# The Brothers Karamazov, The Confession of a Passionate Heart- In Anecdote

Братья Карамазовы · Fyodor Dostoevsky · Book III — The Sensualists

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/karamazov/b3-c4. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/karamazov/b3-c4.json.


Я там кутил.  
I caroused there.
> «кутить» — to carouse: «Кутить» means to go on a spree — to drink, revel, and spend money recklessly, the very signature of a Karamazov debauch. The imperfective past «кутил» views it as a habitual, ongoing way of life there, not a single binge.
> Imperfective past for habit: The -л ending agrees in gender (masculine, «я» Dmitri) rather than person, the relic of an old participle. Its imperfective aspect frames the carousing as a recurring background state, not one finished event.

Давеча отец говорил, что я по нескольку тысяч платил за обольщение девиц.  
Just now Father was saying that I paid several thousand each to seduce young girls.
> «давеча» — a while ago: «Давеча» is a colloquial, folksy adverb meaning 'a little while ago, just now, earlier today.' It sounds homely and slightly old-fashioned, exactly suiting Dmitri's heated, unbuttoned speech.
> Distributive «по»: «По» with a quantity expresses distribution — 'several thousand apiece, each time.' Here «по нескольку тысяч платил» means he supposedly paid thousands per girl, a recurring sum, reinforced by the imperfective «платил».
> «обольщение девиц» — seduction of maidens: «Обольщение» is bookish, elevated 'seduction, beguilement'; «девица» is an archaic, slightly solemn word for an unmarried girl/maiden. The genitive «девиц» ('of maidens') depends on «обольщение» — a lofty noun phrase that mocks the father's florid accusation.

Это свинский фантом, и никогда того не бывало, а что было, то собственно на «это» денег не требовало.  
That is a swinish phantom, and it never happened at all; and what did happen never needed money for "это" — for “that.”
> «свинский фантом» — a swinish phantom: «Свинский» ('piggish, swinish') is a coarse pejorative adjective from «свинья» (pig), here yoked to the learned loanword «фантом» (phantom) — a typically Dostoevskian collision of gutter and bookish registers in one breath.
> Negative concord with «никогда … не»: Russian piles up its negatives: «никогда» (never) still requires «не» on the verb. «Бывало» is the iterative-frequentative of «быть» ('used to happen'), so the whole reads 'it never used to happen at all.'
> Genitive of negation: «денег»: Under negation the object of «требовать» (to require) shifts from accusative to genitive: «денег» (gen.) not «деньги». 'What happened did not require money' — the genitive is the regular signal of a negated, non-specific object.
> Correlative «что … то»: The bookish correlative pairs the relative «что» ('that which') with the demonstrative «то' that picks it up in the main clause: 'and as for what happened, that…'. It is a hallmark of literary, period-elevated syntax.

У меня деньги — аксессуар, жар души, обстановка.  
With me money is an accessory, a fever of the soul, a setting.
> «у меня» possessive + zero copula: «У меня» (lit. 'at me', genitive after «у») is Russia's normal way to say 'I have'. The dash after «деньги» stands in for the dropped present-tense 'to be': 'money [is] an accessory' — three nominative predicates strung after the missing verb.
> «жар души» — a fever of the soul: «Жар» is heat, fever, ardour; «жар души» ('the soul's heat') is exactly Dmitri's romantic self-image — money not as wealth but as the fuel of passion. «Обстановка» that follows means the 'setting, surroundings, trappings' of a scene.

Ныне вот она моя дама, завтра на ее месте уличная девчоночка.  
Today she is my fine lady; tomorrow a streetwalking little wench takes her place.
> «ныне» — today, nowadays: «Ныне» is an elevated, archaic-flavoured 'now/today', set in deliberate antithesis to plain «завтра» (tomorrow). The high word for 'today' lends his boast a mock-solemn, almost liturgical swing.
> Double diminutive «девчоночка»: «Девчоночка» heaps diminutive on diminutive (девка → девчонка → девчоночка) — a streetwalking 'little wench'. The suffix here is dismissive and pitying at once, the affectionate-contemptuous tone Dmitri uses for the women he ruins.
> Word order: comment fronting: Russian's free word order lets him front the adverbials «Ныне» and «завтра на её месте» for rhetorical antithesis, leaving the new information at the rhythmic close. Cases keep the sense clear however the words are arranged.

И ту и другую веселю, деньги бросаю пригоршнями, музыка, гам, цыганки.  
I amuse both the one and the other, I fling money about by the fistful — music, uproar, gypsy girls.
> Accusative objects «ту … другую»: «И ту и другую» ('both the one and the other') are accusative feminine objects of «веселю» (I amuse), the demonstrative «та» and «другая» declined together. The verb is present imperfective — his habitual practice.
> «пригоршнями» — by the fistful: «Пригоршня» is a handful/cupped-hands measure; the instrumental plural «пригоршнями' means 'by the handful, in fistfuls'. The case here carries a manner sense — how the money is flung.

Коли надо, и ей даю, потому что берут, берут с азартом, в этом надо признаться, и довольны, и благодарны.  
And if need be I give to her too, because they take it — they take it greedily, that has to be admitted — and they are content, and they are grateful.
> «коли» — folksy 'if': «Коли» is a colloquial, rustic equivalent of «если» ('if, when'). Dmitri's speech is shot through with such peasant-flavoured words, marking his deliberately earthy, unbuttoned manner.
> «с азартом» — with greedy zeal: «Азарт» is heated, gambling passion — fervour bordering on frenzy. «Брать с азартом» means to seize on something avidly, with a gambler's hunger; the instrumental «с азартом» states the manner of taking.
> Indefinite 3rd-person plural «берут»: «Берут» ('they take') has no stated subject — an indefinite 'they/people', a very common Russian way to generalise about unnamed agents. The doubling «берут, берут» is emphatic insistence, typical of Dmitri's breathless rhythm.

