers negative concord, intensifying the denial.
Word«-с» — the deferential «словоерс» The clitic «-с» appended to words (нет-с, обоих-с) is the «словоерс», a shrunken «сударь» ('sir'). It signals servile politeness and is Smerdyakov's verbal tic throughout this scene — a lackey's deference laid thickly, almost mockingly, over menace.
Word«сумление» — illiterate 'doubt' «сумление» is Smerdyakov's malapropism for «сомнение» ('doubt'); «без сумления» = 'without a doubt'. Dostoevsky uses such half-educated distortions to fix the character's social and intellectual standing.
77
"Who is he? Who is here? Who is the third?" Ivan Fyodorovich said in fright, looking about him and hurriedly searching with his eyes for someone in every corner.
GrammarChained imperfective gerunds Two present «деепричастия» — «озираясь» ('looking about') and «ища» ('searching') — hang off «проговорил», stacking simultaneous actions in the literary manner. «ища» is the irregular gerund of «искать».
GrammarIndefinite «кого-то» in the accusative «кого-то» is the accusative of «кто-то» ('someone', a definite but unidentified person). The animate accusative borrows the genitive form «кого». Ivan searches for some real but unnamed presence.
78
"This third one is God, sir, Providence itself, sir; it is here beside us now, sir, only you won't look for it, you won't find it."
GrammarImperfective imperative vs. perfective future «не ищите» is the negated imperfective imperative ('don't [bother to] look'); «не найдете» is the perfective simple future ('you won't find [it]'). The aspect contrast is exact: the searching is a process, the finding a single unattainable result.
79
"You've lied, that you killed him!" Ivan bellowed in a frenzy. "Either you're out of your mind, or you're teasing me, the same as last time!"
GrammarCorrelative «или … или» — 'either … or' The paired «или … или» offers two alternatives: a zero-copula predicate noun («сумасшедший») against a finite verb («дразнишь», 'you tease'). Russian readily yokes a noun-predicate and a verb under one disjunction.
Word«бешено» / «завопить» — frenzied outcry «бешено» ('frenziedly', from «бешеный», rabid/mad) and «завопить» ('to start bawling, shriek') together render Ivan's loss of control. The «за-» prefix marks the sudden onset of the cry.
80
Smerdyakov, as before, not in the least afraid, kept watching him searchingly.
GrammarNegated imperfective gerund «не пугаясь» «не пугаясь» ('not [being] frightened') is a present «деепричастие» describing Smerdyakov's enduring composure while «следил» ('watched'). The imperfective fits an ongoing, unbroken state of calm.
Word«давеча» — colloquial 'a short while ago' «давеча» is an old, homely adverb meaning 'earlier today, a little while back'. Like Smerdyakov's other folk words it tints the narration with everyday peasant speech.
81
He still could not somehow overcome his mistrust; it still seemed to him that Ivan "knew everything" and was only pretending otherwise, so as "to lay it all on him alone, to his very face."
GrammarGenitive object under negation Under the negated «не мог победить», the object «недоверчивости» ('his mistrust') takes the genitive rather than accusative — the genitive of negation, natural with such abstract nouns. «никак не» reinforces the failure with negative concord.
GrammarImpersonal «казалось ему» — dative experiencer «казалось» ('it seemed') is impersonal, with the experiencer in the dative «ему» and no nominative subject — 'it seemed to him'. The «что»-clause then reports the content of the impression.
GrammarPurpose clause «чтоб(ы)» + infinitive «чтоб» (clipped «чтобы») with the infinitive «свалить» ('to dump, pin') states purpose: 'so as to lay it all on him alone'. The phrase, in quotation marks, echoes Smerdyakov's own suspicious inner words.
82
"Wait a moment, sir," he said at last in a weak voice, and suddenly, drawing his left leg out from under the table, he began rolling his trouser leg up.
GrammarPerfective gerund + reflexive possessive «свою» «вытащив» (perfective «деепричастие» of «вытащить») marks a completed action just before «начал». «свою» is the reflexive possessive — 'his own' leg, referring back to the clause's subject, where «его» would point to someone else's.
GrammarCompound preposition «из-под» + genitive «из-под» ('out from under') is a doubled preposition governing the genitive «стола». Such compounds (из-за, из-под) name motion away from beneath or behind something.
Word«панталоны» — trousers (period word) «панталоны», from French pantalon, was the ordinary 19th-century word for men's trousers. Always plural, like English 'trousers', it dates the garment to its era.
83
The leg turned out to be in a long white stocking and shod in a slipper.
GrammarShort passive participle «обута» «обута» is the short-form past passive participle of «обуть» ('to shoe'), agreeing feminine with «нога»: 'shod'. The short passive states a result — the leg's settled condition — and is markedly bookish.
84
Without hurrying, Smerdyakov removed the garter and thrust his fingers deep down into the stocking.
GrammarNegated gerund «не торопясь» — 'without hurrying' «не торопясь» is a fixed adverbial use of the present «деепричастие» of «торопиться» ('to hurry'): 'unhurriedly, taking his time'. Smerdyakov's deliberate calm is the point of the phrase.
Word«запустить пальцы» — to thrust one's fingers in «запустить» here means not 'launch' but 'to plunge/thrust (a hand) into' — «запустить пальцы в чулок» = to dig one's fingers deep into the stocking. A vivid, slightly coarse physical idiom.
85
Ivan Fyodorovich watched him, and suddenly he began to shake in a convulsive fright.
GrammarInchoative «за-» + reflexive «-ся» «затрясся» combines the onset prefix «за-» ('began to') with reflexive «-ся» on «трясти»: 'he started shaking'. The «-ся» makes the shaking intransitive — happening to Ivan rather than done by him.
86
"Madman!" he yelled, and springing up quickly from his place, he recoiled backward, so that he struck his back against the wall and seemed to stick to it, his whole body drawn taut as a string.
GrammarPerfective gerund leading a chain of action «вскочив» (perfective «деепричастие», 'having sprung up') sets the prior act, then the finite verbs «откачнулся … стукнулся … прилип» roll forward event by event — the staccato of perfective narration capturing Ivan's recoil.
GrammarPast active participle «вытянувшись»? — gerund of result «вытянувшись» is the perfective past «деепричастие» of «вытянуться» ('to stretch out'): 'having drawn himself taut'. With «весь» ('his whole self') and the idiom «в нитку» ('into a thread') it paints him pressed flat as a string against the wall.
87
He stared at Smerdyakov in mad horror.
Grammar«в» + prepositional for an emotional state «в безумном ужасе» ('in mad horror') uses «в» + the prepositional to locate the action within a state of mind — a common way Russian frames the emotion accompanying a verb.
88
The other, not in the least disconcerted by his fright, went on fumbling in the stocking, as though still straining with his fingers to catch hold of something in it and pull it out.
Grammar«Тот» as 'the other' + perfective gerund «Тот» ('that one') tracks the topic from afar — here 'the other man', Smerdyakov, as opposed to the nearer Ivan. «не смутившись» is a perfective past gerund, 'not having been disconcerted', with the cause «его испугом» in the instrumental.
GrammarImperfective gerund «силясь» — straining effort «силясь» (present «деепричастие» of «силиться», 'to strain') names the ongoing effort framing «копался». «пальцами» is the instrumental of means ('with his fingers'), «что-то» the indefinite object he gropes for.
89
At last he caught hold of it and began to draw it out.
GrammarPerfective grasp, then «стал» + imperfective «ухватил» (perfective) marks the single completed catch; «стал тащить» ('began to pull') uses the phasal «стать» + imperfective infinitive to launch a drawn-out process. The aspects mark a point-event giving way to ongoing action.
90
Ivan Fyodorovich saw that it was some papers, or some packet of papers; Smerdyakov drew it out and laid it on the table.
GrammarIndefinite «какой-то» — 'some … or other' «какой-то» ('some kind of', specific but unidentified) twice marks Ivan's blurred perception: 'some papers, or some packet'. The pronoun agrees as an adjective with «бумаги» (plural) and «пачка» (feminine).
91
"There, sir!" he said quietly.
Word«Вот-с!» — 'There, sir!' «Вот» is the presentative 'here / there it is', and the deferential «-с» clings even to this one-word exclamation. The whole utterance is Smerdyakov laying his evidence — and his servility — before Ivan in a single breath.
92
"What?" Ivan answered, trembling.
GrammarImperfective gerund «трясясь» inside the tag «трясясь» (present «деепричастие» of «трястись», reflexive 'to shake') is wedged between verb and subject — 'answered, trembling, Ivan'. Russian's free order lets the gerund sit mid-clause for vividness.
93
"Be so good as to look, sir," Smerdyakov pronounced just as quietly.
Word«Извольте» — formal 'be so good as to' «извольте» (imperative of «изволить») is an ornate, deferential way to invite an action: 'kindly look, deign to look'. With «взглянуть» ('to take a glance') and «-с» it piles courtesy on courtesy — Smerdyakov's mock-servile politeness at its richest.
94
Ivan stepped up to the table, took hold of the packet and began to unwrap it, but suddenly jerked back his fingers as though from the touch of some loathsome, dreadful reptile.
GrammarThe particle «было» — an interrupted intention «было» after a perfective verb signals an action begun but checked or undone: «взялся было» = 'he had just taken hold (but…)'. It sets up the reversal «но вдруг отдернул» ('but suddenly jerked back'). A subtle, very Russian aspectual nuance.
GrammarGenitive after «от»; simile of the reptile «от» governs the genitive «прикосновения» ('touch'), itself heading a genitive chain «какого-то … гада» ('of some loathsome reptile'). «как будто» frames the whole as simile — Ivan recoils as if from a snake.
95
"Your fingers keep trembling, sir, in a spasm," Smerdyakov observed, and himself unhurriedly unwrapped the paper.
GrammarTopic clitic «-то» + «у вас» possession «Пальцы-то» foregrounds the fingers as topic ('your fingers, now'); «у вас» ('by you') is the possessive frame — 'your fingers'. «всё» here is adverbial, 'keep on', stressing the unbroken trembling.
Grammar«не спеша» — 'unhurriedly' «не спеша» is the fixed adverbial gerund of «спешить» ('to hurry'), 'without haste'. Set against Ivan's spasm, Smerdyakov's deliberate «развернул» ('unwrapped', perfective, one decisive act) sharpens the contrast in nerve.
96
Under the wrapper there proved to be three bundles of hundred-rouble rainbow notes.
GrammarNumeral «три» + genitive singular «пачки» «три» governs the genitive singular «пачки» ('bundles'), and the counted notes «кредиток» stand in the genitive plural after «пачки». The chained genitives are exactly how Russian counts and measures.
97
"It's all here, sir, all three thousand, you needn't even count it. Take it, sir," he invited Ivan, nodding toward the money.
GrammarConcessive «хоть» + imperfective imperative «хоть» here means 'even, you needn't even'; «не считайте» is the negated imperfective imperative ('don't [bother to] count'). The imperfective fits a dismissed, unnecessary process — counting is pointless, it's all there.
GrammarImperfective gerund «кивая» of attendant action «кивая» (present «деепричастие» of «кивать», 'to nod') describes the gesture accompanying «пригласил» ('invited'). «на деньги» — «на» + accusative — points the nod toward the money.
98
Ivan sank onto the chair. He was pale as a sheet.
GrammarShort adjective «бледен» as predicate «бледен» is the masculine short form of «бледный» ('pale'), used predicatively with «был» to state Ivan's condition. The short adjective, more bookish than the long form, suits the narrator's measured description. «как платок» ('like a kerchief') is the set Russian simile for paleness (English 'as a sheet').
99
"You frightened me… with that stocking…" he said, smirking somehow strangely.
GrammarIndefinite adverb «как-то» + gerund «как-то» ('somehow', the indefinite of «как») hedges the manner — 'smirking somehow strangely'. «ухмыляясь» is the imperfective gerund of «ухмыляться», the attendant manner of his speaking.
100
"Can it really be, can it really be that until now you knew nothing?" Smerdyakov asked once again.
GrammarRepeated «неужто» of mounting disbelief «неужто» (folk «неужели») marks incredulous astonishment; its doubling, the second with «же» for insistence, conveys Smerdyakov's growing amazement that Ivan truly did not know. «до сих пор» = 'up to now'.
101
"No, I didn't know. I kept thinking it was Dmitri. Brother! Brother! Ah!" He suddenly clutched his head with both hands. "Listen: did you kill him alone? Without my brother, or together with him?"
Grammar«думать на» (кого) — to suspect «думать на кого-то» (with «на» + accusative animate «на Дмитрия») is the colloquial idiom 'to suspect someone'. The adverbial «всё» means 'all along, kept'. So: 'I kept suspecting Dmitri'.
GrammarReflexive pronoun «себя» + body-part «за голову» «схватил себя за голову» follows the Russian body-part pattern: «себя» (the reflexive object, 'himself') plus «за» + accusative naming the part seized ('by the head'). «обеими руками» is the instrumental of means, 'with both hands'.
Grammar«один» 'alone'; «без» vs «с» governing case «один» here means 'alone, by yourself'. The contrasting prepositions show their cases: «без» + genitive «брата» ('without [my] brother'), «с» + instrumental «братом» ('with [my] brother') — the very opposition the case system exists to mark.
102
"Only together with you, sir; it was together with you that I killed him, sir, and Dmitri Fyodorovich is as innocent as can be, sir."
Grammar«с вами вместе» — instrumental of accompaniment «с вами» («с» + instrumental «вами») plus «вместе» ('together') doubly stresses joint action: 'together with you'. Smerdyakov reorders it («только вместе с вами … с вами вместе») to hammer Ivan's complicity home.
Word«как есть» — 'utterly, completely' «как есть» is a folk intensifier, 'just as he is, utterly'. «безвинны» is the short plural of «безвинный» ('guiltless') — plural because of the respectful «вы»-style address to Dmitri Fyodorovich. So: 'is as innocent as can be'.
103
"All right, all right… About me later. Why is it I keep trembling so… I can't get a word out."
GrammarGenitive of negation: «слова не могу выговорить» Under negated «не могу выговорить», the object «слово» appears as genitive «слова» — 'I can't get out [even] a word'. The genitive of negation here lends a sense of 'not so much as one word'.
GrammarColloquial «чего» for 'why'; emphatic «это» «Чего» (genitive of «что») colloquially stands for 'why'; «это» is an untranslatable focusing particle, 'why is it that…'. «всё дрожу» — imperfective present with adverbial «всё», 'I keep trembling'.
104
"You were so bold back then, sir — 'everything is permitted,' you used to say, sir — and now look how frightened you are!" Smerdyakov stammered, marveling. "Wouldn't you care for some lemonade, I'll have it brought at once, sir. It can be very refreshing. Only this had best be covered up first, sir."
Word«дескать» — reportative 'so to say' «дескать» is a reportative particle flagging that the speaker is quoting someone else's words, often with irony: 'as he put it', 'supposedly'. Smerdyakov uses it to mark Ivan's old phrase as Ivan's own.
GrammarShort adjective «смелы» + reflexive «испугались» «смелы» is the short plural of «смелый» ('bold'), predicative with «были» (polite plural for «вы»): 'you were bold'. Against it stands «испугались» ('got frightened'), the «-ся» perfective of change of state — the reversal Smerdyakov mocks.
GrammarPartitive genitive + question particle «ли» «лимонаду» is a partitive genitive ('some lemonade'), the old «-у» partitive form. «не хотите ли» fronts the verb with «ли» for a polite, tentative offer — 'wouldn't you care for…?'. A courtly, bookish turn.
Grammar«бы» + infinitive — a softened 'ought to' «бы» with the infinitive «накрыть» expresses a gentle suggestion or 'ought': 'this had best be covered up first'. The mobile «бы» leans here on the topic «это», a typical placement.
105
And he nodded again toward the bundles.
Grammar«кивнуть на» + accusative — a single nod «кивнул» is the perfective semelfactive ('gave one nod'), against the imperfective «кивая» of s97; «на пачки» («на» + accusative) directs the gesture. «опять» ('again') links it back to that earlier nod.
106
He made a move to get up and call Marya Kondratyevna through the door, to have her make and bring some lemonade, but, casting about for something to cover the money with so that she should not see it, he first drew out his handkerchief, yet since that proved once again to be thoroughly blown into, he took from the table the one solitary thick yellow book lying on it, the one Ivan had noticed on coming in, and pressed it down on the money.
GrammarInterrupted «было» + stacked infinitives «двинулся было» ('he made as if to move, but…') again uses «было» for an action begun and abandoned. The bare infinitives «встать кликнуть» ('to get up [and] call') stack purpose without a conjunction, a compressed colloquial chain.
GrammarPurpose «чтобы» with past-form irrealis «чтобы» twice opens a purpose clause whose verbs take the past form (the irrealis behind «чтобы»): «сделала … принесла … не увидела». «та» ('that one') is the demonstrative tracking Marya Kondratyevna as topic across the long sentence.
GrammarGerund + «чем бы» indirect deliberation «отыскивая» is an imperfective gerund ('casting about'); «чем бы накрыть» is an embedded deliberative — 'for something to cover [it] with', «чем» the instrumental 'with what', «бы» the hypothetical. A neat compression of 'looking for a thing to cover it'.
GrammarRelative «которую» + gerund «войдя» «которую» ('which', accusative as object of «заметил») opens the relative clause modifying «книгу». Nested inside is the perfective gerund «войдя» ('on entering'), a prior act — Ivan had noticed the book as he came in. Layered subordination is the hallmark of this dense literary sentence.
Word«засморканный» — 'blown into', soiled «засморканный», a past passive participle from «сморкаться» ('to blow one's nose'), means a handkerchief thoroughly used and soiled. The earthy, slightly repellent detail is pure Dostoevskian realism — even the murderer's props are squalid.
107
The title of the book was: "The Homilies of Our Holy Father Isaac the Syrian."
GrammarA heaped genitive title; Church-Slavonic word order The title is one long genitive phrase modifying «слова» ('the words/homilies of…'): «Святого отца нашего Исаака Сирина» all in the genitive. The possessor-before-noun order and the form «Сирина» ('the Syrian') echo Church-Slavonic liturgical titling.
108
Ivan Fyodorovich managed mechanically to read the title.
Grammar«успеть» + perfective infinitive «прочесть» «успел … прочесть» means 'managed/had time to read'. «прочесть» is a perfective (variant of «прочитать»), so the reading is a single completed glance at the «заглавие» (title). «машинально» — 'mechanically', without intending to.
109
"I don't want any lemonade," he said. "About me later. Sit down and tell me: how did you do it? Tell me everything…"
GrammarImperfective imperatives «садись», «говори» «садись» and «говори» are imperfective («-и/-ь») imperatives — fitting for inviting someone into an open, ongoing activity ('sit down and talk; tell it all'). A perfective «скажи» would demand one finished utterance; here Ivan wants the whole unfolding account.
110
"You'd do well at least to take off your coat, sir, or else you'll be drenched in sweat."
Grammar«бы» + past form: a polite suggestion «вы бы … сняли» — past-tense «сняли» plus «бы» — softens a command into advice: 'you'd do well to take off [your coat]'. «хоть» ('at least') makes the suggestion gentler still. This «бы» + past 'you might…' is the courteous register of the conditional.
Word«взопреть» — to break into a sweat «взопреть» is a homely, slightly coarse verb meaning 'to get all sweaty, drenched in sweat'. The everyday physicality keeps Smerdyakov's solicitude grounded and faintly insolent.
111
Ivan Fyodorovich, as though only now realizing it, tore off his coat and, without rising from the chair, threw it onto the bench.
GrammarPerfective gerund «догадавшись» + «будто» «догадавшись» is the perfective past gerund of «догадаться» ('to realize, guess'): 'as though having only now realized it'. «будто» ('as if') frames the appearance, and «теперь только» ('only now') the belatedness — Ivan acting on the suggestion in a daze.
GrammarNegated gerund «не сходя» — 'without rising' «не сходя со стула» ('not getting up from the chair') is an imperfective gerund of attendant circumstance, «со стула» being «с» + genitive 'off the chair'. It tells how Ivan threw the coat — still seated.
112
"Speak, then, please, speak!"
GrammarImperative «говори» + urging «же» The imperfective imperative «говори» ('speak, keep talking') is doubled and stitched with the urging particle «же» — 'do speak, won't you!'. «же» on an imperative conveys impatient insistence.
113
He seemed to grow calmer. He waited confidently for Smerdyakov to tell him ''everything'' now.
Grammar«что»-clause + perfective future «скажет» «ждал, что … скажет» — the verb of expectation governs a «что»-clause whose verb «скажет» is the perfective simple future ('will tell [it all out]'). The perfective frames the awaited telling as one complete revelation.
114
"About how it was done, sir?" Smerdyakov sighed. "It was done in the most natural manner, sir, on those very words of yours…"
GrammarShort passive «сделано было» + instrumental of manner «сделано было» is the short past passive participle of «сделать» with «было» — the periphrastic passive, 'it was done'. The manner stands in the instrumental: «самым естественным манером» ('in the most natural way'), the agent left unnamed.
Grammar«с» + genitive: 'on / from your very words' «с ваших … слов» («с» + genitive) means 'acting on your words, at your prompting'. The genitive «тех самых» ('those very') pins it to specific remembered words of Ivan's — the licence Smerdyakov keeps invoking.
115
"About my words later," Ivan interrupted again, but no longer shouting as before, enunciating his words firmly and as though he had wholly mastered himself. "Only tell me in detail how you did it. Everything in order. Don't forget anything. The details, above all the details. I beg you."
GrammarContrasting gerunds: «не крича» vs «выговаривая» Two imperfective gerunds frame Ivan's new manner: the negated «не крича» ('no longer shouting') and the positive «твердо выговаривая» ('firmly enunciating'). Both describe the ongoing way he «прервал» — his recovered composure.
GrammarPerfective gerund «овладев» + reflexive «собою» «овладев» is the perfective past gerund of «овладеть» ('to master'), a completed prior act; its object «собою» is the instrumental of the reflexive «себя» (the verb «овладеть» governs the instrumental): 'as though having wholly mastered himself'.
GrammarPerfective imperatives for a single full account Now Ivan switches to perfective imperatives — «расскажи» ('tell out'), «не забудь» ('don't [leave] forget[ten]') — demanding one complete, finished narration, against the open imperfectives «говори»/«садись» of before. The aspect shift mirrors his hardened resolve.
116
"You went off, and then I fell into the cellar, sir…"
GrammarPerfective past narration; «в погреб» motion «уехали» and «упал» are perfective pasts moving the story event by event ('you drove off; I fell'). «в погреб» is «в» + accusative for motion into a place (the cellar) — contrast «в погребе» which would mean location.
117
"In a fit, or did you pretend?"
GrammarReflexive «притвориться» — to feign «притвориться» (perfective, «-ся» only) means 'to pretend, sham'. The «-ся» here is lexical — the verb simply does not exist without it — naming an act done to deceive.
118
"I pretended, of course, sir. I pretended in everything. I went calmly down the stairs, sir, right to the very bottom, sir, and lay down calmly, sir, and the moment I lay down I set up a screaming. And I thrashed about until they carried me out."
GrammarPerfective chain + «как … тут и» A string of perfectives narrates the staged fit step by step: «сошел … лег … завопил». «как лег, тут и завопил» is the colloquial 'no sooner had I lain down than I started screaming' — «как» 'the moment', «тут и» 'right then'.
GrammarImperfective «бился» + «пока» until-clause «бился» (imperfective past of «биться», reflexive 'to thrash') gives the durative writhing; «пока вынесли» ('until they carried [me] out') sets its endpoint, the perfective «вынесли» marking the completing event. Process against terminus.
119
"Stop! And the whole time, and afterward too, and in the hospital, you were pretending all along?"
GrammarImperfective «притворялся» for sustained pretence Here the imperfective «притворялся» ('kept pretending') replaces the perfective «притворился» of s117–118: Ivan now asks about pretence sustained over a whole stretch of time — process, not a single act. The triple «и … и … и» ('and … and …') piles up the spans.
120
"By no means, sir. The very next day, in the morning, before the hospital even, a real one struck me, and so violent a one that there hadn't been the like in many years. For two days I lay in utter unconsciousness."
Word«Никак нет» — emphatic formal 'no' «никак нет» is a deferential, almost military negative reply, 'by no means, certainly not', the polite counterpart of «так точно» ('yes indeed'). With «-с» it fits Smerdyakov's servant's diction.
Grammar«столь … что» + bookish «таковой» «столь … что» ('so … that') is the bookish correlative of «так … что», introducing a result clause. «таковой» ('such a one') is an archaic, literary demonstrative for «такой» — elevated diction oddly in Smerdyakov's mouth. «не бывало» (imperfective) negates habitual past existence: 'there had not been the like'.
Word«беспамятство» — total unconsciousness «беспамятство» (from «без» + «память», 'without memory/senses') is 'a swoon, complete loss of consciousness'. «в совершенном беспамятстве» ('in utter unconsciousness') describes the real epileptic aftermath, sharpening the question of his feigned fit.
121
— Good, good. Go on.
GrammarImperfective command «продолжай» «Продолжай» is the imperfective imperative of «продолжать» — a command to keep an action going rather than to perform a single completed act. With «дальше» (further) it means 'go on, keep going'; the imperfective is the natural choice for telling someone to continue.
122
— They laid me down on that cot, sir, and I knew it would be behind the partition, sir, for every time I fell ill Marfa Ignatyevna always put me to bed for the night behind that very partition, in her own quarters. They had always been gentle with me, ever since the day I was born, sir. In the night I groaned, sir, only softly. All the while I was waiting for Dmitri Fyodorovich.
WordThe servile particle «-с» The «-с» tacked onto «койку», «перегородку», «стонал» and so on is the obsequious «словоерс», a contraction of «сударь» ('sir') once added by inferiors addressing superiors. Smerdyakov sprays it through his confession; it is the verbal cringe of a lackey, and Dostoevsky uses it to mark his servile, self-abasing register.
GrammarPlural «они» of deferential respect Smerdyakov speaks of Marfa Ignatyevna with plural «они… были» and «клали-с» though she is one person. Servants used the plural to refer respectfully to a master or mistress — the same honorific plural that runs through his whole account («они прибудут», «доверяли»). Here it also forces plural agreement on the short adjective «нежные» and the verb.
GrammarShort adjective «болен» for a passing state «Болен» is the short (predicative) form of «больной», used for the temporary condition 'be ill' rather than the attributive 'a sick man'. Short adjectives can only predicate, and this one carries exactly the sense of an occasional bout of illness that recurs «во все разы» (every time).
GrammarImperfective «ожидал» of drawn-out waiting The imperfective past «ожидал», reinforced by «всё» ('all the while'), frames the waiting as a continuous, unresolved process through the night. Russian likes the imperfective for this kind of standing background against which the night's events will later break.
123
— Waiting how — for him to come to you?
GrammarReflexive «к себе» — 'to your own place' «К себе» uses the reflexive pronoun «себя» in the dative after «к», meaning 'to one's own self/place' — here Ivan asks whether Smerdyakov was waiting for Dmitri to come to him. «Себя» always points back to the clause subject and has no nominative.
124
— Why would he come to me. I waited for him to come to the house, sir, for I no longer had the slightest doubt that he would turn up that very night, since, having lost me and having no word of anything, he would inevitably be obliged to climb into the house himself over the fence, sir, as he knew how to do, and to carry out whatever he meant to.
WordFolk «сумление» for «сомнение» «Сумления» is Smerdyakov's substandard pronunciation of «сомнения» ('doubt'). Such folk distortions — also «отлепартую», «оченно», «убивство» below — mark his half-educated, lower-class speech and are a deliberate stylization on Dostoevsky's part.
GrammarGenitive of negation with «не было» After «не было» the thing that is absent stands in the genitive: «сумления… никакого» (no doubt at all). This obligatory genitive of negation, with the negative «никакого» agreeing in case, is one of the genitive's most pervasive jobs.
GrammarArchaic gerunds «лишимшись», «имемши» These are Smerdyakov's malformed perfective past gerunds (деепричастия) for 'having lost [me]' and 'having no [news]'. The correct forms would be «лишившись» and «не имея»; his folksy «-мши» endings are a vulgar archaism that pepper his speech («женимшись», «избимши», «знамши» below). The construction names a prior circumstance sharing the main subject — Dmitri.
WordBookish «ибо» ('for, because') «Ибо» is an elevated, archaic-literary conjunction for 'for, because', incongruously grand in the mouth of a lackey. Smerdyakov mixes such bookish connectives («ибо», «беспременно») with crude folk forms, a clash that defines his half-learned voice.
WordFolk «беспременно» for «непременно» «Беспременно» ('without fail, certainly') is the colloquial, substandard variant of «непременно». It recurs through his account and belongs to the same lower-class layer as «сумления» and «оченно».
125
— And if he had not come?
GrammarCounterfactual «если бы… пришёл» «Если бы» plus the past-tense «пришёл» forms the irrealis conditional: 'and if he had not come?'. Russian builds all hypotheticals from past form + the particle «бы», whatever the real-world time; only context tells us this is a past counterfactual.
126
— Then nothing at all would have happened, sir. Without him I would never have brought myself to it.
GrammarConditional in the apodosis: «ничего бы… не было» The «бы» here answers the previous «если бы»: 'then nothing would have happened'. Note the negative concord «ничего… не было» (genitive of negation under «не было») and how «бы» leans on the early word «ничего» rather than the verb, as the mobile particle often does.
GrammarReflexive «решиться» + conditional «Решился бы» is the conditional of «решиться» ('to bring oneself to, resolve'), a -ся verb of inner resolve. The deferential plural «них» again stands for Dmitri alone, governed by «без» + genitive.
127
— Good, good… speak more plainly, don't hurry, and above all — leave nothing out!
GrammarImperfective imperatives, including negated ones Ivan strings imperfective commands: «говори» (keep speaking), «не торопись» (don't hurry — reflexive), «не пропускай» (leave nothing out). Negated commands take the imperfective almost automatically, and «понятнее» is the comparative 'more plainly'.
128
— I was waiting for them to kill Fyodor Pavlovich, sir… that much was certain, sir. Because I had already worked them up to it so… in those last days, sir… and the main thing was — by then they knew the signals. With their suspicious nature and the fury that had built up in them over those days, they were bound to get into the house itself by means of the signals, sir. That was certain. And so I waited for them, sir.
Word«знаки» — the prearranged signals «Знаки» here are the secret knocks on the window agreed between Fyodor Pavlovich and his sons/servant to signal a visitor (especially Grushenka). They are the pivot of the whole murder plot and return repeatedly («через знаки», «знаки я простучал»).
GrammarSubstandard possessive «ихней»; «при» + prepositional «Ихней» is the nonstandard, declined form of «их» ('their'), which in correct Russian is invariable — another mark of Smerdyakov's speech. «При» governs the prepositional «мнительности… ярости» to mean 'given / with their suspiciousness and fury'.
Grammar«должны были» + perfective infinitive of inevitability «Должны были проникнуть» ('were bound to get in') pairs the modal «должны были» with the perfective infinitive «проникнуть», presenting the break-in as a single, foregone, completed event. The perfective here voices Smerdyakov's certainty that it had to happen.
129
— Wait, — Ivan broke in, — but if he had killed him, he would have taken the money and carried it off; surely that is exactly how you had to reason it out? What, then, would have been left for you, after him? I don't see it.
GrammarParticle «ведь» framing a counterfactual chain «Ведь» appeals to shared reasoning ('but surely, after all'), softening Ivan's challenge. The clause is a past counterfactual: «если б он убил, то взял бы… и унёс» — 'if he had killed, he would have taken the money and carried it off', the «бы» shared across both perfective verbs.
GrammarDative «тебе» + the topic clitic «-то» «Досталось бы тебе» is a dative-experiencer construction: 'what would have been left to you'. The emphatic clitic «-то» on «тебе-то» foregrounds the contrast — 'to you, of all people' — while «ж» («же») adds insistence to the question.
130
— But the money they would never have found, sir. It was only from me that they had it the money was under the mattress. Only that wasn't the truth, sir. It used to lie in the strongbox, that's how it really was, sir.
GrammarStacked particles «-то… бы… и» with negation The topic clitic «-то» marks «деньги» as the known theme; «бы» makes the clause counterfactual ('would never have found'); «никогда… не» is negative concord. The whole is Smerdyakov insisting that the money would never have been found — note the deferential plural «они» for Dmitri.
Word«тюфяк» — the mattress A «тюфяк» is a stuffed mattress or pallet. The false rumour that the money lay «под тюфяком» (under the mattress) versus its true hiding place is central to Smerdyakov's clinching proof of his own cunning.