Барыньки меня любили, не все, а случалось, случалось; но я всегда переулочки любил, глухие и темные закоулочки, за площадью, — там приключения, там неожиданности, там самородки в грязи.  
Fine ladies loved me — not all of them, but it happened, it happened; only I always loved the back alleys, the blind, dark little byways behind the square — there lie adventures, there lie the unexpected, there lie the nuggets of gold in the mire.
> «барынька» — a fine little lady: «Барынька» is the diminutive of «барыня» (a lady, a gentlewoman, mistress of serfs). The suffix half-endears, half-condescends — these are the genteel ladies of his world, viewed with fond mockery.
> Diminutive 'little byways': «Переулочки» (little side-streets) and «закоулочки» (little back-alleys, blind nooks) are diminutives of «переулок» and «закоулок». The cooing suffixes lend a tender, intimate relish to the seedy places he loves — soon turned allegorical.
> Impersonal «случалось»: «Случалось» ('it happened') is a subjectless, neuter impersonal verb — there is no nominative actor, just the bare 'it used to happen.' The imperfective doubling stresses an intermittent, recurring fact.
> Anaphoric «там» with zero copula: Three verbless clauses, each opening with «там» ('there [are]…'), build an incantatory triad. The present 'to be' is simply absent, and the threefold «там» drives the rhetorical rhythm.
> «самородок» — a nugget of native gold: «Самородок» is a raw nugget of native metal (and, figuratively, an untutored natural genius). «Самородки в грязи» — gold nuggets in the mire — is Dmitri's image for unspoiled beauty found in low places, the romantic core of his confession.

Я, брат, аллегорически говорю.  
I am speaking allegorically, brother.
> «брат» as direct address: Throughout the monologue Dmitri calls Alyosha «брат» — both literally 'brother' and as a warm, buttonholing term of address ('old chap, my friend'). It is the intimate register in which the whole confession is pitched.

У нас в городишке таких переулков вещественных не было, но нравственные были.  
In our little town there were no such alleys in the literal sense, but there were moral ones.
> Pejorative «городишко»: «Городишко» is «город» (town) with the belittling suffix -ишк-: a wretched, paltry little town. The suffix conveys contempt rather than mere smallness — exactly Dmitri's view of the provincial backwater of his garrison days.
> Genitive subject of «не было»: The negated existential «не было» ('there were not') forces its subject into the genitive: «таких переулков вещественных не было». The neuter singular «было» stays invariant — the absent thing cannot be the grammatical nominative subject.
> «вещественный» vs «нравственный»: He opposes «вещественный» (material, physical, literal) to «нравственный» (moral). The pivot from physical alleys to 'moral' ones is the allegory he just announced — the corruption is inward, not on any map.

Но если бы ты был то, что я, ты понял бы, что эти значат.  
But if you were what I am, you would understand what these mean.
> Counterfactual with «бы»: A textbook contrary-to-fact conditional: «если бы» + past «был» in the if-clause, past «понял» + «бы» in the main clause — 'if you were…, you would understand…'. The particle «бы» makes both verbs irrealis.
> Correlative «то, что» — 'what': «То, что я» means 'that which I [am]', the demonstrative «то» plus relative «что» functioning together as 'what'. The copula is dropped, so it reads literally 'that which I'.

Любил разврат, любил и срам разврата.  
I loved debauchery; I loved the shame of debauchery too.
> Dropped pronoun + topic-fronted verb: The subject «я» is omitted — the past «любил» already signals masculine singular. Beginning successive clauses with the bare verb «Любил» gives a hammering, confessional anaphora; the «и» means 'also' ('loved the shame too').
> «срам» — shame, disgrace: «Срам» is a strong, old word for shame/disgrace (also coarsely for the genitals). «Срам разврата» — 'the shame of debauchery' — captures the perverse twist that Dmitri loved not just the vice but its very shamefulness.

Любил жестокость: разве я не клоп, не злое насекомое?  
I loved cruelty: am I not a bedbug, a malicious insect?
> Rhetorical «разве … не»: «Разве» introduces an incredulous rhetorical question expecting agreement: 'am I not, after all…?'. Combined with negated predicate nouns «не клоп, не насекомое» it presses Alyosha to concede the self-accusation.
> «клоп» — the bedbug self-image: «Клоп» (bedbug) and «насекомое» (insect) become Dmitri's recurring emblem for the lustful, parasitic 'insect' inside him — an image he returns to across this chapter and that echoes the Karamazov 'voluptuousness' («сладострастие»).

Сказано — Карамазов!  
It is said and done — a Karamazov!
> Short passive participle «сказано»: «Сказано» is the short (predicative) neuter past passive participle of «сказать» — 'it is said / it has been said', used impersonally. The clipped, verbless punch 'Said — a Karamazov!' lands like a verdict on the family nature.

Раз пикник всем городом был, поехали на семи тройках; в темноте, зимой, в санях, стал я жать одну соседскую девичью ручку и принудил к поцелуям эту девочку, дочку чиновника, бедную, милую, кроткую, безответную.  
Once the whole town went on a picnic, we drove out in seven troikas; in the dark, in winter, in the sleigh, I began to press a certain neighbor girl's young hand and forced this little girl to kiss me — a clerk's daughter, poor, sweet, meek, defenseless.
> Numeral «семи» + genitive plural: After numerals five and above the counted noun stands in the genitive plural: «семь троек». Here the preposition «на» pulls the whole phrase into the prepositional, so «семи тройках» — the numeral and noun re-decline together.
> Tender diminutive «ручка»: «Ручка» is the diminutive of «рука» (hand) — a 'little hand', here a girl's. The caressing suffix, paired with «девичью» (maidenly), softens and sentimentalises the predatory act he is describing.
> «кроткая, безответная» — meek and defenceless: «Кроткий» (meek, gentle) and «безответный» (uncomplaining, unable to answer back, defenceless) are key Dostoevskian moral words. They mark the girl as one of the suffering, submissive innocents the novel sets against Karamazov violence.