WordFolk «шкатунка» for «шкатулка» «Шкатунка» is Smerdyakov's distortion of «шкатулка», a small casket or strongbox for valuables. The garbled form belongs to his characteristic mispronunciations.
131
And afterward I, since they trusted me alone of all the human race, taught Fyodor Pavlovich to move that same packet with the money into the corner behind the icons, because nobody at all would ever guess to look there, especially someone coming in a hurry.
GrammarFolk «коли» + the gerund «спеша» «Коли» is a colloquial/archaic 'if, when' for «если/когда». «Спеша» is the imperfective present gerund of «спешить» ('hurrying'), describing the manner of someone «придёт» in a rush. The gerund shares the subject of «придёт».
132
And so it lay there, that packet, in their corner behind the icons, sir.
GrammarTopic dislocation and emphatic «и» The sentence loops back on its topic: pronoun «он» is restated as «пакет этот», and the locatives «там… у них в углу за образами» pile up before the verb «лежал». The particle «и» before «лежал» emphasizes 'and so it did lie there' — the loose, additive word order of spoken narration.
133
Under the mattress it would have been downright absurd to keep it at all; in the strongbox it was at least under lock and key. But now everyone here believes it supposedly lay under the mattress. A foolish line of reasoning, sir.
GrammarImpersonal predicate «смешно… было» + «бы» «Смешно бы было держать» is an impersonal construction: the neuter predicative «смешно» ('absurd') plus «было» and the infinitive, made hypothetical by «бы» — 'it would have been absurd to keep'. There is no nominative subject; «их» is the object of «держать».
Grammar«будто бы» — reported falsehood «Будто бы» ('supposedly, as if') flags the claim as hearsay Smerdyakov knows to be untrue: everyone believes the money 'supposedly lay' under the mattress. The «бы» here is fused into the comparative particle, not a separate conditional.
Word«рассуждение» — line of reasoning «Рассуждение» is reasoning, argument, a 'line of thought'. Smerdyakov's contemptuous «глупое рассуждение-с» — dismissing the mattress story as a 'foolish line of reasoning' — shows his pride in his own superior calculation, a recurring note in the confession.
134
So then, if Dmitri Fyodorovich had committed that very murder, he would either, finding nothing, have fled in haste, sir, starting at every rustle, the way murderers always do, or else he would have been arrested, sir.
GrammarBranching counterfactual with paired «или бы» A complex past conditional: the «если бы» protasis ('had he committed the murder') opens two hypothetical outcomes, each carrying its own «бы» — «или бы убежали… или бы арестованы были» ('would either have fled… or have been arrested'). The deferential plural again governs «совершили… убежали… были».
GrammarNegated gerund «не найдя» «Не найдя» is the perfective past gerund of «найти» ('having found nothing'), with negation and the genitive-of-negation object «ничего». It compresses 'since he found nothing' into a single adverbial sharing the subject of «убежали».
WordFolk «убивец» for «убийца» «Убивец» (here instrumental plural «убивцами») is the dialectal/colloquial word for 'murderer', beside standard «убийца». With «убивство» for «убийство», it stamps the whole confession with Smerdyakov's peasant diction — and Dostoevsky reuses «убивец» pointedly for the moral charge.
135
And so I could always, sir — the next day, or even that very same night, sir — climb behind the icons and carry off that money, sir, and the whole thing would have fallen on Dmitri Fyodorovich. That I could always count on.
WordFolk «али» for «или» «Али» is a peasant/colloquial 'or' for «или» ('на другой день али даже в ту же самую ночь'). It recurs in his speech («женимшись… вышел бы», «поехали бы али остались») and is a clear marker of the lower-class oral register.
GrammarConditional «свалилось бы» — 'would have fallen on' «Свалилось бы… на Дмитрия Федоровича» is the conditional of «свалиться» ('to fall, be pinned on'), with «всё» as subject — 'the whole thing would have fallen on Dmitri'. The «бы» leans on «всё», and the «и» emphasizes the inevitability of the outcome.
136
— Well, and what if he hadn't killed him, but only beaten him?
GrammarCounterfactual with contrastive «а» Ivan poses another past hypothetical: «если б… не убил, а только избил» ('if he hadn't killed but only beaten'). The conjunction «а» marks the mild contrast/correction between the two perfectives, and a single «б» governs both.
137
— If he hadn't killed him, then of course I wouldn't have dared take the money, and it would have come to nothing. But there was this calculation too: that he would beat him senseless, and meanwhile I would have time to take it, and then later I'd report to Fyodor Pavlovich that it was none other than Dmitri Fyodorovich who, having beaten him, made off with the money.
GrammarConditional «не посмел… осталось бы» Both clauses are counterfactual: «не посмел [бы] взять» ('would not have dared to take') and «осталось бы втуне» ('would have come to nothing'). Note the single «бы» doing double duty and the impersonal «осталось» with no subject.
WordArchaic «втуне» — 'in vain' «Втуне» is a bookish-archaic adverb meaning 'in vain, to no purpose, idly'. It sits oddly beside Smerdyakov's folk forms, again revealing the magpie literacy of a self-taught lackey.
WordGarbled «отрапортую» → «отлепартую» «Отлепартую» is Smerdyakov's mangling of «отрапортую» ('I'll report'), itself from the military/bureaucratic «рапорт». The comically distorted officialese caps his pretension to clerkly competence.
GrammarFolk gerund «избимши» of attendant action «Избимши» is his substandard perfective gerund of «избить» ('having beaten'), describing the circumstance under which Dmitri supposedly «похитили» the money. The correct form is «избив»; the «-мши» ending is the same vulgar archaism as «лишимшись».
138
— Wait… I'm getting confused. So it turns out that Dmitri did the killing after all, and you only took the money?
GrammarPerfectives «убил»/«взял»; «стало быть» Ivan reconstructs the sequence in perfective past — «убил» (did the killing), «взял» (took the money) — each a single completed event. «Стало быть» ('so, it turns out') draws the inference, and «а» contrasts the two roles.
139
— No, it wasn't he who did the killing, sir. Of course, I could tell you even now that they were the murderers… but I don't want to lie to you now, because… because if you really, as I see for myself, understood nothing of all this until now and were not merely feigning before me, so as to throw your own plain guilt onto me to my face, then all the same you are guilty in the whole thing, sir, for you knew about the murder, sir, and entrusted the killing to me, sir, and yourself, knowing everything, went away.
GrammarReal (open) conditional with «если… то» Unlike the earlier counterfactuals, this «если… то» has no «бы»: it is a real condition about the present situation — 'if you really understood nothing… then all the same you are guilty'. «Виновны» is the short adjective predicate 'guilty'.
WordArchaic «доселе(ва)» — 'until now' «Доселева» (for «доселе») is an archaic 'hitherto, until now', with a folk «-ва» tail. It belongs to the elevated-bookish layer Smerdyakov reaches for at his most rhetorical.
GrammarDative «мне» + gerund «знамши» «Мне… поручили» is the dative of the person entrusted ('entrusted the killing to me'). «Знамши» is again a substandard past gerund ('knowing everything') describing Ivan's state as he «уехали» — the deferential plural for Ivan. «Сами» intensifies: 'you yourself'.
140
And that is why I want to prove it to your face this very evening, that the chief murderer in all this is you alone, sir, and I am only the lesser one, though it was I who did the killing. And you are the lawful murderer, and that's the truth of it!
WordArchaic demonstrative «сей» «Сей» ('this') is the bookish-archaic demonstrative for «этот», surviving in fixed phrases and elevated style. «В сей вечер» ('this very evening') lends Smerdyakov's accusation a solemn, almost liturgical weight.
GrammarZero copula with marked word order There is no verb 'to be': in the present Russian simply juxtaposes subject and predicate — 'the chief murderer… is you alone'. The nominatives «убивец… единый вы» stand bare, and the emphatic placement of «вы-с» at the end drives the indictment home.
WordElevated «единый» — 'sole, one' «Единый» means 'one and only, sole' in a heightened, almost scriptural register (cf. 'единый Бог'). Calling Ivan the «единый» murderer raises the charge above mere fact to a moral verdict.
141
— Why, why am I a murderer? Oh God! — Ivan finally lost his composure, forgetting that he had put off everything concerning himself until the end of the conversation. — Is it that same Chermashnya again? Wait, tell me, why did you need my consent, if you took Chermashnya for consent? How do you account for that now?
GrammarGerund «забыв» + reflexive «о себе» «Забыв» is the perfective past gerund of «забыть» ('having forgotten'), describing Ivan as he loses control. «О себе» is the reflexive «себя» in the prepositional after «о» — 'everything concerning himself', pointing back to Ivan the subject.
GrammarPerfective future «растолкуешь» «Растолкуешь» is the perfective future ('how will you now account for / explain it') — a conjugated perfective with future meaning, demanding a single, finished explanation. The clitic «-то» on «теперь-то» sharpens the challenge: 'now, of all times'.
142
— Once I was sure of your consent, I knew you would not raise an outcry over those three thousand once they were lost, even should the authorities for some reason suspect me instead of Dmitri Fyodorovich, or suspect me of being in league with Dmitri Fyodorovich; on the contrary, you would have shielded me from the others… And once you had come into your inheritance, you could even reward me afterward, all the rest of my life, for it was through me, after all, that you were graciously able to receive that inheritance — whereas, had he married Agrafena Alexandrovna, you'd have been left with nothing but a fig.
GrammarPast passive participle «уверенный» as predicate «Уверенный» is the past passive participle of «уверить» ('made sure, certain'), here a fronted participial phrase 'being sure of your consent'. Smerdyakov uses the participle (with «в» + prepositional) to compress his whole calculation into an opening modifier.
GrammarGerunds «получив» / «женимшись» of condition Two gerunds frame hypothetical conditions: «наследство получив» ('having received the inheritance') and the folk «женимшись» ('had he married') for «женившись». Each sets up a consequence — reward for Smerdyakov, or nothing for Ivan — sharing the clause's subject.
WordIdiom «шиш» — 'nothing, a fig' «Шиш» is the fig-gesture (thumb between two fingers) and, idiomatically, 'nothing at all'. «Вышел бы вам один только шиш» means 'you'd have been left with nothing whatever' — a crude, vivid folk turn closing Smerdyakov's coldly mercenary reasoning.
143
— Ah! So you meant to torment me afterward as well, all my life! — Ivan ground out. — And what if I hadn't gone away then, but had informed on you?
Word«проскрежетать» — to grind out through teeth «Проскрежетал» (от «скрежетать зубами», to gnash one's teeth) means he 'ground out' the words through clenched teeth. Dostoevsky uses it twice for Ivan in this scene to convey suppressed, grinding fury beneath a controlled surface.
GrammarCounterfactual + «заявить на» (denounce) Another past counterfactual: «если б… не уехал, а… заявил» ('if I hadn't left but had informed on you'). «Заявить на кого-то» means to denounce or lodge a complaint against someone; «на тебя» is the accusative of the person denounced.
144
— And what could you have informed about then? That I had egged you on to go to Chermashnya? Why, that's all nonsense, sir. Besides, after our conversation you would either have gone or stayed. If you had stayed, then nothing would have happened, I'd have known, sir, that you didn't want the thing done, and I would have undertaken nothing.
GrammarConditional «могли бы» + insistent «же» «Что же бы вы могли… заявить?» — 'and what, then, could you have informed about?' The particle «же» presses the rhetorical challenge, and «бы» with past «могли» makes it counterfactual. Smerdyakov calmly dismantles Ivan's hypothetical.
GrammarConditional pair «поехали бы… остались» Two branching outcomes again share one «бы»: 'you would either have gone or stayed'. «Поехали» (perfective of motion, set out) versus «остались» (stayed) — and the folk «али» links them. The deferential plural agrees with «вы».
GrammarNegative concord under the conditional Both clauses combine «бы» with the negative concord «ничего… не»: 'nothing would have happened' / 'I would have undertaken nothing'. The genitive «ничего» pairs with «не произошло»; the imperfective «предпринимал» frames the (non-)action as ongoing intent.
145
But if you did go, it meant you had assured me that you wouldn't dare bring me before the court and that you'd forgive me those three thousand.
GrammarReal conditional + intensifying «уж» Here the «если… то» carries no «бы»: a real inference from the fact that Ivan did leave — 'but if you did go, then it meant you assured me…'. The particle «уж» (a clipped «уже») adds finality and insistence twice over.
GrammarDative «мне» with «простить» «Простить» governs the dative of the person forgiven and the accusative of the thing: «три эти тысячи мне простите» — 'you would forgive me those three thousand'. The word order foregrounds the sum as the known topic.
146
And besides, you couldn't have pursued me afterward at all, because then I'd have told everything in court, sir — that is, not that I stole or killed — that I wouldn't have said, sir — but that you yourself had urged me to steal and to kill, and only I had refused.
GrammarImperfective infinitive «преследовать» of sustained action «Преследовать» ('to pursue, persecute') is imperfective, framing the pursuit as an ongoing process Ivan could not have kept up. With «не могли… вовсе» ('couldn't at all'), it states a flat impossibility.
GrammarCorrelative «не то… а то, что» The structure «не то, что… а то, что…» ('not that… but that…') sets the false confession against the true accusation. «То, что» is the correlative «то» plus subordinating «что» introducing each reported content clause.
Word«подбивать» — to put up to, incite «Подбивать (кого-то к чему-то / на что-то)» colloquially means 'to egg on, instigate, put up to'. Smerdyakov's whole defence rests on recasting himself as the one merely «подбивали» by Ivan — the instigated, not the instigator.
147
That's just why I needed your consent then, so that you'd have nothing to corner me with, sir, for where would you have found proof of it; whereas I could always corner you, sir, by exposing what a thirst you'd had for your father's death — and there's my word for it: the public would all have believed it, and you'd have been ashamed your whole life long.
GrammarPurpose «чтобы» + irrealis past «Чтобы… не могли припереть» expresses purpose with «чтобы» plus the past-form (irrealis) verb — 'so that you could not corner me'. «Чтобы» is the fusion of «что» + «бы», and «ничем… не» is negative concord with the instrumental of means.
WordIdiom «припереть (к стене)» — to corner «Припереть» literally 'to press, prop shut'; colloquially «припереть к стене» means to corner someone, leave them no way out. Smerdyakov twice plays on it — Ivan can't «припереть» him, but he can always «припереть» Ivan.
GrammarGerund «обнаружив» + embedded «какую» «Обнаружив» is the perfective past gerund of «обнаружить» ('having exposed/revealed'), naming the means by which Smerdyakov could corner Ivan. It governs the embedded exclamatory clause «какую вы жажду имели» — 'what a thirst you had', the interrogative «какую» agreeing with «жажду» in the accusative.
148
— So I had it, then, I had this thirst, I had it? — Ivan ground out again.
GrammarEmphatic repetition and topicalized «так имел» Ivan's anguished triple «имел… имел… имел» throws the verb to the front for stress — 'so I had it, then, I had it'. Russian's free word order lets the repeated comment ('had') frame the line, while «эту жажду» (this thirst) is the known topic.
149
— Beyond all doubt you had it, sir, and by your consent you silently sanctioned the whole business for me then, sir, — Smerdyakov gave Ivan a steady look.
GrammarInstrumental of means + reflexive «своим» «Согласием своим» is the instrumental of means — 'by your own consent' — with the reflexive possessive «своим» pointing back to Ivan. «Мне… разрешили» adds the dative 'sanctioned [it] for me'; «молча» is the adverbial 'silently'.
GrammarVerb-first narration «поглядел Смердяков» In the narrative tag the verb «поглядел» precedes the subject «Смердяков» — the inverted, verb-first order typical of dialogue attributions and reported action in Russian prose. The perfective «поглядел» marks a single, deliberate glance.
150
He was very weak and spoke quietly and wearily, but something inward and hidden was goading him; he plainly had some purpose of his own. Ivan sensed it coming.
GrammarIndefinite «что-то» + participle «затаённое» «Что-то» ('something') with the «-то» suffix marks a specific-but-unnamed force. «Затаённое» is a past passive participle ('hidden, pent-up') used adjectivally; the imperfective «поджигало» ('was goading') frames the inner pressure as ongoing.
GrammarImperfective «предчувствовал» of dawning sense «Предчувствовал» (imperfective of «предчувствовать», to have a foreboding) presents Ivan's sense of something coming as a continuing inner state, not a single realization — the imperfective suits this lingering apprehension.
151
— Go on, — he said to him, — go on about that night.
GrammarColloquial «про» + accusative «Про ту ночь» ('about that night') uses «про» + accusative, the more colloquial counterpart of «о» + prepositional. The repeated imperfective imperative «продолжай» keeps the command to 'go on'.
152
— What more is there, sir! There I lie, and I hear the master cry out, it seemed. And just before that Grigory Vasilyich had suddenly got up and gone out and suddenly given a great shout, and then everything went quiet, dark.
GrammarHistoric present «лежу… слышу» Smerdyakov switches into the present tense — «лежу», «слышу» — to narrate past events vividly, the 'historic present' that pulls the listener into the moment. The imperfectives suit the durative 'I lie and hear'.
153
So there I lie, waiting, my heart pounding, I can bear it no longer. At last I got up and went out, sir — I see the window onto the garden standing open on the left, and I took another step to the left, sir, to listen whether they were alive and sitting there or not, and I hear the master tossing about and moaning, so he was alive, sir.
GrammarShort passive participle «отперто» «Отперто» is the short-form past passive participle of «отпереть» ('unlocked, standing open'), agreeing in neuter with «окно» — a result-state predicate ('the window [was] open'). The historic present «вижу» keeps the narration immediate.
GrammarEmbedded yes/no with «ли» «Живы ли они… или нет» is an indirect yes/no question introduced by the particle «ли»: 'whether they were alive or not'. «Ли» follows the focused word «живы» (short adjective 'alive'), and the deferential plural again stands for Fyodor Pavlovich.
GrammarTopic clitic «-то» stacked with «-с» «Налево-то-с» piles the emphatic «-то» (foregrounding 'to the left') onto the servile «-с» — a vivid sample of how spoken Russian loads a single word with particles. «Шагнул» is a perfective single step (one-time «-ну-» verb).
154
Ah, I think! I went up to the window and called to the master: "It's me, you know." And he says to me: "He was here, he was, he's run off!" Meaning Dmitri Fyodorovich, that is, sir. "He killed Grigory!" — "Where?" — I whisper to him. "There, in the corner," — he points, whispering too. "Wait," — I say.
WordReportative «дескать» «Дескать» is a particle of reported speech ('he says, so to speak, you know'), flagging words as quoted or hearsay. Smerdyakov drops it into his own quoted line «Это я, дескать» to color the retelling — a hallmark of folk narration.
GrammarPerfectives of sudden event «был… убежал» Fyodor's gasped «Был, был, убежал!» ('he was here, he was, he's run off') uses perfective past for the abrupt, completed actions — the repetition conveying his agitation. «Убежал» is the perfective of «убежать», a single completed flight.
155
I went into the corner to look, and by the wall I stumbled right onto Grigory Vasilyevich, lying there, all covered in blood, senseless.
GrammarPresent active participle «лежащего» «Лежащего» is the present active participle of «лежать» ('lying'), agreeing with «Григория Васильевича» in the animate accusative-genitive. It condenses 'who was lying' into a single modifier; «наткнулся на» ('stumbled onto') is a reflexive perfective.
Grammar«в крови», «в бесчувствии» — prepositional of state «В крови» ('covered in blood') and «в бесчувствии» ('senseless') are «в» + prepositional describing condition, not location. Russian readily uses this locative-of-state to paint the body's appearance.
156
So it was true that Dmitri Fyodorovich had been here, it flashed through my head at once, and at that same instant I resolved to finish the whole thing then and there, all of a sudden, sir, since Grigory Vasilyevich, even if he were still alive, lying senseless, would see nothing for the time being.
GrammarImpersonal «вскочило мне в голову» An impersonal idiom: «вскочило мне в голову» ('it leapt into my head'), with neuter «вскочило» (no nominative subject) and the dative experiencer «мне». It is a vivid variant of «пришло в голову» — a thought seizing him from outside.
GrammarConcessive «если и» + negative concord «Если и живы еще» means 'even if [he] is still alive' — «если и» grants the concession. The result «пока ничего не увидят» pairs «пока» ('for the time being, as long as') with the negative concord «ничего… не увидят». «Живы» is the short adjective with deferential plural.
157
The only risk, sir, was that Marfa Ignatyevna might suddenly wake. I felt that in that minute, only by then the thirst had taken hold of my whole being, so that my breath caught.
GrammarPerfective future «проснётся» of feared event «Проснётся» is the perfective future of «проснуться» ('would suddenly wake') — a conjugated perfective expressing a single feared future occurrence within the past narration. «Вдруг» ('suddenly') heightens the dread.
WordFolk «ажно»; idiom «дух занялся» «Ажно» is a peasant intensifier 'so much that, even'. «Дух занялся» is the idiom 'my breath caught', from «заняться» of the breath stopping with emotion. Together they render the murderous 'thirst' physically gripping him.
158
I came back under the window to the master and say: "She's here, she's come, Agrafena Alexandrovna has come, she's asking to see you." And he gave a great start, all over, like a baby: "Where here? Where?" — and he keeps moaning, but still doesn't believe it.
GrammarParticles «так… ведь… и» of vivid narration The cluster «так ведь и вздрогнул» layers «так» (just so), «ведь» (you know, after all), and emphatic «и» onto the perfective «вздрогнул» ('gave a start') — the dense particle texture of excited oral storytelling. «Весь» = 'all over'.
159
"There," I say, "she's standing right there, open up!" He looks at me through the window, half believing and half not, and afraid to open up — afraid of me, that is, I think.
GrammarImperfective present «верит и не верит» The paradox «верит и не верит» ('half believes and half doesn't') uses the imperfective present for a wavering, ongoing state of mind — exactly what the imperfective is for. The historic present keeps the scene live.
GrammarReflexive «бояться» + genitive object «Боится меня» — «бояться» is a -ся verb existing only in reflexive form and governing the genitive of what is feared ('afraid of me'). The clitic «-то» on «меня-то» and «уж» sharpen the realization: 'it's me he's afraid of'.
160
And here's the funny part: I suddenly took it into my head to tap out those very signals to him on the window frame, that Grushenka, you see, had come — right there before his eyes; the words he seemed not to believe, but the moment I tapped out the signals he ran at once to open the door.
Grammar«вздумать» + perfective infinitive «простучать» «Вздумал… простучать» means 'took it into my head to tap out'; «вздумать» governs a perfective infinitive for the single completed act of tapping the signals «по раме» ('along the frame', «по» + dative). The deferential plural «им» = Fyodor.
GrammarContrastive «а» with topic clitic «-то» «Словам-то… не верил, а… побежали» pivots on «а» ('whereas') between disbelief in words and instant action at the signals. «-то» foregrounds «слова» as topic, and «как бы» softens to 'seemed not to'. Dative «словам» after «верить».
161
He opened it. I was about to step in, but he stands there, blocking my way with his whole body. "Where is she, where is she?" — he looks at me and trembles.
GrammarThe particle «было» of an interrupted action «Вошёл было» uses the particle «было», which marks an action begun but checked or undone — 'I was just about to step in / had started to'. The contrastive «а» then shows what blocked it: Fyodor standing in the way.
GrammarInstrumental «телом» of means «Телом» is the instrumental of means — blocking 'with his body'. «Не пускает… всего» ('won't let me [in] at all') with «-то» topicalizing «тело»; the historic present «пускает» keeps the standoff immediate.
162
Well, I think, if he's that afraid of me — this is bad! and at that my own legs went weak with fear that he wouldn't let me into the rooms, or would cry out, or Marfa Ignatyevna would come running, or something else would happen; I no longer remember it, but I must have stood there pale before him.
GrammarPossessive «у меня» + «от страху» (cause) «У меня… ноги ослабели» frames the body part as belonging to the experiencer via «у» + genitive ('my legs went weak'). «От страху» is «от» + genitive of cause ('from fear'), with the old partitive-flavored «-у» ending «страху» typical of such phrases.
GrammarChain of perfective futures of dreaded outcomes A run of perfective futures lists what he feared might happen: «не пустит», «крикнет», «прибежит», «выйдет» — each a single completed event. «Что ни есть» is the folk indefinite 'anything at all', and «али» the peasant 'or'.
GrammarShort adjective «бледен»; archaic «пред» «Бледен» is the short predicative adjective 'pale', describing his temporary state as he stood. «Пред» is the bookish/archaic variant of «перед» ('before') governing the instrumental «ним» — a faintly elevated touch amid the folk speech.
163
I whisper to him: "Why, there, there she is under the window, how is it," I say, "that you didn't see her?" — "Then bring her in, you bring her in!" — "But she's afraid," I say, "the shouting frightened her, she's hidden in a bush, go and call to her yourself," I say, "from the study."
GrammarPerfective imperative «приведи» «Приведи» is the perfective imperative of «привести» ('bring her [in]') — a command for one decisive, completed act, fittingly perfective. Fyodor's doubled cry and the topicalizing «а ты» convey his frantic eagerness.
Word«спрятаться в куст» — hid in a bush «Спряталась в куст» ('hid in a bush'), reflexive «спрятаться», is part of Smerdyakov's improvised lie to coax Fyodor to the window. «Подите» (below) is the polite/plural imperative of «пойти», 'go'.
164
He ran over, went up to the window, set the candle on the sill. "Grushenka," he cries, "Grushenka, are you there?" He himself is shouting it, but he won't lean out the window, won't move away from me, out of that very fear, because he'd grown terribly afraid of me, and so doesn't dare leave my side.
GrammarPerfective infinitives of reluctance + «не хочет» «Не хочет нагнуться… отойти» pairs «не хочет» with perfective infinitives of single acts he refuses — to lean out, to move away. The parallel repetition and «-то» on «окно-то» dramatize Fyodor's frozen fear of Smerdyakov.
GrammarInceptive prefix «за-» in «забоялся» «Забоялся» («за-» + «бояться») is the perfective 'grew/took fright', the prefix «за-» marking the onset of the state. «От… страху» again gives the cause in the genitive, and «меня» is the genitive object of fear.
165
"Why, there she is," I say (I went up to the window myself and leaned all the way out), "there she is in the bush, laughing at you, do you see?" He believed it all at once, started shaking all over — terribly in love with her he was, sir — and leaned right out the window.
GrammarReflexive «высунуться» + intensifier «сам весь» «Высунулся» is the perfective reflexive of «высунуться» ('leaned/stuck oneself out'), the -ся marking the self-directed motion. «Сам весь» ('I myself, all the way') stresses how far Smerdyakov leaned out to bait the trap.
GrammarShort participle «влюблены»; folk «больно» «Влюблены» is the short past passive participle 'in love' (predicate), with deferential plural «они… были» for Fyodor. «Больно» here is the folk intensifier 'terribly, awfully' (not 'painfully'), and «уж» adds emphasis.
166
And then I snatched up that very paperweight, the cast-iron one on their table — you remember it, sir, there must be a good three pounds in it — swung it back, and from behind, with the corner of it, right at the crown of his head.
Word«темя» — the crown of the head «Темя» is the crown/top of the skull; «в самое темя» ('right at the very crown') with «углом» ('with the corner', instrumental of means) describes the exact, deliberate blow. The clinical precision is part of the horror of Smerdyakov's account.
167
He didn't even cry out. He just suddenly sank down, and I struck a second time, and a third. On the third blow I felt that I'd cracked his skull open.
GrammarVerb-gapping ellipsis 'I struck again' The verb is omitted: «а я в другой раз и в третий» ('and I [struck] a second time and a third') leaves «ударил» understood from context — a terse ellipsis that conveys the cold, mechanical repetition of the blows.
GrammarPerfectives «почувствовал… проломил» Both verbs are perfective past — «почувствовал» (felt, a single sensation) and «проломил» (cracked/broke through, prefix «про-» of completion). The aspect locks each into a finished, decisive event: the fatal third blow.
168
He suddenly toppled over backward, face up, all covered in blood. I looked myself over: no blood on me, none had spattered; I wiped the paperweight, put it back, went behind the icons, took the money out of the packet, and threw the packet on the floor and that same pink ribbon beside it.
GrammarDeferential plural «повалились»; «лицом» of manner Even the murdered master keeps the servile plural: «они… повалились» for one man toppling. «Навзничь» ('backwards, supine') and «лицом кверху» (instrumental «лицом», 'face up') describe the fall — the instrumental of manner.
GrammarChain of perfectives — the cold sequence A rapid string of perfective past verbs — «обтёр, положил, сходил, вынул, бросил» — moves the action forward step by deliberate step, each a completed act. This perfective chain is exactly how Russian narrates a sequence of discrete events.
169
I went down into the garden, trembling all over. Straight to that apple tree with the hollow — you know that hollow, and I had long since marked it out; there was already a rag and some paper lying in it, prepared long ago; I wrapped the whole sum in the paper, then in the rag, and stuffed it in deep.
WordDiminutive «яблонька»; «дупло» — tree hollow «Яблонька» is the affectionate diminutive of «яблоня» (apple tree); «дупло» is a hollow in a trunk. The 'little apple tree with the hollow' is the famous hiding place for the stolen money — the homely diminutive oddly intimate against the crime.
GrammarColloquial relative «что» for «который» «Яблоньке, что с дуплом» uses «что» as an indeclinable relative ('that has a hollow') in place of «которая» — a folk/colloquial relative common in Smerdyakov's speech and in spoken Russian generally.
GrammarPerfective sequence «обернул… заткнул» The wrapping is told in perfectives — «обернул» (wrapped), «заткнул» (stuffed in) — discrete completed acts. «В бумагу… в тряпку» are «в» + accusative of motion-into; «тряпочка» earlier is the diminutive of «тряпка» (rag).
170
And so it stayed there better than two weeks, that very sum, sir; only afterward, after the hospital, did I take it out.
Grammar«с лишком» + imperfective «оставалась» «С лишком» means 'and more, better than' (две недели с лишком — over two weeks). The imperfective «оставалась» frames the money's lying hidden as a continuous state over time, the durative reading the imperfective gives.
171
I went back to my own bed, lay down, and think to myself in dread: "Now, if Grigory Vasilyevich is killed outright, then that very thing may turn out very badly; but if he isn't killed and comes to, then it will turn out very well, because then he'll be the witness that Dmitri Fyodorovich came, and so it was he who killed and carried off the money, sir."
GrammarFolk «коли» + short passive «убит» «Коли» is the colloquial 'if'; «убит» is the short past passive participle ('killed'), a result-state predicate agreeing with «Григорий». The contrast «коли убит… а коли не убит» weighs the two outcomes of the night.
WordFolk «оченно» for «очень» «Оченно» is the substandard, rustic variant of «очень» ('very'). It rounds out the cluster of dialect markers — «сумление», «беспременно», «ажно» — that paint Smerdyakov's voice.
GrammarPredicative «худо»; perfective «произойти» «Худо» is a short/predicative neuter 'bad, ill' («худо может произойти» — 'it may turn out badly'), an older, folk-flavored word beside «плохо». «Произойти» is the perfective infinitive of a single eventuality.
172
Then, out of doubt and impatience, I began to groan, so as to wake Marfa Ignatyevna the sooner. At last she got up, started to rush over to me, but when she suddenly saw that Grigory Vasilyevich was gone, she ran out, and I hear her start to wail in the garden.
Grammar«начать» + imperfective infinitive «стонать» Phasal verbs like «начать» ('begin') require an imperfective infinitive — «стонать» (to groan) — since one begins an ongoing process. «От сумления и нетерпения» gives the cause in «от» + genitive ('out of doubt and impatience').
GrammarPurpose «чтобы» + perfective infinitive Here «чтобы» governs not a past form but the perfective infinitive «разбудить» ('to wake'), because the subject of purpose and main clause is the same — Smerdyakov. «Поскорей» is the comparative-adverb 'the sooner, quickly'.
GrammarInterrupted «было» + abrupt perfective «выбежала» «Бросилась было» again uses «было»: she started to rush to him but was diverted («да как увидала… выбежала») when she saw Grigory gone. «Как увидала» ('the moment she saw') with perfective «увидала» marks the sudden trigger.
173
Well, sir, then the whole thing got going and went on all night, and by then I was perfectly easy about everything.
GrammarInceptive «пошло» + emphatic «и» «Пошло» (perfective of «пойти») here means 'got going, set off' — the whole commotion 'started up and went on all night'. The emphatic «и» before it ('and so it all got going') is the lively connective of oral narration.