Позволила, многое позволила в темноте.  
She allowed it, allowed a great deal in the dark.
> Subjectless feminine past «позволила»: The pronoun «она» is dropped; the feminine -ла ending alone tells us the girl is the subject. The emphatic repetition «Позволила, многое позволила» ('allowed, allowed a great deal') is Dmitri's insistent, self-incriminating cadence.

Думала, бедняжка, что я завтра за ней приеду и предложение сделаю (меня ведь, главное, за жениха ценили); а я с ней после того ни слова, пять месяцев ни полслова.  
She thought, poor thing, that the next day I would come for her and make my proposal (for above all I was prized as a bridegroom); yet after that I never said a word to her, not half a word for five months.
> «бедняжка» — poor little thing: «Бедняжка» is a pitying diminutive, 'poor little thing/dear', from «бедный» (poor). It drips with the sentimental compassion Dmitri feels even as he recounts wronging her.
> Perfective future inside reported thought: «Приеду» (will come, prefixed perfective of motion) and «сделаю» (will make) are perfective verbs conjugated like a present but meaning a single completed future act — 'I would come and make a proposal', as she imagined it.
> Particle «ведь» + indefinite «ценили»: «Ведь» appeals to shared understanding — 'for, you see, after all'. The subjectless plural «ценили» ('they prized') again generalises about the townsfolk, and «за жениха» ('as a bridegroom') uses «за» + accusative for 'in the capacity of'.
> Emphatic «ни … ни»: «Ни слова, ни полслова» ('not a word, not half a word') uses «ни» to intensify the negation begun by «не» in «ни слова не [сказал]». «Полслова' (half a word) caps the escalation — the genitive after «ни» marks the utterly absent object.

Видел, как следили за мной из угла залы, когда, бывало, танцуют (а у нас то и дело что танцуют), ее глазки, видел, как горели огоньком — огоньком кроткого негодования.  
I saw how her eyes used to follow me from the corner of the hall whenever there was dancing (and at our place there was dancing all the time) — I saw how they burned with a little flame, the little flame of meek indignation.
> «следить за» + instrumental: «Следить за» ('to watch, keep one's eyes on') governs the instrumental: «за мной» (after me, with the instrumental of «я»). The verb is imperfective, and «бывало» reinforces the habitual sense — her eyes used to follow him.
> Diminutives «глазки», «огонёк»: «Глазки» (little eyes) and «огонёк» (a little flame, the diminutive of «огонь») soften and intensify at once. The repeated «огоньком — огоньком кроткого негодования» turns the diminutive into a lyrical refrain.
> «бывало» as habitual marker: «Бывало» ('it used to be, would happen'), set off by commas, is an adverbial frequentative that turns the present «танцуют» into a recollected habit — 'whenever there used to be dancing'. A common device for nostalgic narration.

Забавляла эта игра только мое сладострастие насекомого, которое я в себе кормил.  
That game only tickled the insect's voluptuousness in me, the one I was feeding in myself.
> Relative «которое» + reflexive «в себе»: «Которое» (neuter, agreeing with «сладострастие») heads a relative clause but takes accusative as the object of «кормил» (I fed). «В себе» ('in myself') uses the reflexive pronoun «себя» referring back to the subject «я».
> «сладострастие» — voluptuousness: «Сладострастие» (lit. 'sweet-passion') is bookish 'voluptuousness, sensuality' — one of the novel's master-words for the carnal Karamazov drive. He calls it 'the insect's voluptuousness', the appetite he deliberately «кормил» (fed) in himself.

Чрез пять месяцев она за чиновника вышла и уехала… сердясь и всё еще любя, может быть.  
Five months later she married the clerk and went away… still angry, and perhaps still loving.
> «чрез» — archaic «через»: «Чрез» is the contracted, bookish/Church-Slavonic form of «через» ('after, across, through'), here 'after five months'. The full-vowel/short doublet is a period-elevated touch typical of the novel's prose.
> «выйти за» — to marry (of a woman): «Выйти замуж за» + accusative is the idiom for a woman marrying someone: «за чиновника вышла» — 'she married the clerk'. «Вышла» is the perfective of motion («выйти»), and «уехала» that follows is likewise perfective — two completed events.
> Imperfective gerunds «сердясь … любя»: «Сердясь» (being angry) and «любя» (loving) are present (imperfective) деепричастия in -я — adverbial participles giving the attendant circumstance of «уехала»: 'she went away [while] still angry and still loving'. They share the main subject, the girl.

Теперь они счастливо живут.  
Now they live happily.
> Present imperfective «живут»: «Живут» ('they live') is the 3rd-person plural present of imperfective «жить» — a present state, here a bare, almost rueful coda. The adverb «счастливо» (happily) does the emotional work.

Заметь, что я никому не сказал, не ославил; я хоть и низок желаниями и низость люблю, но я не бесчестен.  
Note that I told no one, that I did not disgrace her; for though I am base in my desires and love baseness, I am not dishonorable.
> Imperative «заметь»: «Заметь» is the singular imperative of perfective «заметить» (to note, notice) — 'mark this'. Built on the present/future stem with the soft sign, it is the familiar ты-command he keeps throwing at Alyosha.
> Negative concord «никому … не»: «Никому» ('to no one', dative of «никто») still demands «не» on the verb: 'I told no one'. The dative «никому» is the indirect object of «сказал».
> Short adjectives «низок», «бесчестен»: «Низок» (base) and «бесчестен» (dishonourable) are short (predicative) adjective forms of «низкий» and «бесчестный». The short form, bookish and absolute, states a defining moral quality — 'I am base… but I am not dishonourable.' The «хоть… но» frames the concession.
> «ославить» — to defame, expose: «Ославить» means to spread shameful talk about someone, to blacken their name. Dmitri's point of honour: he debauched but never «ославил» — never made the affair public to ruin the woman. The word recurs in s29.