GrammarShort passive «успокоен» of settled state «Успокоен был» uses the short past passive participle «успокоен» ('was set at ease, calmed') with «был» — a periphrastic passive stating a resulting state. «Во всём» ('about everything') and «уж» convey that by then his anxiety had wholly passed.
174
The narrator stopped. The whole time Ivan had listened to him in deathly silence, not stirring, not taking his eyes off him.
GrammarNegated imperfective gerunds «не шевелясь… не спуская» Two imperfective present gerunds in -я describe Ivan's continuous manner of listening: «не шевелясь» ('not stirring') and «не спуская с него глаз» ('not taking his eyes off him', idiom «не спускать глаз»). Negated gerunds of attendant circumstance, sharing Ivan's subject.
Word«мертвенный» — deathly «Мертвенный» ('deathly, deathlike', from «мёртвый») describes the silence in which Ivan listens — a literary intensifier conveying the lifeless, frozen quality of his attention.
175
Smerdyakov, as he told it, glanced at him only now and then, but for the most part looked off to the side.
GrammarParticle «же» + gerund «рассказывая» «Же» here is a mild contrastive 'as for / meanwhile' (Smerdyakov, by contrast). «Рассказывая» is the imperfective present gerund ('as he told it'), marking the ongoing act against which his occasional glances «поглядывал» recur — the iterative imperfective.
Word«коситься» — to look askance «Косился» (imperfective «коситься», from «косой» 'slanted') means to glance sidelong, look askance. Smerdyakov's avoidance of Ivan's eyes — looking 'off to the side' — quietly signals his evasiveness and hidden purpose.
176
Having finished his account, he was visibly stirred himself and drew his breath heavily. Sweat had broken out on his face.
GrammarPerfective gerund «кончив» of prior action «Кончив» is the perfective past gerund of «кончить» ('having finished'), naming the completed act that precedes the main clause — he was stirred 'having finished his account'. The -в gerund marks anteriority, sharing the subject «он».
GrammarExistential word order «показался пот» The verb precedes the subject — «показался пот» ('sweat appeared') — the presentational order Russian uses to introduce new information (the new fact: sweat). «На лице его» (location) is topic, «пот» the comment. «Его» is the invariable third-person possessive.
177
It was impossible, however, to make out whether he felt remorse or anything of the kind.
GrammarImpersonal «нельзя было» + embedded «ли» «Нельзя было угадать» is an impersonal modal construction ('it was impossible to make out'), with no subject and a perfective infinitive. The dependent yes/no question «чувствует ли он раскаяние» uses «ли» for 'whether he felt remorse'.
178
— Wait, — Ivan put in, working it out. — And the door? If he opened the door only for you, then how could Grigory have seen it open before you did? For Grigory saw it before you, didn't he?
GrammarReal conditional + predicative participle «отворенною» A real (open) «если… то» conditional reasoning about facts. «Отворенною» is the past passive participle in the instrumental ('as opened'), the secondary predicate to «видеть… дверь» — 'see the door as open'. «Прежде тебя» = 'before you' (genitive after «прежде»).
GrammarElliptical question with topic «-то» «А дверь-то?» is a one-word challenge: «а» introduces the new objection, «дверь» is the topic, and «-то» foregrounds it pointedly — 'but what about the door?'. Ivan, «соображая» (working it out), seizes on the inconsistency.
179
It is remarkable that Ivan asked this in the most peaceable voice, in an altogether different tone, even, quite without malice, so that if someone had now opened the door to them and glanced in from the threshold, he would surely have concluded that the two were sitting there discussing peaceably some ordinary, if interesting, matter.
GrammarElaborate counterfactual with «кто-нибудь» The narrator builds a long past counterfactual: «если бы кто-нибудь отворил… взглянул… то заключил бы» ('had someone opened… and glanced… he would surely have concluded'). «Кто-нибудь» with «-нибудь» marks a non-specific 'anyone at all'; one «бы» governs the protasis, another the apodosis.
GrammarImperfectives «сидят… разговаривают» of a scene The reported impression runs in imperfective present — «сидят», «разговаривают» — painting an ongoing, peaceable scene ('sitting and conversing'). The imperfective is exactly right for this stative, durative picture of two men in calm talk.
Word«миролюбиво» — peaceably «Миролюбиво» ('peaceably, peaceably-mindedly', from «мир» peace + «любить» to love) heightens the narrator's irony: the two appear to discuss some 'ordinary, if interesting, matter' while confessing a parricide.
180
— As for that door, and Grigory Vasilyevich's supposedly having seen it standing open, it only seemed so to him, — Smerdyakov gave a twisted smile. — I'll tell you, the man's no man, sir, but for all the world like a stubborn gelding: he saw nothing, but it seemed to him that he saw, — and now there's no shaking him off it, sir.
GrammarImpersonal «почудилось» + dative «ему» «Почудилось ему» is an impersonal verb of seeming ('it only seemed so to him'), with the dative experiencer «ему» and no nominative subject — the very pattern Russian uses for impressions and sensations befalling a person.
Word«мерин» — a gelding (insult) A «мерин» is a gelded horse; «упрямый мерин» ('a stubborn gelding') is Smerdyakov's contemptuous figure for the obstinate old Grigory — 'no man… but for all the world like a stubborn gelding'. The barnyard simile drips with his disdain.
GrammarPerfective future «не собьёте» of impossibility «Не собьёте» is the perfective future of «сбить» ('you won't shake him off [it]'), the conjugated perfective expressing a flat impossibility — once Grigory believes it, nothing will dislodge him. «Уж… и» intensify; «-с» bows out.
181
It's our great good luck, yours and mine, that he dreamed it up, because after that they'll convict Dmitri Fyodorovich beyond all doubt.
Grammar«нам с вами» — 'to us, you and me' A characteristic Russian idiom: «нам с вами» literally pairs a dative plural «нам» ('to us') with «с вами» ('with you'), the inclusive way of saying 'you and I'. The dative is governed here by the experiencer-construction «счастье… выпало» — luck 'fell to' us.
Word«выпасть» of luck — 'to fall to one's lot' «выпало» (perfective of «выпадать») is the verb used for chance falling out a certain way — as luck, a lot, or snow does. «Счастье выпало» is 'good fortune befell us'; the word order, with «такое» trailing the noun, gives it a colloquial, marvelling lilt.
Word«вконец» + «уличить» — 'convict utterly' «Уличить» is to catch out, expose, or convict by proof; «вконец» ('completely, once and for all') intensifies it. The perfective future «уличат» ('they'll convict') projects a single decisive outcome — Smerdyakov coolly forecasting the trial's verdict on Dmitri.
182
— Listen, — Ivan Fyodorovich brought out, as if beginning to lose himself again and straining to grasp something, — listen… There was a great deal more I meant to ask you, but I've forgotten… I keep forgetting and getting confused… Yes! Tell me just this one thing: why did you tear open the packet and then leave it there on the floor? Why not simply carry it off in the packet… When you were telling it, it seemed to me you spoke of that packet as though that was exactly how it had to be done… but why it had to be so — I can't understand…
GrammarGerund «усиливаясь» — 'straining to' «Усиливаясь» is an imperfective present gerund («деепричастие») from «усиливаться», naming an action attendant on the main verb: Ivan speaks 'while straining' to grasp something. Such gerunds, sharing the main subject, are the connective tissue of Dostoevsky's narration of inner effort.
Grammar«всё» as 'keep on' + iterative imperfective Here «всё» is an adverb meaning 'continually, keep on', and the imperfective presents «забываю… путаюсь» render the repeated, ongoing state — 'I keep forgetting and getting confused'. The reflexive «-ся» on «путаюсь» gives the middle sense 'get tangled up'.
GrammarImperative «скажи» with intimate «ты» «Скажи» is the singular imperative of perfective «сказать», asking for one complete answer; the postposed pronoun «ты» and the particle «хоть» ('at least, just') press the appeal. Ivan addresses his half-brother's servant with the familiar «ты» throughout — a marker of their unequal, intimate, charged relationship.
Word«пакет» and «распечатать» — the sealed packet The «пакет» is the envelope of banknotes Fyodor Pavlovich had prepared for Grushenka; «распечатать» means specifically to break a seal open (печать = seal). The packet's torn seal is the physical hinge of the whole murder plot.
GrammarImpersonal «надо было» — 'one had to' «Надо было поступить» is a subjectless modal-necessity construction: «надо» ('it is necessary') plus the neuter past «было» and an infinitive, with no nominative subject. The intensifying «так и» ('exactly so') means 'that was precisely how it had to be done'.
183
— That I did for a certain reason, sir. For take a knowing, practiced man, like me, for instance, who had seen that money beforehand himself and maybe stuffed it into that packet with his own hands and watched with his own eyes as it was sealed and labeled — what earthly reason would such a man have, supposing he had done the killing, to start tearing open the packet then, after the murder, and in such a frantic rush at that, knowing perfectly well even without it that the money was bound to be in that packet, sir?
WordThe servile «-с» (slovoyers) The clitic «-с», appended all through Smerdyakov's speech («причине-с», «человек-с»), is the «словоер» — a contraction of «сударь» ('sir') once tacked on for deference. By Dostoevsky's day it already read as obsequious or ironic; in Smerdyakov's mouth it is a lackey's mock-humility laid over icy contempt.
Grammar«ибо» + «будь» — bookish concession 'for, were a man…' «Ибо» is an archaic, elevated 'for/because' (cf. plain «потому что»), and «будь» here is the bare imperative used hypothetically — 'were there a man', 'suppose a man'. The pairing lends Smerdyakov's reasoning a deliberately sententious, Scripture-flavoured cadence.
GrammarRelative «который» reaching back to «человек» The «который»-clause ('who had himself seen that money beforehand…') hangs off «человек», agreeing with it in masculine singular while taking nominative as the subject of its own clause. Such a long relative chain, stacked with «сам» and «собственными глазами», builds Smerdyakov's air-tight case.
GrammarConditional «бы» — 'what reason would he have to…' The hypothetical runs on the particle «бы» twice over: «с какой бы стати» ('for what conceivable reason') and «стал бы… распечатывать» ('would he set about opening'), a past-form-plus-«бы» conditional. The interposed «же» sharpens the rhetorical edge: 'what on earth would induce him?'
Word«зараньше» — colloquial 'beforehand' «Зараньше» is a folksy, substandard variant of «заранее» ('in advance'), part of the rustic, half-educated texture of Smerdyakov's diction. Note too «убивства» for «убийства» ('murder') and «беспременно» for «непременно» ('without fail') in the same sentence — all flagged-up popular forms.
Word«в попыхах» — 'in a frantic rush' «Попыхи» survives only in this fixed prepositional phrase, meaning a flustered hurry, all done in a fluster. Smerdyakov returns to it (s189) as the linchpin of his argument: no one improvises so cunning a scheme «в таких попыхах».
184
On the contrary, were it a thief, like me, for instance, he'd simply have shoved that packet into his pocket without opening it at all and made off with it as fast as he could, sir.
Grammar«будь… то… бы» — the hypothetical thief A second conditional built the same way: hypothetical imperative «будь» ('were it'), resumptive «то», and the «бы»-conditional «он бы… сунул… утек» ('he'd have shoved… and slipped off'). The perfectives «сунул» and «утек» frame the imagined act as swift and complete.
Word«утечь» — to 'slip away, make off' «Утек» (perfective «утечь», lit. 'to flow/leak away') is a colloquial, almost slangy 'made off, did a bunk', applied to a fleeing thief. «Поскорее» ('as fast as possible') is the comparative «скорее» softened by «по-» into 'a bit quicker / quick as he could'.
185
It was altogether otherwise with Dmitri Fyodorovich: he knew of the packet only by hearsay, he'd never seen it himself, and so, having got hold of it, supposedly from under the mattress, he tore it open then and there as fast as he could, to make sure whether that very money really was in it.
GrammarPlural «они» for one man — deferential 'they' Smerdyakov refers to Dmitri with plural verbs and pronouns («они… знали», «не видели», «достали»), the old servant's respectful 'they' for a single gentleman master. The mismatch of singular referent and plural grammar is itself a class signal woven through his speech.
Grammar«чтобы» of purpose + embedded «ли» question «Чтобы справиться» gives the purpose ('in order to check'), and the indirect yes/no question hangs on the enclitic «ли»: «есть ли в нём… деньги» ('whether the money was in it'). The fronted «есть» before «ли» is the standard way to question existence.
Word«понаслышке» — 'by hearsay' «Понаслышке» (from «наслышка», related to «слышать», to hear) means knowing of something only by report, never first-hand. It crisply marks the gap between Smerdyakov, who handled the packet, and Dmitri, who merely heard of it — the asymmetry on which the alibi turns.
Word«тюфяк» and the double preposition «из-под» «Тюфяк» is a coarse straw-stuffed mattress or pallet. «Из-под» is a compound preposition ('from under') that governs the genitive «тюфяка» — the money was fished out 'from under the pallet', the supposed hiding place in Dmitri's story.
186
And the packet he threw down right there, not yet stopping to consider that it would be left as evidence against him after he'd gone, because he's no practiced thief, sir, and had never before stolen anything openly, being a hereditary nobleman, sir; and if he had now resolved to steal, it was, so to speak, not as stealing, but only coming to take back his own property, since he'd announced as much beforehand to the whole town and even boasted in advance, out loud, before everyone, that he would go and take his own property from Fyodor Pavlovich.
GrammarPerfective gerund «не успев» — 'not having had time to' «Успев» is a perfective past gerund («деепричастие») from «успеть» ('to manage in time'); negated, «не успев рассудить» means 'without yet stopping to reason'. The perfective gerund marks an action prior to (here, failing to precede) the main verb «бросили».
GrammarInstrumental predicate «уликой» after «остаться» «Останется уликой» — 'will remain as evidence' — puts the predicate noun «улика» ('piece of evidence') in the instrumental, as «остаться», «стать», «быть» require. The instrumental frames it as a role the packet would come to play against him.
GrammarContrastive «а» — 'not X but Y' The correction «не украсть, а… взять обратно» ('not to steal, but to take back') turns on «а», the contrastive conjunction that pivots from a rejected idea to the substituted one. The reflexive possessive «свое собственное» ('his very own') underscores Dmitri's self-justification.
Word«похваляться» — to boast, brag «Похваляться» is an emphatic, slightly archaic 'to brag, give out boastfully' (a kindred of «хвалить», to praise). Dmitri had broadcast his intention «вслух пред всеми» ('out loud before everyone') — recklessness Smerdyakov turns into proof of his clumsy guilt.
187
I didn't put this very idea to the prosecutor outright at my examination, but, on the contrary, led him up to it as if by a hint, sir, as though I didn't understand it myself, and as though they had thought it up on their own and I hadn't prompted them, sir — so that the gentleman prosecutor fairly slavered over this very hint of mine, sir…
Grammar«не то что… а» — 'not so much… as' The frame «не то что X, а Y» concedes one description only to replace it with a sharper one: not that he 'said it plainly', but rather 'led him to it by a hint'. The contrastive «а» again does the pivoting, a hallmark of Smerdyakov's hedged, insinuating self-account.
GrammarFolk gerund «не понимаючи» «Понимаючи» is a colloquial, dialectal gerund (standard would be «понимая»), the «-учи/-ючи» ending marked as rustic and old-fashioned. Layered with «точно как бы» ('just as if'), it stages Smerdyakov's feigned innocence — pretending not to grasp his own cunning.
Word«слюнки потекли» — 'his mouth watered' A vivid idiom: «слюнки» is the diminutive of «слюна» (saliva), and «слюнки потекли» means someone's mouth watered with greed or relish. Smerdyakov pictures the prosecutor salivating over the bait — a grotesque image of officialdom hungry for a conviction.
188
— So is it possible, is it really possible that you thought all this out right then, on the spot? — exclaimed Ivan Fyodorovich, beside himself with astonishment. He was again staring at Smerdyakov in alarm.
GrammarParticle «неужели» — incredulous 'surely not?' «Неужели» introduces an astonished, disbelieving question — 'is it really possible that…?' Doubled here, it conveys Ivan's mounting horror; «так… же» and «и» («тогда же… и обдумал») pile on, stressing 'right then and there, on the spot'.
Word«вне себя» — 'beside oneself' «Вне себя» ('outside oneself') is the set phrase for being overcome by emotion; «от удивления» supplies the cause in the genitive ('with astonishment'). The idiom mirrors English 'beside himself' almost exactly.
189
— Mercy on us, can a man think all that up in such a frantic rush, sir? It had all been thought out beforehand.
Word«помилосердуйте» — 'have mercy / for pity's sake' A polite plural imperative from «помилосердовать» ('to take pity'), used as a soft exclamation of protest — 'good heavens, sir, come now'. It is old-fashioned and a touch unctuous, perfectly suited to Smerdyakov's deferential mask.
GrammarPeriphrastic passive «обдумано было» «Обдумано было» is the short-form past passive participle of «обдумать» joined to «было» — an impersonal periphrastic passive: 'it had all been thought out beforehand'. The neuter short form «обдумано» states the result; no agent is named, which is precisely the point — the plan stands complete, authorless.
190
— Well… well, then the devil himself must have been helping you! — Ivan Fyodorovich exclaimed again. — No, you are no fool, you're far cleverer than I thought…
GrammarDative «тебе» + intensifier «сам» «Тебе помогал» puts the one helped in the dative ('was helping you'), while «сам чёрт» ('the devil himself') uses the intensive pronoun «сам» to mean 'in person, no less'. The pairing flings a near-blasphemous awe at Smerdyakov's cunning.
GrammarComparative «умнее» — 'far cleverer than' «Умней» (variant of «умнее») is the predicative comparative of «умный», and «гораздо» ('much, far') boosts it; «чем я думал» supplies the standard of comparison. Note the colloquial clipped «-ей» for «-ее», common in speech and 19th-c. dialogue.
191
He stood up, plainly meaning to walk about the room. He was in terrible anguish.
GrammarInstrumental of accompaniment «с намерением» «С… намерением» ('with the intention') uses the preposition «с» plus the instrumental to express manner/attendant circumstance. «Пройтись», the reflexive of «пройти», means specifically 'to take a stroll, walk about a bit' — a self-directed, leisurely turn.
Word«тоска» — the untranslatable anguish «Тоска» names a heavy, yearning anguish — depression, dread, and longing fused — famously resistant to English. «В страшной тоске» ('in terrible anguish') is Dostoevsky's keynote for Ivan's state on the brink of his collapse.
192
But since the table blocked the way and one had almost to squeeze between the table and the wall, he merely turned on the spot and sat down again.
Grammar«так как… то» — causal 'since… (then)' «Так как» opens a causal subordinate clause ('since the table blocked the way…'), answered by the resumptive «то» before the main clause. The imperfective «загораживал» (background state) yields to the perfective «повернулся… и сел» (the resulting completed acts).
GrammarImpersonal «приходилось» — 'one had to' «Приходилось пролезать» is a subjectless construction ('it was necessary / one had to squeeze through'), the impersonal «приходиться» plus infinitive. There is no nominative subject; the imperfective «пролезать» depicts the awkward squeezing as a recurring necessity.
193
That he had not managed to take a turn about the room may suddenly have irritated him, so that, almost in his former frenzy, he abruptly burst out:
GrammarCorrelative «то, что…» as subject clause The sentence opens with a nominalised clause: «то, что он не успел пройтись» ('the fact that he hadn't managed to take a turn') serves as the subject of «раздражило его». The correlative «то» holds the subject slot while «что…» fills it out — bookish but very common.
Word«исступление» — frenzy; «завопить» — to wail out «Исступление» is a state of frenzy, ecstasy, or being beside oneself — a charged Dostoevskian word for soul on fire. «Завопил» (inceptive perfective of «вопить») marks the sudden onset of a wail or cry: he 'burst out howling'.
194
— Listen, you miserable, contemptible man! Don't you understand that if I haven't killed you yet, it is only because I'm saving you for your testimony tomorrow in court.
GrammarEmbedded «ты» in apostrophe — 'you wretched man!' Russian direct address often slots the pronoun «ты» between adjectives and noun: «презренный ты человек» = 'you contemptible man'. «Презренный», literally a past passive participle of «презреть» ('to despise'), works as an adjective, 'despised, contemptible'.
Grammar«если… то потому, что» — 'if…, it's only because' A conditional-causal frame: «если» opens the condition, «то потому только, что» gives the sole reason. The perfective past «не убил» ('have not killed') registers a completed (non-)act up to now, against the imperfective «берегу» ('I am keeping/saving you'), an ongoing intention.
195
God sees, — Ivan raised his hand on high, — perhaps I too was guilty, perhaps I really did harbor a secret wish that… my father would die, but, I swear to you, I was not so guilty as you think, and perhaps I did not urge you on at all. No, no, I did not urge you on!
Grammar«чтоб» + past-form irrealis — willed outcome «Чтоб» (clipped «чтобы») here introduces the content of a wish and so takes the irrealis past form «умер» ('that father should die'). This is the «чтобы»-construction's core logic: a willed or hoped-for state, not a stated fact, expressed by the past form after «чтобы».
GrammarShort adjective «виновен» + archaic «столь» «Виновен» is the short (predicative) form of «виновный» ('guilty'), its bookish, absolute flavour fitting a confession of guilt. «Столь» ('so, to such a degree') is the elevated, literary counterpart of everyday «так».
Word«подбивать» — to incite, egg on «Подбивать/подбить» literally 'to knock under', figuratively to put someone up to something, incite, instigate. Ivan's desperate «не подбивал тебя вовсе» ('I didn't put you up to it at all') is the crux of his self-exculpation over the murder.
196
But all the same, I'll testify against myself, tomorrow, in court, I've made up my mind! I'll tell everything, everything. But we'll appear together, you and I! And whatever you may say against me in court, whatever you may give in evidence — I accept it and am not afraid of you; I'll confirm it all myself! But you too must confess before the court! You must, you must, we'll go together! And so it shall be!
Grammar«что бы ни…» — concessive 'whatever you may say' The pattern «что бы ты ни + past-form verb» builds a concessive: 'whatever you may say / testify'. It fuses the irrealis «бы» with the intensifying negative «ни», yet means 'no matter what' — a positive sweep, not a negation. Repeated, it gives Ivan's vow its sweeping defiance.
GrammarPerfective futures of resolve A cascade of perfective futures — «покажу» ('I'll testify'), «скажу» ('I'll tell'), «явимся» ('we'll appear'), «подтвержу» ('I'll confirm') — each a single decisive act Ivan pledges. The reflexive «показать на себя» means 'to give evidence against oneself', and «сам» drives home 'I myself'.
GrammarArchaic «пред» for «перед» «Пред» is the elevated, Church-Slavonic-tinged short form of the preposition «перед» ('before'), governing the instrumental «судом». In «пред судом сознаться» ('to confess before the court') it lifts Ivan's demand into a solemn, almost liturgical register.
197
Ivan brought this out solemnly and forcefully, and it was plain from the very flash of his eyes that so it would be.
GrammarImpersonal «видно было» — 'it was plain that' «Видно было, что…» is a subjectless predicative ('it was evident that'), with «видно» (an invariable predicative) plus «было». The closing «так и будет» ('and so it would be / shall be') echoes Ivan's «Так и будет!» from s196 — narrator and character converging.
GrammarPresent active participle «сверкающий» — 'flashing' «Сверкающему» is a present active participle from «сверкать» ('to flash, sparkle'), declined to agree with «взгляду» in the dative governed by «по». «По одному… взгляду» means 'from his very glance alone', the participle compressing 'a glance that flashed' into one vivid modifier.
198
— You're ill, I see, sir, quite ill, sir. Your eyes have gone all yellow, sir, — said Smerdyakov, but quite without mockery, even as though with pity.
GrammarShort adjective «больны» fronted for emphasis «Больны» is the short predicative form of «больной» ('ill'), and its placement at the very head — before the subject «вы» — throws full weight onto the diagnosis: 'Ill you are, sir.' Short adjectives are the natural predicate here, conveying a present, manifest state.
Grammar«у вас» possession + fronted «жёлтые» Russian expresses 'your eyes' relationally: «у вас… глаза» ('with you there are eyes' = 'you have eyes'). Fronting the adjective «жёлтые» ('yellow') makes the colour the news of the sentence — Smerdyakov clinically noting Ivan's jaundiced, fevered look.
GrammarGerund «соболезнуя» — 'as if with pity' «Соболезнуя» is an imperfective present gerund from «соболезновать» ('to sympathise, condole'), naming the manner attending «произнёс»: he said it 'as though commiserating'. The rare verb lends the moment an oddly gentle, formal compassion.
199
— We'll go together! — Ivan repeated. — And if you won't go — it makes no difference, I'll confess alone.
GrammarConditional by juxtaposition — '(if) you won't go' Russian can state a condition with no «если», just the bare verb: «не пойдёшь» ('[if] you won't go') sets up «всё равно… сознаюсь» ('I'll confess all the same'). The contrastive «а» opens the clause, and both perfective futures point to settled, single outcomes.
200
Smerdyakov was silent a moment, as though pondering.
GrammarDelimitative «по-»: «помолчал» — 'was silent a while' The prefix «по-» on «молчать» yields «помолчать», a delimitative perfective meaning 'to keep silent for a (short) while'. It bounds the silence as a brief, complete episode — Smerdyakov pausing, then resuming.
GrammarGerund «вдумываясь» — 'as though pondering' «Вдумываясь» is an imperfective present gerund from «вдумываться» ('to ponder, think deeply into'), with the reflexive «-сь» marking the inward turn of thought. «Как бы» ('as if') flags the appearance, not certainty, of reflection.
201
— None of that will happen, sir, and you won't go, sir, — he decided at last, beyond appeal.
GrammarGenitive of negation «ничего этого не будет» Under the negated existential «не будет» ('there will not be'), the subject goes genitive: «ничего этого» ('none of this'). The pile-up «ничего… не» is negative concord — the «ни»-word and «не» together, one negation — flatly cancelling Ivan's whole plan.
Word«безапелляционно» — 'beyond appeal' A juridical adverb («без» + «апелляция», appeal): 'admitting no appeal, peremptorily'. Smerdyakov pronounces Ivan's future like a final verdict — a chilling irony, the servant playing judge over his master.
202
— You don't understand me! — Ivan exclaimed reproachfully.
GrammarFronted negation + inverted «ты» for emphasis Default order would be «Ты меня не понимаешь»; fronting the negated verb («Не понимаешь ты меня!») throws the stress onto Ivan's exasperation — 'You just don't understand me!' Word-order freedom turns syntax into emotional emphasis.
203
— Too ashamed you'll be, sir, if you confess to it all yourself. And what's more it'll be useless, quite useless, sir, for I'll just come right out and say that I never told you any such thing, sir, ever, and that you've either fallen into some illness (which is the look of it, sir), or have so pitied your dear brother that you've sacrificed yourself and made it up against me — seeing as how you reckoned me a mere gnat all your life, sir, not a man at all. Well, and who'll believe you, and what's even one shred of proof you have?
GrammarDative-subject «вам… стыдно будет» — 'you'll be ashamed' Shame is framed impersonally: the experiencer «вам» stands in the dative, the predicate is the invariable «стыдно», and «будет» casts it into the future — 'it'll be too shameful for you'. This dative-of-feeling is Dostoevsky's habitual way into a character's inner state.
GrammarParticle «ведь» — appeal to the obvious «Ведь» enlists shared knowledge — 'for, you see; after all'. In «потому я прямо ведь скажу» Smerdyakov leans on Ivan to grant the obvious: 'because I'll just up and say, you know…'. It is the connective glue of his persuasive, reasonable-sounding menace.
WordFolk «али», «уж», diminutive «братец» «Али» is a rustic, archaic «или» ('or'); «уж» an intensifying 'truly, indeed'; «братца» the affectionate-ironic diminutive of «брат» ('dear brother'). Stacked together they steep Smerdyakov's taunt in mock-peasant sing-song — he mimics sympathy while needling Ivan.
Word«за мошку считать» — 'reckon someone a gnat' «Мошка» is a midge or gnat; «считать за + accusative» means 'to take/reckon someone as'. Smerdyakov's bitter charge — that Ivan counted him «за мошку… а не за человека» ('a gnat, not a man') — voices the wound of being treated as nothing, the seed of his revenge.
204
— Listen, you've shown me this money now, of course, to convince me.
Grammar«чтобы» of purpose + infinitive Because the subject of the purpose is the same as the main clause's, «чтобы» here takes a bare infinitive: «чтобы меня убедить» ('in order to convince me'). This is the other face of «чтобы» — purpose with an infinitive, against the past-form irrealis used when subjects differ.
205
Smerdyakov took the Isaac the Syrian off the packets and laid it aside.
GrammarPaired perfectives narrating the act «Снял… отложил» ('took off… laid aside') are two perfective past verbs that advance the scene step by completed step — the perfective's narrative job of moving the story forward, event after event.
206
— Take this money away with you, sir, and carry it off, — Smerdyakov sighed.
GrammarPolite imperatives «возьмите… унесите» Both verbs are perfective plural/polite imperatives (the «-те» of «возьмите», «унесите»), asking for single completed acts: 'take and carry off'. «С собою» ('with you') uses the reflexive «себя» in its instrumental «собою» — back to the giver's own self.
207
— Of course I'll take it away! But why are you giving it to me, if it was for this that you killed? — Ivan looked at him in great astonishment.
GrammarParticle «же» + causal «из-за» «Почему же» sharpens the question — 'but why on earth'; «же» insists on the contradiction. «Из-за них» ('because of / for the sake of them') uses «из-за» + genitive to give the motive, throwing Smerdyakov's gift against his alleged motive for murder.
208
— I've no need of it at all, sir, — Smerdyakov brought out in a trembling voice, with a wave of his hand. — There was that earlier notion, sir, that with such money I'd begin a new life, in Moscow, or rather abroad — such was the dream, sir — and most of all because "everything is permitted." That you truly did teach me, sir, for you told me a great deal of this at the time: that if there is no infinite God, then there is no virtue at all, and indeed no need of it whatever. That was the truth from you. So that's how I reasoned it.
GrammarDative-subject «не надо мне их» — genitive of negation An impersonal 'I have no need of them at all': the experiencer «мне» is dative, «надо» the invariable predicate, and negation pulls the object to genitive «их» (gen.) reinforced by «вовсе» ('not in the least'). Three forces — dative subject, modal «надо», genitive of negation — in five words.
Word«пуще» — folksy 'more, rather' «Пуще» is a rustic, archaic comparative meaning 'more, all the more, rather' (cf. standard «больше»). «Пуще того» ('rather, even more so') and «пуще всего» ('most of all') recur through Smerdyakov's speech as a homely intensifier.
GrammarFolk «коли» + genitive of negation «бога нет» «Коли» is a colloquial, old-fashioned «если» ('if'). The clause «бога… нет» is the genitive of negation par excellence — the negated existential «нет» forces «бог» into genitive «бога» ('there is no God'); likewise «нет никакой добродетели». The doubled «ни» words keep negative concord.
209
— Reached it by your own wits? — Ivan gave a crooked smile.
Word«своим умом дойти» — 'figure out for oneself' The idiom «дойти своим умом» (lit. 'to arrive by one's own mind') means to reach a conclusion on one's own, unaided. «Своим» is the reflexive possessive — 'by his own wits'. Ivan's sarcastic question probes whether Smerdyakov truly reasoned this himself.
Word«усмехнуться» — to smirk, give a wry smile «Усмехнуться» (perfective) is a single, often ironic or bitter smile — a smirk or grin, distinct from open «улыбнуться». «Криво» ('crookedly') makes it a lopsided, mirthless twist of the mouth, recurrent in this charged scene.
210
— Under your guidance, sir.
GrammarInstrumental of means «вашим руководством» A bare instrumental answer: «вашим руководством» = 'by your guidance / under your direction', the instrumental marking the means by which Smerdyakov 'arrived'. The clipped, verbless reply — instrument alone — lands like a quiet thrust of accusation.
211
— And now, it seems, you've come to believe in God, since you're giving the money back?
Word«уверовать» — to come to believe (in God) «Уверовать» is the perfective of solemn, religious 'coming to belief, conversion' — stronger and more sacred than plain «поверить». «Уверовать в бога» ('to come to believe in God') and its negation «не уверовал» (s212) frame the spiritual question Ivan presses on the killer.
Word«стало быть» and «коли» — colloquial inference «Стало быть» is a conversational 'so then, it follows that', drawing an inference; «коли» again the folk 'if/since'. Together they give Ivan's question a needling, syllogistic turn: 'so you've found God, since you're handing the money back?'