Ты краснеешь, у тебя глаза сверкнули.  
You are blushing, your eyes have flashed.
> Semelfactive perfective «сверкнули»: «Сверкнули» (flashed) is the perfective past of «сверкнуть», whose -ну- suffix marks a single instantaneous flash, against imperfective «краснеешь» (are blushing, an ongoing process) in the same breath — a neat aspect contrast.

Довольно с тебя этой грязи.  
Enough of this filth for you.
> «довольно с тебя» + genitive: «Довольно» ('enough') governs the genitive of the thing one has had enough of: «этой грязи» (gen., 'this filth'). «С тебя» ('for/of you', genitive after «с») adds the person — an idiomatic, verbless 'enough of this filth for you'.

И всё это еще только так, цветочки польдекоковские, хотя жестокое насекомое уже росло, уже разрасталось в душе.  
And all this is still only so much — little Paul de Kock blossoms — though the cruel insect was already growing, already spreading wider within my soul.
> «цветочки» — only the flowers (worse to come): «Цветочки» (little flowers) leans on the proverb «это ещё цветочки, а ягодки впереди» — 'these are only the blossoms, the berries are yet to come', i.e. the real, worse thing lies ahead. The diminutive belittles what he has confessed so far.
> Imperfective past of growth: «Росло» (was growing) and «разрасталось» (was spreading out) are imperfective neuter pasts agreeing with «насекомое». The pair pictures a continuing, swelling process — the insect within steadily enlarging, not a single event.

Тут, брат, целый альбом воспоминаний.  
There is a whole album of memories here, brother.
> Zero copula + genitive «воспоминаний»: Verbless present: 'here [is] a whole album of memories.' «Воспоминаний» is the genitive plural ('of memories') governed by «альбом» — the 'of' relation that the genitive carries.

Пусть им бог, миленьким, здоровья пошлет.  
May God grant them health, the dear little things.
> 3rd-person imperative «пусть … пошлет»: «Пусть» + a perfective future («пошлёт») forms a third-person command/wish — 'may God send them…'. «Им» is dative (to them), «здоровья» partitive genitive (some health) — a folk-prayer construction.
> «миленькие» — the dear little ones: «Миленький» heaps the affectionate suffix -еньк- on «милый» (dear): 'dear little ones'. In the dative «миленьким», it tenderly names the women he ruined, the sentimentality that coexists in Dmitri with his cruelty.

Я, разрывая, любил не ссориться.  
When I broke things off, I liked not to quarrel.
> Gerund «разрывая»: «Разрывая» (breaking off, severing) is the imperfective present деепричастие of «разрывать» — 'while breaking [relations] off'. It shares the subject «я» and frames the circumstance: in breaking up, he liked «не ссориться» (not to quarrel).

И никогда не выдавал, никогда ни одну не ославил.  
And I never betrayed any of them, never disgraced a single one.
> Triple negative concord: «Никогда… ни одну… не» piles three negatives for one meaning: 'never disgraced a single one.' «Ни одну» (not a single, accusative feminine) and «никогда» both still require «не» on «ославил' — Russian's obligatory negative concord.

Но довольно.  
But enough.

Неужели ты думал, что я тебя для этой только дряни зазвал сюда?  
Did you really think I called you here only for this rubbish?
> Particle «неужели»: «Неужели» is an emphatic interrogative particle of astonished disbelief — 'surely not…?, you don't mean…?, did you really…?'. It loads the question with incredulity rather than asking for plain information.
> «для» + genitive of purpose: «Для этой дряни» ('for this rubbish') uses «для» + genitive to give the purpose. «Зазвал» is the perfective of «зазывать» (to call/lure someone over) — he summoned Alyosha here for a reason far beyond this 'rubbish'.
> «дрянь» — trash, rubbish: «Дрянь» is a dismissive word for worthless trash, rot, rubbish — also used of a contemptible person. Here Dmitri brushes aside his own lurid confessions as mere «дрянь» before turning to the real matter.

Нет, я тебе любопытнее вещь расскажу; но не удивляйся, что не стыжусь тебя, а как будто даже и рад.  
No, I will tell you a more curious thing; only do not be surprised that I am not ashamed before you, but seem almost even glad of it.
> Reflexive «стыдиться» + genitive: «Стыдиться» ('to be ashamed') is an inherently reflexive -ся verb that governs the genitive of whom one is ashamed before: «стыжусь тебя» — 'ashamed before you'. The «-сь» (after the vowel) is the reflexive clitic.
> Negated imperfective imperative «не удивляйся»: A prohibition uses «не» + the imperfective imperative: «не удивляйся» ('don't be surprised'), from reflexive «удивляться». Negative commands strongly prefer the imperfective aspect.

— Это ты оттого, что я покраснел, — вдруг заметил Алеша.  
— That is because I blushed, — Alyosha suddenly remarked.
> Correlative «оттого, что»: «Оттого, что» ('because of the fact that') is a causal correlative — the demonstrative «оттого» pointing forward to the «что»-clause that supplies the reason: 'that is because I blushed.'
> «заметить» — to remark: Beside its sense 'to notice', «заметить» means 'to remark, observe (aloud)' — the narrator's verb for Alyosha's quiet interjection. The perfective marks a single completed utterance.

— Я не от твоих речей покраснел и не за твои дела, а за то, что я то же самое, что и ты.  
— I did not blush at your words, nor for your deeds, but because I am the very same as you.
> Contrastive «не … а»: «Не… а…» is the corrective 'not X but rather Y'. Alyosha distinguishes three causes with shifting prepositions: «от речей» (from your words), «за дела» (for your deeds), «за то, что…» (because…) — a careful, scrupulous denial.
> «тот же самый» — the very same: «То же самое, что и ты» means 'the very same thing as you'. «Тот же самый» (the identical) is reinforced by «же», and «что и» introduces the standard of comparison — 'as you [are].'

— Ты-то? Ну, хватил немного далеко.  
— You? Well, that's reaching a bit far.
> Emphatic clitic «-то»: The hyphenated «-то» on «ты» singles out and stresses a known topic — 'You, of all people?'. It is distinct from the indefinite «-то» of «кто-то»; here it marks incredulous focus on Alyosha himself.
> «хватить далеко» — to go too far: Colloquial «хватить (далеко)» here means 'to overshoot, exaggerate, go too far'. Dmitri's wry 'you've reached a bit far' gently mocks Alyosha for equating himself with him.

— Нет, не далеко, — с жаром проговорил Алеша.  
— No, not far, — Alyosha said fervently.
> «с жаром» — instrumental of manner: «С жаром» ('with heat/fervour', instrumental of «жар» after «с») states the manner of «проговорил» — said fervently. «Проговорить» is a perfective of speech, marking the single ardent utterance.

(Видимо, эта мысль давно уже в нем была).  
(Evidently this thought had long been in him.)
> Existential «в нём была»: 'This thought had long been in him' — «в нём» (prepositional after «в», with н- prefixed to the pronoun) plus past «была» agreeing with feminine «мысль». «Давно уже» ('long since already') sets the lasting duration.

— Всё одни и те же ступеньки.  
— They are all the same steps.
> «ступеньки» — the steps (of the ladder): «Ступенька» is the diminutive of «ступень» (step, rung). The image of identical «ступеньки» of a single staircase of sin frames Dmitri's argument that he and Alyosha stand on the same ladder, only at different heights.
> «один и тот же» — one and the same: «Одни и те же» is the set phrase for 'the very same (ones)', plural here to agree with «ступеньки». Both «один» and «тот» decline and agree; «всё» adverbially means 'all, entirely'.

Я на самой низшей, а ты вверху, где-нибудь на тринадцатой.  
I am on the very lowest, and you are up above, somewhere around the thirteenth.
> Superlative «низший» + «самый»: «Самой низшей» ('on the very lowest') doubles the superlative: «низший» is itself a bookish superlative of «низкий» (low), reinforced by «самый» (very). Both agree in feminine prepositional with the understood «ступеньке».
> Indefinite «-нибудь»: «Где-нибудь» ('somewhere or other, anywhere') with the non-specific particle «-нибудь» leaves the exact rung vague — 'up somewhere around the thirteenth'. «Тринадцатой» is the ordinal in feminine prepositional, agreeing with «ступеньке».

Я так смотрю на это дело, но это всё одно и то же, совершенно однородное.  
That is how I look at this matter, but it is all one and the same, entirely of one kind.
> «одно и то же» — one and the same: «Одно и то же» (neuter) is the fixed 'one and the same thing'; «совершенно однородное» ('entirely of one kind, homogeneous') restates it as a verbless predicate after the dropped copula. The whole insists on the moral identity of high and low sins.

Кто ступил на нижнюю ступеньку, тот всё равно непременно вступит и на верхнюю.  
Whoever has set foot on the bottom step will, all the same, inevitably mount the top one as well.
> Correlative «кто … тот»: The correlative «кто… тот…» means 'whoever… (that one)…': 'whoever has set foot on the bottom step, he will inevitably mount the top one too.' «Кто» heads the condition, «тот» resumes it as subject of the main clause.
> Aspect: past «ступил» vs future «вступит»: «Ступил» is perfective past (a single completed step taken); «вступит» is perfective future (a single completed step to come). The aspectual pairing — one foot already set, the other certain to follow — drives the determinism of his claim.
> «непременно» — without fail: «Непременно» means 'inevitably, without fail, certainly'. Paired with «всё равно» ('all the same, anyway'), it hammers home the fatalism: once on the ladder, one is bound to climb it.

— Стало быть, совсем не вступать?  
— Then one should not step on at all?
> Infinitive of deliberation: The bare infinitive «не вступать?» asks 'is one [then] not to step on at all?' — a deliberative/normative infinitive question with no subject, very common in Russian for 'should one…?'. «Стало быть» ('so, therefore') marks the inference.

— Кому можно — совсем не вступать.  
— Whoever can — should not step on at all.
> Dative «кому» + «можно»: «Кому можно» ('to whom it is possible/permitted') is the impersonal modal «можно» with a dative experiencer — 'whoever is able/allowed'. The construction has no nominative subject; the person stands in the dative.

— А тебе — можно?  
— And you — can you?
> Dative «тебе» + «можно»: Elliptical for 'and for you, is it possible (to not step on)?' — «тебе» (dative) is the experiencer of impersonal «можно», the verb left understood. The contrastive «а» opens with a gentle shift back to Dmitri himself.

— Кажется, нет.  
— It seems not.
> Impersonal «кажется»: «Кажется» ('it seems') is an impersonal parenthetical with no subject — Dmitri's wry, self-aware 'it seems not.' The bare «нет» negates the elided 'I can.'

— Молчи, Алеша, молчи, милый, хочется мне ручку твою поцеловать, так, из умиления.  
— Hush, Alyosha, hush, dear boy; I feel like kissing your hand, just so, out of tenderness.
> Imperative «молчи» + vocative «милый»: «Молчи» is the singular imperative of imperfective «молчать» (to be silent) — 'hush, stay quiet'. «Милый» ('dear one') is direct address to Alyosha, set off as the addressee of the command.
> Impersonal «хочется» + dative: «Хочется мне» ('I feel like, there is a longing in me') is the impersonal reflexive «хотеться» with a dative experiencer «мне' — the urge happens to him rather than being willed. «Ручку» is the diminutive 'little hand', accusative object of «поцеловать».
> «умиление» — tender emotion: «Умиление» is a soft, melting tenderness — being moved to gentle, almost tearful affection. «Из умиления» ('out of tenderness') names the impulse behind kissing Alyosha's hand, a characteristically Russian devotional warmth.