212
— No, sir, I've not come to believe, sir, — Smerdyakov whispered.
Word«прошептать» — to whisper out «Прошептал» (perfective of «шептать» with «про-») marks a single whispered utterance — Smerdyakov's flat, near-silent denial «не уверовал-с». The shift to a whisper, against his earlier composure, registers the strain beneath the servility.
213
— Then why give it back?
GrammarImperfective present «отдаёшь» — the act in progress «Отдаёшь» is the imperfective present of «отдавать» ('to give back'), viewing the handing-over as an action unfolding now. The terse «Так зачем отдаёшь?» ('Then why are you giving it back?') drives at the contradiction Smerdyakov refuses to resolve.
214
— Enough… never mind, sir! — Smerdyakov waved his hand again. — Why, you yourself used to say it all then, that everything is permitted, so why are you so troubled now yourself, sir? You even want to go and testify against yourself… Only none of that will happen! You won't go and testify! — Smerdyakov decided again, firmly and with conviction.
Word«полноте» — 'enough! come now!' «Полноте» (a frozen plural imperative, lit. 'be full / have done') is an exclamation dismissing or remonstrating — 'enough now, never mind, come off it'. With «нечего» ('there's no point, nothing to it') Smerdyakov brushes the question aside.
GrammarEmphatic clitic «-то» — 'you of all people' The hyphenated «-то» on «теперь-то» and «сами-то» is the topic-emphasising clitic ('now of all times', 'you yourself, of all people'). It needles Ivan with his own inconsistency. «Встревожены» is the short passive participle of «встревожить» — 'are alarmed'.
215
— You'll see! — Ivan brought out.
GrammarPerfective future «увидишь» — 'you'll see!' A one-word perfective future from «увидеть»: «увидишь» = 'you will see (and know)'. The conjugated perfective carries the future entirely in its ending, a terse threat-promise from Ivan.
216
— It cannot be. You're very clever, sir. You love money, that I know, sir, and you love honor too, because you're very proud; you love women's beauty beyond measure, but most of all you love to live in calm contentment and to bow to no one — that most of all, sir.
GrammarGenitive «того» under impersonal «не может быть» «Не может того быть» ('that cannot be') is an impersonal negated existential; the subject «то» appears in the genitive «того», pulled there by the negation. The fixed phrase «(этого) не может быть» is the idiom of flat disbelief.
GrammarObject-first word order in a litany Each clause fronts the object — «Деньги любите», «почёт тоже любите», «прелесть женскую… любите» — making the catalogue of Ivan's loves the drumbeat topic, the verb «любите» trailing. The repeated object-first rhythm builds Smerdyakov's pitiless inventory of the man's soul.
Grammar«чтобы… не кланяться» + dative «никому» «Чтобы никому не кланяться» ('to bow to no one') pairs the purpose-infinitive «чтобы… кланяться» with negative concord: «никому… не» (no-one + не). «Кланяться» governs the dative of the person bowed to, here the all-negating «никому».
217
You won't want to ruin your life forever by taking on such shame in court. You're like Fyodor Pavlovich, most of all, sir; of all his children you came out the most like him, with one and the same soul as theirs, sir.
GrammarPerfective gerund «приняв» — 'by taking on' «Приняв» is a perfective past gerund from «принять», expressing the means/condition: you won't ruin your life 'by taking on such shame'. The gerund compresses a whole conditional clause — 'if/by accepting such disgrace' — into one word.
GrammarInstrumental of accompaniment «с… душой» «С одною с ними душой» ('of one and the same soul as theirs') uses «с» + instrumental «душой» for 'with one soul', plus «с ними» ('with them') to mean 'sharing their very soul'. The archaic instrumental ending «-ою» (for «-ой») on «одною» colours it as period-literary.
218
— You're no fool, — Ivan brought out, as though struck; the blood rushed to his face, — I used to think you were a fool. You're in earnest now! — he remarked, looking at Smerdyakov all at once in a new way.
GrammarPast passive participle «поражённый» + dative «ему» «Поражённый» is the past passive participle of «поразить» ('to strike, astound') — 'as if struck'. In «кровь ударила ему в лицо» the dative «ему» marks the affected person ('the blood rushed to his face'), the dative-of-experiencer reaching even into bodily reaction.
GrammarGerund «глядя» + adverb «по-новому» «Глядя» is the imperfective gerund of «глядеть» ('looking, gazing'), giving the manner of «заметил» — he remarked it 'while looking at Smerdyakov in a new way'. «По-новому» is the «по-…-ому» adverb pattern: 'in a new fashion'.
219
— It was out of your pride that you thought me a fool. Take the money, sir.
GrammarCausal «от гордости» — 'out of your pride' «От гордости вашей» ('out of your pride') uses «от» + genitive to give the cause of a feeling or act, fronted for weight. The omitted subject «вы» is recoverable from «думали» — a dropped pronoun, normal where the verb ending and context make the person plain.
GrammarImperative «примите» with «-то» and «-с» «Примите» is the polite imperative of «принять» ('take, accept'). Stacked on «деньги» are the topicalising clitic «-то» (the money, that is) and the servile «-с» — a single short command carrying both Smerdyakov's emphasis and his lackey's deference.
220
Ivan took all three packets of banknotes and thrust them into his pocket without wrapping them in anything.
GrammarNumeral «три» + genitive singular «пачки» After «три» the counted noun takes the genitive singular: «три пачки» ('three packets'). «Все три» frames the whole set, and «кредиток» (gen. pl. of «кредитка») hangs below as 'of banknotes'. A clean instance of numeral government.
Word«кредитка» — a credit-note (banknote) «Кредитка» (colloquial for «кредитный билет») is a Russian state credit-note, the paper money of the era. The three packets Ivan pockets are the three thousand roubles at the heart of the murder — now passed, unwrapped, into his hand.
221
— Tomorrow I'll show them in court, — he said.
GrammarPerfective future «покажу» fronted by «завтра» «Покажу» is the perfective future of «показать» ('I will show / produce'), its single completed sense fitting a courtroom act planned for tomorrow. Fronting «завтра» ('tomorrow') sets the time as the topic; the object «их» nestles before the verb, news last.
222
— No one there will believe you, sir, seeing as you've money enough of your own now anyway — took it from the strongbox and brought it along, sir.
Grammar«никто… не» + dative «вам» — negative concord «Никто… не поверит» ('no one will believe') is the obligatory negative concord — «ни»-pronoun and «не» together for one negation — and «поверить» governs the dative of the person believed («вам»). The perfective future «поверит» states the settled outcome.
Word«благо» and «шкатунка» «Благо» here is a colloquial causal conjunction, 'seeing as, since (luckily for the argument)'. «Шкатунка» is a substandard/dialect «шкатулка» — a small box or casket, here a strongbox; Smerdyakov insinuates Ivan simply fetched his own cash to fake the evidence.
223
Ivan rose from his seat.
GrammarPerfective «встал» — a single completed motion «Встал» (perfective past of «встать») reports one finished act — 'rose'. The terse narrative sentence relies on the perfective to move the scene a single step: Ivan is now on his feet, about to leave.
224
— I repeat to you, if I haven't killed you, it's solely because I need you for tomorrow; remember that, don't forget it!
Grammar«если… то… потому, что» + dative «мне нужен» The reason-frame returns: «если не убил… то… потому, что…». The predicate «ты мне нужен» ('you are needed by me / I need you') puts the needer in the dative «мне» and uses the short adjective «нужен» — Russian's standard way of saying 'I need'.
GrammarImperatives: perfective «помни» vs imperfective «не забывай» «Помни» (imperative of «помнить») holds a state — 'keep remembering'; the negated imperative goes naturally to the imperfective «не забывай» ('don't [ever] forget'), since prohibitions normally take the imperfective. The pairing is the standard aspect choice for command vs. ban.
225
— Well, go on, kill me, sir. Kill me now, — Smerdyakov suddenly brought out strangely, looking strangely at Ivan. — You won't dare even that, sir, — he added with a bitter smile, — you'll dare nothing, you that were once so bold a man, sir!
GrammarImperative «убейте» + particle «ж» «Убейте» is the polite imperative of «убить» ('kill [me]'), addressed even now with the deferential «вы»/«-с». The reduced «ж» (for «же») in «что ж» colours it with weary provocation — 'well, go on then, kill me, sir'.
GrammarGenitive of negation + concord with «посметь» «Не посмеете и этого» ('you won't dare even that') and «ничего не посмеете» ('you'll dare nothing') pull the object to genitive under negation («этого», «ничего») and keep «ни»-word + «не» concord. «И этого» ('even this') sharpens the taunt at Ivan's failed nerve.
Word«прежний» — 'former, once-bold' «Прежний» ('former, the one of before') in «прежний смелый человек» — 'you that were once a bold man' — twists the knife: Ivan's old daring is past tense. The bitter «горько усмехнувшись» (perfective gerund, 'having smirked bitterly') frames the gibe.
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— Until tomorrow! — Ivan cried, and made to go.
Grammar«двинулся идти» — set off to go «Двинулся» (perfective reflexive of «двинуть», 'set in motion') plus the infinitive «идти» (unidirectional motion verb) means 'made a move to go, started off'. The unidirectional «идти» fits a single departure underway, against multidirectional «ходить».
227
— Wait… show me them once more.
GrammarPolite imperatives «постойте… покажите» Two perfective polite imperatives: «постойте» ('wait, stop a moment', delimitative «по-») and «покажите» ('show'). «Покажите мне их» neatly stacks dative «мне» (to me) and accusative «их» (them) — the indirect and direct objects of 'show'.
228
Ivan took out the banknotes and showed them to him. Smerdyakov looked at them for some ten seconds.
GrammarApproximation by inversion: «секунд десять» Reversing numeral and noun — «секунд десять» instead of «десять секунд» — signals approximation: 'some ten seconds, about ten seconds'. The genitive plural «секунд» follows the numeral; the inversion alone carries the 'roughly'.
229
— Well, off you go, — he brought out, with a wave of his hand. — Ivan Fyodorovich! — he suddenly called after him again.
Grammar«ступайте» — archaic-folk 'be off, go' «Ступайте» is the polite imperative of «ступать» ('to step, go'), an old-fashioned, slightly peremptory 'go on, off you go'. Dismissive in tone, it suits Smerdyakov's final command over the man he has just unmasked.
Word«вслед» — 'after (a departing person)' «Вслед» (here with dative «ему») means 'after', calling out to someone's retreating back. «Крикнул ему вслед» — 'called after him' — catches Ivan already at the door, pulled back one last time.
230
— What do you want? — Ivan turned around, already on his way out.
GrammarGenitive «чего» in 'what do you want?' «Чего тебе?» is an elliptical, brusque 'what do you want?' — «чего» the genitive of «что», governed by an unspoken verb of wanting/needing, with dative «тебе» ('to you'). The clipped form is colloquial and a touch impatient.
Grammar«на ходу» — 'while moving, on the go' «Обернулся» (perfective reflexive, 'turned round') with «уже на ходу» ('already in motion / on his way') shows Ivan half-gone, pivoting back. «На ходу» is the fixed phrase for doing something while walking.
231
— Goodbye, sir!
Word«прощайте» — the weighty 'farewell' «Прощайте» (imperative of «прощать», lit. 'forgive [me]') is 'goodbye', but with a finality «до свидания» lacks — a parting that may be forever. Smerdyakov's «Прощайте-с» lands ominously: this is indeed his last farewell before his suicide.
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— Until tomorrow! — Ivan cried again, and went out of the hut.
GrammarPrefixed motion «вышел из» + genitive «Вышел» (perfective of «выйти», the prefixed motion verb 'to go out') takes «из» + genitive «избы» for motion out of an enclosed place — 'went out of the hut'. The prefix «вы-» supplies the direction (outward) and makes the verb a plain perfective.
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The snowstorm was still going on. The first few steps he walked briskly, but suddenly he seemed to stagger.
Word«метель» — the snowstorm «Метель» is a snowstorm or blizzard, wind-driven snow. Its recurrence here («всё ещё продолжалась» — 'was still going on', imperfective of duration) frames Ivan's walk in the same storm that opened the scene — Dostoevsky's outer weather mirroring inner turmoil.
GrammarInceptive «стал» + imperfective «шататься» «Стал шататься» ('began to stagger') uses «стать» as an inceptive auxiliary plus the imperfective infinitive «шататься» (reflexive 'to sway, totter'). «Как бы» ('as if') softens it to a seeming — he 'seemed to start swaying', the first sign of his coming fit.
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"This is something physical," — he thought, with a smile. A kind of joy, as it were, had now come down into his soul.
GrammarPerfective gerund «усмехнувшись» — 'with a smile' «Усмехнувшись» is a perfective past gerund of «усмехнуться», naming an act completed in the same moment as the main verb: he thought it 'having given a smile / with a smirk'. The perfective gerund here reads almost as 'and smiled'.
GrammarIndefinite «какая-то» — 'a kind of joy' «Какая-то» (indefinite «какой» + «-то») marks a specific but unnameable referent — 'some kind of joy', a feeling Ivan can't quite identify. «Словно» ('as it were') doubles the haziness; «сошла в душу» ('came down into the soul') lends it a quasi-religious descent.
235
He felt within himself a kind of boundless firmness: an end to the waverings that had so dreadfully tormented him all this last while!
GrammarPast active participle «мучившим» — 'that had tormented' «Мучившим» is a past active participle of «мучить» ('to torment'), declined in the dative plural to agree with «колебаниям» ('the waverings… that had so dreadfully tormented him'). The participle folds a whole который-clause into one bookish modifier; «столь» ('so') is the elevated intensifier.
Word«твёрдость» vs «колебания» — firmness vs wavering The sentence pivots on an antithesis: «твёрдость» ('firmness, resolve') against «колебания» ('waverings, vacillations'). «Конец колебаниям» ('an end to the waverings') uses the dative «колебаниям» governed by «конец» — Ivan feels his long indecision broken at last.
236
The decision had been taken, "and it will not change now," — he thought happily.
GrammarPeriphrastic passive «было взято» «Было взято» joins «быть» (past «было») to the short past passive participle «взято» (from «взять») for the impersonal passive 'the decision had been taken'. The neuter short form agrees with «решение»; no agent is named — the resolve stands as an accomplished result.
237
At that instant he suddenly stumbled over something and nearly fell.
GrammarIndefinite «что-то» + «споткнуться о/на» «Что-то» ('something' — specific but unknown, «что» + «-то») is what he trips over; «споткнуться» (perfective reflexive, 'to stumble') takes the object here with «на». «Чуть не упал» — 'all but fell' — uses «чуть не» for an action that nearly happened.
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Stopping, he made out at his feet the little peasant he had knocked down, still lying in the very same spot, senseless and motionless.
GrammarPerfective gerund «остановясь» — 'having stopped' «Остановясь» is a perfective past gerund of «остановиться» (the «-ясь» variant beside «остановившись»), marking the prior act: 'having stopped, he made out…'. The gerund cleanly sequences the two events while keeping one subject.
GrammarPast passive participle «поверженного» + agent «им» «Поверженного» is a past passive participle of «повергнуть» ('to throw down, lay low'), agreeing with «мужичонку» (acc.) and carrying its agent in the instrumental «им» ('knocked down by him'). This is the participial passive's signature: patient as participle, agent in the instrumental.
Word«мужичонка» — the pitiful little peasant «Мужичонка» is a doubly marked diminutive of «мужик» (peasant): the pejorative-pitying «-онк-» suffix paints him as a wretched, insignificant little fellow. Dostoevsky's word choice loads the drunk peasant Ivan had earlier knocked into the snow with contempt-tinged pathos.
GrammarPast active participle «лежавшего» — 'still lying' «Лежавшего» is an imperfective past active participle of «лежать», agreeing with «мужичонку» in the animate accusative: 'who was [still] lying'. Built from an imperfective stem, it gives the ongoing-past sense — the peasant lay there all the while, unmoved.
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The snowstorm had by now nearly buried his face.
GrammarDative «ему» of the affected part «Засыпала ему… лицо» — 'had buried his face' — uses the dative «ему» rather than a possessive for the body part affected ('the storm had covered the face on him'). This dative-of-the-possessor with body parts is idiomatic where English would say 'his face'.
240
Ivan suddenly seized hold of him and hoisted him onto his back.
GrammarReflexive «на себе» — 'onto/on himself' «Потащил на себе» ('hauled him on/upon himself') uses the reflexive pronoun «себя» in its prepositional «себе», pointing back to Ivan as the one bearing the burden. The paired perfectives «схватил… потащил» ('seized… dragged') drive the sudden, decisive rescue.
241
Catching sight of a light to his right, in a little house, he went up, knocked at the shutters, and asked the townsman who answered — the house was his — to help him drag the peasant to the police lockup, promising to pay him three rubles for it on the spot.
GrammarPerfective gerund «увидав» «Увидав» is a perfective past gerund of «увидеть» (to catch sight of), the older -в form (modern prose often prefers «увидев»). It names a single completed action prior to the main verb «подошёл» — 'having caught sight of…, he went up.'
GrammarPast active participle as modifier «Откликнувшегося» is a past active participle of «откликнуться» (to answer, respond), in the animate accusative agreeing with «мещанина» — literally 'the townsman who answered.' Such participles compress a «который»-clause into one bookish word, a hallmark of Dostoevsky's narration.
WordPejorative diminutive «домишко» «Домишко» is «дом» with the belittling suffix -ишк-: not a cosy 'little house' but a poor, mean one — a hovel. Dostoevsky reaches for this expressive shading to set the social scene in a word.
GrammarImperfective gerund «обещая» «Обещая» is an imperfective present gerund — 'promising,' an action simultaneous with «попросил». It shares the subject of the main clause (Ivan) and adds attendant circumstance, the natural Russian way to trail a second action off the main verb.
GrammarGenitive singular after «три» After 2, 3, 4 the counted noun takes the genitive singular: «три рубля», not «три рубли». Five and above would demand the genitive plural («пять рублей») — a rule that governs every sum of money in the novel.
242
The townsman got himself ready and came out.
GrammarReflexive «-ся»: 'got himself ready' «Собрался» (from «собраться») uses the clitic «-ся» in its middle, change-of-state sense — to pull oneself together, get ready to go out. The reflexive turns the transitive «собрать» (to gather) inward onto the subject.
GrammarTwo perfectives in sequence Both verbs are perfective («собраться», «выйти»), each a single completed act that advances the narrative one step at a time — got ready, then came out. This event-by-event chaining is the perfective's signature in storytelling.
243
I will not set down in detail how Ivan Fyodorovich managed at that point to gain his end and get the peasant settled at the station house, with the order that a doctor examine him at once — and here too he again handed out money with a liberal hand, "for expenses."
GrammarPerfective future «не стану … описывать» «Стану» is the perfective future of «стать», here serving as a future auxiliary: 'I will not [begin to] describe.' The narrator's first-person aside frames the next stretch as deliberately summarized.
GrammarDative experiencer with «удалось» «Удалось» is impersonal: the person who succeeds stands in the dative («Ивану Фёдоровичу»), with no nominative subject and the infinitive «достигнуть» supplying the deed — 'Ivan managed to attain.' This dative-experiencer frame pervades the novel's inner life.
GrammarPurpose clause «чтобы» «С тем чтобы» introduces a purpose clause: 'with the aim that…' The «чтобы» of purpose normally takes a past-form irrealis, but with a shared subject it takes the bare infinitive «учинить» — 'so as to have [the doctor] examine him.'
Word«Учинить» — bookish 'to carry out' «Учинить» (to carry out, effect, perpetrate) is a markedly formal, slightly bureaucratic-archaic verb — to 'institute' the doctor's examination. It belongs to the elevated, official register that colours 19th-century legal and narrative prose.
Word«Пристроить» — to get someone settled «Пристроить» means to place, lodge, or get someone fixed up somewhere — here, to deposit the peasant safely at the station house. The prefix «при-» carries the sense of attaching to a place.
WordArchaic instrumental ending «-ою» «Щедрою рукой» ('with a liberal hand') uses the older feminine instrumental ending «-ою» for modern «-ой» — a poetic, period flavour Dostoevsky favours in solemn or rhetorical phrasing.
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I will say only that the business took up nearly a whole hour. But Ivan Fyodorovich was left very well satisfied. His thoughts scattered wide and went to work.
GrammarPerfective «взяло» — the whole event «Взяло» (perfective «взять») views the business as a single bounded act with its result: it 'took up' a whole hour. The neuter «-ло» agrees with the neuter subject «дело», since the past tense agrees in gender, not person.
GrammarShort adjective «доволен» «Доволен» is the predicative short form of «довольный» (satisfied), used after «остался» — 'was left satisfied.' Short adjectives can only predicate and carry a bookish, state-asserting flavour very present in this prose.
GrammarImperfective past as process Both verbs are imperfective past, picturing ongoing mental activity rather than a finished event: his thoughts 'were scattering and working.' Imperfectives like these carry the standing, descriptive background against which the story's events occur.
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"Had my mind not been so firmly made up about tomorrow," he suddenly thought with relish, "I would not have stopped a whole hour to see to a little peasant, but would have passed him by and merely spat at the thought of his freezing to death…
GrammarCounterfactual «если бы … бы» This is a full irrealis conditional: «если бы» plus past-form verbs, then «бы» again in the main clause («то не остановился бы я»). It states a counterfactual about the unreal past — 'had my mind not been made up, I would not have stopped.'
GrammarPeriphrastic passive «было взято» «Было взято» is the short passive participle of «взять» plus «быть» — a stative passive, 'had [not] been taken/made.' Its predicative short form «взято» agrees in neuter with «решение», the standard way to state a result in the passive.
WordPejorative-affective «мужичонка» «Мужичонка» is «мужик» (peasant) with the contemptuous-pitying suffix -онк-: a wretched, insignificant little peasant. The diminutive registers exactly Ivan's mixture of disdain and grudging concern in this self-observing moment.
GrammarConditional «плюнул бы» + correlative «на то, что» «Плюнул бы» continues the irrealis chain (would have spat). «На то, что…» is a correlative: the demonstrative «то» governed by «на» points forward to the «что»-clause — '[spat] at the fact that he would freeze.'
246
Yet how I am able to observe myself," he thought in that same minute with still greater relish, "and they had decided over there that I was losing my mind!"
GrammarReflexive pronoun «за собой» «Собой» is the instrumental of the reflexive pronoun «себя», pointing back to the subject 'I' — 'to observe myself.' Unlike the verbal clitic «-ся», «себя/собой» is a full object pronoun and has no nominative form.
WordIdiom «в силах» — to be able «В силах» (literally 'in [one's] powers') is a fixed predicative idiom meaning 'able, capable of' — 'how I am able to observe myself.' It survives chiefly in this set phrase, often with a negative ('не в силах', powerless to).
GrammarEmphatic clitic «-то» and contrastive «а» Here «-то» is the emphasizing clitic, not the indefinite one: «они-то» throws weight on 'they, of all people.' Paired with the contrastive «а» it sets Ivan's lucidity against their verdict — 'and they, mind you, had decided…'
WordIdiom «сходить с ума» «Сходить с ума» (literally 'to go off one's mind') is the standard idiom for going mad — present-tense «схожу» here. The line is loaded: Ivan's incipient brain-fever and the looming hallucination make 'losing my mind' literally true.
247
Reaching his own house, he suddenly stopped, struck by an unexpected question: "Ought I not to go this very moment, right now, to the prosecutor and declare everything?"
GrammarPrefixed motion gerund «дойдя» «Дойдя» is the perfective past gerund of «дойти» (to reach on foot), a prefixed motion verb. The prefix «до-» adds 'as far as, all the way to,' and «до» then governs the genitive «своего дома» — 'having reached his own house.'
GrammarReflexive possessive «свой» «Своего» (from «свой», 'one's own') refers back to the clause's subject, Ivan, marking the house as his own. Using «его» instead would point to someone else's house — the choice is always meaningful in Russian.
Grammar«Надо» + dropped «ли» = a deliberating question «Надо» is the impersonal modal 'one must / ought,' and «ль» is the clipped interrogative particle «ли», forming a hesitant yes/no question — 'Ought I not to go…?' The colloquial elision «ль» fits the inner-speech rhythm.
248
He settled the question by turning back toward the house: "Tomorrow, all of it together!" he whispered to himself, and — strange to say — almost all his gladness, all his contentment with himself, drained away in an instant.
GrammarObject-first word order The object «вопрос» stands first, before the subject «он» and verb «решил» — a topic-comment fronting that makes 'the question' the given theme and throws the weight onto how he settled it. Free word order lets Russian foreground like this.
GrammarGerund «поворотив» (archaic for «повернув») «Поворотив» is a perfective past gerund — 'having turned back.' The form «поворотить» is the older, folksier variant of modern «повернуть», lending a period colouring; «к дому» is dative governed by «к».
WordIdiom «про себя» — to oneself «Прошептал про себя» means 'whispered to himself' (inwardly). «Про себя» is a fixed idiom for silent, inward speech or thought — distinct from «про себя» meaning 'about oneself.'
GrammarPlural verb with compound subject «Прошли» takes the plural because the subject is compound — «радость» and «довольство» together. The perfective «пройти» here means 'passed away, drained off,' viewing the loss of feeling as one completed turn.
249
And when he stepped into his room, something icy suddenly touched his heart, like a recollection — or rather a reminder — of something tormenting and loathsome that was present in this very room now, at this moment, and had been here before as well.
GrammarParticle «же» softening «когда» The «же» after «когда» is a light connective/emphatic particle, here marking a turn in the narration ('and when…') rather than insisting. Such modal particles give Dostoevsky's prose its conversational texture, barely translatable into English.
GrammarIndefinite «что-то» as eerie subject «Что-то» ('something') with the clitic «-то» marks a specific-but-unidentified thing — the menace Ivan cannot yet name. «Прикоснуться» is reflexive and governs «к» + dative («к сердцу»): something icy 'touched at' his heart.
GrammarParticiple chain modifying «о чём-то» Two participles modify «о чём-то»: the present active «находящемся» (being present) and the past active «бывшем» (having been). Stacked in the prepositional case, they pack a whole double relative clause — 'present now… and having been here before' — into the noun phrase, a bookish density typical of the author.
Word«Мучительный», «отвратительный» — tormenting, loathsome «Мучительный» (from «мука», torment) and «отвратительный» (revolting, loathsome) are charged adjectives that name the moral-physical disgust Ivan feels. The pairing prefigures the visitor he is about to 'see' in the room.
250
Wearily he sank onto his sofa. The old woman brought him a samovar; he brewed his tea but did not touch it; he sent the old woman away until tomorrow.
GrammarReflexive «опустился» — sank down «Опустился» (from «опуститься») is reflexive: the «-ся» makes it intransitive, 'lowered himself, sank.' «На свой диван» uses motion-accusative after «на» and the reflexive possessive «свой» — onto his own sofa.
Grammar«Прикоснуться» governs «к» + dative «Прикоснуться» (to touch) takes its object with «к» plus the dative, not a direct accusative — «к нему», 'touched [at] it.' The third-person pronoun adds the «н-» prefix obligatory after a preposition.
GrammarObject-fronting «старуху отослал» The object «старуху» precedes its verb «отослал», keeping the old woman as the given topic from the previous clause while the new information is what he did with her. Russian's case-marking frees this rearrangement for emphasis.
251
He sat on the sofa and felt his head swimming. He felt that he was ill and powerless.
GrammarImperfective «чувствовал» + reported state The repeated imperfective «чувствовал» renders an ongoing inner state, and «что болен и бессилен» is a reported «что»-clause. Both predicate adjectives are short forms («болен», «бессилен») — bookish, predicative-only, asserting a present condition.
Word«Головокружение» — dizziness A transparent compound, 'head-spinning' («голова» + «кружение»), for dizziness or vertigo. Together with «болен» and «бессилен» it tracks the onset of the brain-fever («горячка») that will grip Ivan.
252
He had begun to drop off to sleep, but in his uneasiness he rose and paced about the room to drive off his drowsiness.
GrammarThe particle «было» of the abandoned action «Было» here is not the verb 'was' but the special particle marking an action begun and then broken off: «стал было засыпать» = 'had started to fall asleep [but didn't].' It signals an intention interrupted, exactly captured by the following «но… встал».
GrammarPurpose «чтобы» + infinitive «Чтобы прогнать сон» is a purpose clause — 'in order to drive off sleep.' With one and the same subject, «чтобы» takes the bare infinitive «прогнать» (perfective: drive off completely) rather than a past-form verb.
GrammarReflexive «пройтись» — to take a turn «Прошёлся» (reflexive «пройтись») means to walk about a bit, take a turn — the «-ся» gives the strolling, aimless sense distinct from plain «пройти». «По комнате» uses «по» + dative for movement around an area.
253
At moments it seemed to him as though he were delirious. But it was not his illness that occupied him most of all; sitting down again, he began now and then to glance about him, as if peering after something.
GrammarImpersonal «мерещилось ему» «Мерещилось» is impersonal: the experiencer stands in the dative («ему») with no nominative subject — 'it seemed to him.' The verb means specifically to imagine or hallucinate something not really there, priming the chapter's central apparition.
GrammarNegation fronting the subject «Не болезнь занимала…» negates the subject itself ('it was not his illness that…'), placing the new contrast first. The imperfective «занимала» renders a continuing state of preoccupation; «всего более» is a fixed superlative phrase, 'most of all.'
GrammarPerfective gerund «усевшись» «Усевшись» is the perfective past gerund of the reflexive «усесться» (to settle oneself down) — 'having sat down again.' It marks a completed prior act framing the main «начал оглядываться».
GrammarImperfective gerund «высматривая» «Высматривая» is an imperfective present gerund — 'as if peering after something,' an action simultaneous with «начал оглядываться». «Как будто» ('as if') frames it as the narrator's tentative interpretation of Ivan's restless glancing.
254
This happened several times. At last his gaze fixed itself intently upon a single point.
GrammarImpersonal «так было» «Так было» is a terse impersonal summary — 'so it was [several times].' The neuter «было» has no subject; it simply states that the foregoing pattern recurred, a clipped narrative rhythm before the sentence that fixes Ivan's gaze.
GrammarReflexive «направился» + possessive postposed «Направился» (reflexive «направиться») is intransitive — his gaze 'directed itself.' Postposing the possessive in «взгляд его» (rather than «его взгляд») is a bookish, slightly elevated word order common in this prose.
255
Ivan smiled, but a flush of anger flooded his face.
GrammarReflexive «усмехнуться» — to smirk «Усмехнулся» (reflexive «усмехнуться») is a perfective single act: a wry, knowing smile or smirk, distinct from open «улыбнуться». The «-ся» is lexicalized here — the verb exists only in the reflexive.
Word«Краска» — a flush of colour «Краска» normally means 'paint/dye,' but in «краска гнева» it is the flush, the rush of colour to the face — 'a flush of anger flooded his face.' «Залила» (perfective «залить», to flood over) makes the blush a sudden inundation.
256
For a long while he sat in his place, propping his head hard with both hands and still squinting his eyes toward that former point — toward the sofa standing against the opposite wall.
GrammarPerfective gerund «подперев» «Подперев» is a perfective past gerund (to prop up) describing the posture Ivan has taken — 'having propped his head.' «Обеими руками» is instrumental of means, the hands as instrument of propping.
GrammarImperfective gerund «кося» «Кося» is the imperfective present gerund of «косить» (here, to cast a sidelong/squinting glance) — a simultaneous, continuing action: 'still squinting his eyes.' «Глазами» is instrumental, the means of the squint.
GrammarPast active participle «стоявший» «Стоявший» is a past active participle of «стоять» (imperfective: standing), agreeing with «диван» in the motion-accusative after «на» — 'the sofa that was standing against the opposite wall.' The participle folds a «который»-clause into the noun phrase.
257
Something there was plainly irritating him — some object — disturbing him, tormenting him.
GrammarObject-first frame «его … что-то раздражало» The accusative object «его» (him) stands first, ahead of the new, eerily vague subject «что-то» — 'something there was plainly irritating him.' Fronting the known experiencer and trailing the unnamed cause heightens the menace.
GrammarThree imperfectives of ongoing torment The triad «раздражало, беспокоило, мучило» is all imperfective past, each verb a continuing action — irritating, disturbing, tormenting. The asyndetic piling intensifies the sense of a steady, nameless distress working on Ivan.
Word«Какой-то предмет» — some object «Какой-то» ('some kind of, a certain') with «предмет» (object, thing) keeps the irritant deliberately indefinite. The reader, like Ivan, is being held just short of seeing what waits on the sofa — the devil of the next chapter.

The particulars

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