Эта шельма Грушенька знаток в человеках, она мне говорила однажды, что она когда-нибудь тебя съест.  
That rogue Grushenka is a connoisseur of people; she told me once that someday she would devour you.
> «шельма» — rogue, sly creature: «Шельма» (from German Schelm) is an affectionate-abusive 'rogue, rascal, sly thing'. Applied to Grushenka, «эта шельма» mingles exasperation and admiration — the volatile fascination she holds for Dmitri.
> Archaic «в человеках»: «В человеках» ('in [judging] people') uses an old, bookish/Church-Slavonic prepositional plural of «человек» — the modern form would lean on «в людях». The phrase 'a connoisseur of human beings' carries a faintly scriptural ring.
> Perfective future «съест»: «Съест» is the perfective future of «съесть» (to eat up, devour) — a single completed future act, here figurative ('she'd devour you'). «Когда-нибудь» ('someday or other') with «-нибудь» keeps the time non-specific.

Молчу, молчу!  
I'm hushing, I'm hushing!
> Present «молчу» as self-command: He answers his own 'hush!' with the 1st-person present «молчу, молчу» ('I'm silent, I'm silent!') — the imperfective present used performatively, almost comically, as a promise to stop talking. Even his vow to be quiet is doubled and excitable.

Из мерзостей, с поля, загаженного мухами, перейдем на мою трагедию, тоже на поле, загаженное мухами, то есть всякою низостью.  
From these vile things, from a field befouled with flies, let us pass on to my tragedy — also a field befouled with flies, that is, with every kind of baseness.
> Past passive participle «загаженного»: «Загаженного мухами» is a past passive participle ('befouled, fly-blown') in the genitive agreeing with «поля». The agent that did the fouling, «мухами» (flies), stands in the instrumental — the regular passive pattern.
> Hortative perfective future «перейдём»: «Перейдём» (let us pass over) is a 1st-person-plural perfective future used as an exhortation — Russian's bare conjugated form for 'let's…'. «Перейти на» + accusative means to move/turn to a new subject.
> «мерзость», «низость» — vileness, baseness: «Мерзость» (abomination, vileness) and «низость» (baseness, meanness) are the abstract moral nouns Dmitri heaps up. The «-ость» suffix turns adjectives into named qualities — the bookish vocabulary of his self-disgust.

Дело-то ведь в том, что старикашка хоть и соврал об обольщении невинностей, но в сущности, в трагедии моей, это так ведь и было, хотя раз только было, да и то не состоялось.  
For the thing is, you see, that although the old man lied about my seducing innocents, in essence, in my tragedy, that is just how it was — though it happened only once, and even then it never came to pass.
> «дело в том, что» + «-то» + «ведь»: «Дело в том, что» is the set frame 'the thing is that…', with «в том» (prepositional) pointing ahead to the «что»-clause. The clitic «-то» on «дело» and the particle «ведь» ('you see, after all') together press his confiding emphasis.
> «соврать», «небылица» — to lie, a fable: «Соврать» is colloquial 'to fib, tell a lie'; «небылица» (lit. 'a thing that wasn't') is a tall tale, fabrication. Dmitri concedes his father «соврал» about the seductions, yet in essence the charge held true.
> Concessive «хотя … да и то»: «Хотя» (although) opens the concession; «да и то» ('and even that, and then only') further qualifies. «Не состоялось» (didn't take place, fell through) is impersonal perfective — 'and even then it never came off.'

Старик, который меня же корил небылицей, этой-то штуки и не знает: я никому никогда не рассказывал, тебе первому сейчас расскажу, конечно Ивана исключая, Иван всё знает.  
The old man, who reproached me with that very fiction, knows nothing of this part of it: I have never told anyone, you are the first I shall tell it to now — excepting Ivan, of course; Ivan knows everything.
> Pejorative «старикашка»: «Старикашка» is «старик» (old man) with the contemptuous suffix -ашк-: a mean, despicable little old man. It drips Dmitri's scorn for his father Fyodor — the affectionate-pejorative suffix-play that colours all his family feeling.
> Relative «который» + particle «же»: «Который… меня же корил» — the relative «который» (who) heads the clause; «меня же» uses «же» to insist 'me, of all people'. «Корить» (to reproach) takes the instrumental of the thing reproached with, «небылицей' (with a fiction).
> Stacked negatives with «не»: «Никому никогда не рассказывал' — 'never told anyone, ever': dative «никому» (to no one) and «никогда» (never) both require the «не» on the verb, three negatives for one negation.
> Gerund «исключая»: «Исключая» (excepting), the present gerund of «исключать», governs the accusative «Ивана» — 'excepting Ivan.' Here it has hardened into a quasi-preposition meaning 'except for', a common fate of frequent gerunds.

Раньше тебя давно знает.  
He has known it long before you.
> Comparative «раньше» + genitive: «Раньше тебя» ('earlier than you') is the predicative comparative «раньше» followed by the genitive of comparison «тебя' — Russian can express 'than' simply by putting the standard in the genitive. «Давно» adds 'long [since].'

Но Иван — могила.  
But Ivan — a tomb.
> «могила» = utterly discreet: Calling someone a «могила» (grave/tomb) is the idiom 'silent as the grave' — they keep a secret absolutely. The dash carries the dropped present-tense 'to be': «Иван — могила» reads 'Ivan [is] a tomb.'

— Иван — могила?  
— Ivan — a tomb?
> Echo question, zero copula: Alyosha simply repeats the clause as a question — same dash for the missing 'is', now with rising intonation. Russian needs no auxiliary or word-order change to turn the verbless statement into a query.

— Да.  
— Yes.

Алеша слушал чрезвычайно внимательно.  
Alyosha was listening with extreme attention.
> Imperfective «слушал» for ongoing attention: «Слушал» (was listening), imperfective past, paints a continuous background state, against which the dialogue's perfective verbs move. «Чрезвычайно внимательно» ('extraordinarily attentively') is an adverb of degree plus manner.

— Я ведь в этом баталионе, в линейном, хоть и прапорщиком состоял, но всё равно как бы под надзором, вроде как ссыльный какой.  
— You see, in that battalion, in the line regiment, though I held the rank of ensign, I was all the same as if under surveillance, like some sort of exile.
> Instrumental of the predicate «прапорщиком»: «Состоять» ('to serve, hold a post') takes the instrumental of the role: «прапорщиком состоял» — 'served as / held the rank of ensign'. The instrumental frames the role as a held capacity, as with «быть» and «стать».
> «ссыльный» — an exile: «Ссыльный» is one banished into internal exile («ссылка»), a punishment central to 19th-century Russia. «Вроде как ссыльный какой» ('like some sort of exile') conveys Dmitri's sense of being half-disgraced and watched within his own regiment.

А городишко принимал меня страшно хорошо.  
And yet the little town received me terribly well.
> Intensifier «страшно»: «Страшно» literally 'frighteningly', but colloquially an intensifier 'terribly, awfully' = 'extremely well'. «Принимал» is imperfective past — the town habitually received him warmly. «Городишко» keeps its scornful suffix even as he praises the welcome.

Денег я бросал много, верили, что я богат, я и сам тому верил.  
I threw a great deal of money about; they believed I was rich, and I believed it myself.
> Fronted partitive genitive «денег»: «Денег» (genitive of «деньги») is fronted for emphasis — a partitive genitive object 'of money', much of it, with «много». Russian's free order lets the object lead the clause as topic while «много» weights the quantity.
> «верить» + dative «тому»: «Верить» ('to believe') governs the dative of what is believed: «тому верил» ('believed that'). «Богат» is a short adjective ('[I am] rich'), and «я и сам» ('I myself too') uses the intensifier «сам».

А впрочем, чем-то и другим я им, должно быть, угодил.  
But besides, I must have pleased them in some other way too.
> Indefinite «чем-то»: «Чем-то» (instrumental of «что-то», 'by something or other') uses the specific-but-unknown «-то» — he pleased them 'by something' he cannot quite name. «Угодить» + dative («им») means 'to please, gratify someone.'
> Modal «должно быть» — must have: «Должно быть» ('must be, probably'), an impersonal parenthetical, expresses inference: 'I must have pleased them.' It floats free of the sentence's grammar, a hedging aside typical of Dmitri's musing self-analysis.

Хоть и головами покивали, а, право, любили.  
Though they shook their heads, they really did love me.
> «Хоть … а» — concessive frame: «Хоть(я)» opens a concessive ('even though') and is answered by the contrastive «а» rather than «но» — a softer, idiomatic 'and yet'. The «а» pivots the topic from their head-shaking to their real affection.
> «покивать головой» — a quick shake of the head: The prefix «по-» on «кивать» gives a brief, limited action — they 'gave their heads a shake'. «Головами» is instrumental, the means of the gesture; here it conveys disapproval, not assent.
> «право» — 'really, honestly': A parenthetical particle (literally 'rightly') asserting the speaker's sincerity — 'really, truly'. It belongs to the warm, confiding voice Mitya uses throughout this confession.

Мой подполковник, старик уже, невзлюбил меня вдруг.  
My lieutenant colonel, an old man by then, suddenly took a dislike to me.
> Perfective «невзлюбить» — conceiving a dislike: The perfective «невзлюбить» names a single completed event — the moment a dislike took hold — paired with «вдруг» ('suddenly'). It moves the narrative forward against the imperfective background, as perfective past tends to in storytelling.

Придирался ко мне; да рука у меня была, к тому же весь город за меня стоял, придраться нельзя было очень-то.  
He kept finding fault with me; but I had a pull, and besides the whole town stood behind me, so it was not easy to find much fault.
> «рука» — pull, connections: Idiomatic «иметь руку» / «рука была» means to have an influential protector or 'pull'. Literally 'a hand', it figures patronage — someone highly placed who could shield him.
> Impersonal «нельзя было» + dative-less infinitive: «нельзя было» ('it was not possible') is an impersonal predicate governing the infinitive «придраться» — a subjectless construction stating an external impossibility, with no nominative agent.
> The clitic «-то» softening 'much': The emphatic clitic «-то» attaches to «очень» to give a hedged 'not much, not really' — colloquial texture marking it as known, qualified information.

Виноват был я и сам, сам нарочно почтения не отдавал надлежащего.  
I was at fault myself too — I deliberately withheld the proper respect.
> Short adjective «виноват» as predicate: «виноват» is the short (predicative) form of «виноватый» — 'at fault, guilty'. Short adjectives can only predicate, never attribute, and carry the bookish, absolute flavour typical of confession. The fronted «виноват» also throws rhetorical weight onto the admission.
> Genitive of negation + split phrase: Under negation the object «почтение» shifts to genitive «почтения» ('did not render the respect'). Its adjective «надлежащего» ('proper, due') is stranded after the verb — a deliberate inversion that throws the emphasis onto 'proper'.

Гордился.  
I was proud.
> A one-word sentence: «-ся» verb, dropped subject: «гордился» ('I was proud') is the reflexive «гордиться» in past tense; the «-ся» here is the lexical kind — the verb exists only in this form. The subject «я» is dropped, leaving a single charged word standing alone.

У этого старого упрямца, недурного очень человека и добродушнейшего хлебосола, были когда-то две жены, обе померли.  
This old stubborn fellow — not at all a bad man, and the most good-natured of hosts — had once had two wives, both of whom had died.
> «упрямец» — a stubborn fellow: An animate masculine noun from «упрямый» ('stubborn'); in genitive «упрямца» after «у этого … были». The whole phrase «у … были две жены» is the standard 'have' construction with «у» + genitive.
> «хлебосол» + superlative «-ейш-»: «хлебосол» (literally 'bread-salt') is a warmly hospitable host, from the Russian custom of greeting guests with bread and salt. «добродушнейшего» is the bookish superlative in «-ейш-», 'most good-natured'.
> Perfective «помереть» — both died: «померли» is the perfective past of folksy «помереть» (a colloquial variant of «умереть»), reporting the completed fact of both wives' deaths. «обе» is the feminine 'both'.

Одна, первая, была из каких-то простых и оставила ему дочь, тоже простую.  
The first one was from some simple folk and left him a daughter, also simple.
> «из» + genitive of origin: «из» governs the genitive to mark social origin — 'from some simple folk'. «каких-то» (indefinite «-то») leaves the family vague; «простых» is a substantivized adjective meaning common, non-gentry people.
> Dative of the indirect object «ему»: «оставила ему дочь» — 'left him a daughter': «ему» is dative (the recipient), «дочь» the accusative direct object. The perfective «оставила» marks a single completed bequest.

Была уже при мне девою лет двадцати четырех и жила с отцом вместе с теткой, сестрой покойной матери.  
In my time she was already a maiden of twenty-four and lived with her father, together with her aunt, the sister of her late mother.
> «дева» — maiden (bookish/archaic): «дева» is an elevated, somewhat archaic word for an unmarried young woman, here in the instrumental «девою» (the older «-ою» ending) as predicate of «была». More solemn than everyday «девушка».
> Genitive of age with inverted numeral: Age is given with «лет» + genitive numeral: «двадцати четырех» is genitive, and placing «лет» first («лет двадцати») signals approximation — 'about twenty-four'. The whole phrase modifies «девою».
> «покойный» — the late, deceased: «покойная мать» means 'late/deceased mother' (root «покой», rest/repose). A standard respectful epithet for the dead, recurring through this passage («покойница» below).

Тетка — бессловесная простота, а племянница, старшая дочь подполковника, — бойкая простота.  
The aunt was speechless simplicity, while the niece, the lieutenant colonel's elder daughter, was a brisk, lively simplicity.
> Zero copula + contrastive «а»: Both halves drop the verb 'to be' (zero copula in the present), so the dash carries it: 'The aunt [is] …, while the niece [is] …'. The «а» sets the two simplicities against each other — the contrastive 'and/while' that has no real English equivalent.
> «простота» as a character label: Mitya labels each woman as a kind of «простота» — 'simplicity' used almost as a person. «бессловесная» = wordless, mute; «бойкая» = brisk, pert, quick. The parallel turns an abstract noun into vivid characterization.

Люблю, вспоминая, хорошее слово сказать: никогда-то, голубчик, я прелестнее характера женского не знал, как этой девицы, Агафьей звали ее, представь себе, Агафьей Ивановной, Да и недурна она вовсе была, в русском вкусе — высокая, дебелая, полнотелая, с глазами прекрасными, лицо, положим, грубоватое.  
I love, when I remember, to put in a kind word: never, my dear fellow, did I know a more charming feminine character than that girl's — Agafya she was called, just imagine, Agafya Ivanovna; and she was not bad-looking at all, in the Russian taste — tall, full-figured, plump-bodied, with beautiful eyes, the face, let us say, rather coarse.
> Gerund «вспоминая» — 'while remembering': «вспоминая» is the imperfective present gerund (деепричастие) of «вспоминать», expressing an action simultaneous with the main verb: 'I love, when I remember, to say…'. It must share the subject of «люблю».
> «голубчик» — 'my dear' (diminutive of 'dove'): An affectionate term of address from «голубь» ('dove') plus the endearing «-чик» suffix. Mitya scatters such endearments through his confession to his listener Alyosha, an intimate, expressive register.
> Comparative «прелестнее» + genitive of comparison: «прелестнее» is the predicative comparative ('more charming'), and «как этой девицы» supplies the standard of comparison. The negated «не знал» pulls «характера» into the genitive of negation — 'I knew no more charming character'.
> «дебелая, полнотелая» — full-bodied beauty: «дебелая» (buxom, plump) and «полнотелая» (full-bodied) describe a fleshy, robust ideal 'in the Russian taste'. Both are now archaic-flavoured; here they praise rather than disparage.
> «грубоватое» — the softening suffix «-оват-»: From «грубый» ('coarse'), the suffix «-оват-» means 'somewhat, rather' — 'a bit coarse'. It tempers the judgment, matching «положим» ('let's say') just before it.

Не выходила замуж, хотя двое сватались, отказала и веселости не теряла.  
She did not marry, though two men courted her; she refused them, and lost none of her cheerfulness.
> «сватался» — courted, sought in marriage: «свататься» (reflexive) is to court formally, to propose marriage — from «сват», the matchmaker. The collective numeral «двое» ('two men') is used for groups of people.
> Genitive of negation: «веселости»: The negated verb «не теряла» takes its object «веселость» in the genitive — «веселости». Abstract objects under negation regularly go genitive, here yielding 'lost none of her cheerfulness'.

Сошелся я с ней — не этаким образом, нет, тут было чисто, а так, по-дружески.  
I became close with her — not in that fashion, no, here it was pure — but just so, in a friendly way.
> «сойтись с» + instrumental — became close: «сойтись с кем-то» ('to become close, take up with') is a «-ся» verb governing «с» + instrumental «с ней». The inverted word order «Сошелся я» fronts the verb for narrative momentum.
> «этакий» — 'that sort of' (colloquial): «этакий» is a colloquial, expressive variant of «такой» ('such, that kind'). «не этаким образом» — 'not in that fashion' — delicately disclaims a sexual liaison; the euphemism is the point.

Я ведь часто с женщинами сходился совершенно безгрешно, по-дружески.  
For I often became close with women quite sinlessly, in a friendly way.
> Particle «ведь» + imperfective of habit: «ведь» appeals to shared understanding — 'for, you see'. The imperfective «сходился» with «часто» reports a habitual pattern, not a single event: 'I often used to take up with women'.
> «безгрешно» — sinlessly: Adverb from «безгрешный» ('sinless'), prefix «без-» ('without') + «грех» ('sin'). The religious vocabulary of sin runs through the whole confession, here applied half-ironically to Mitya's 'pure' friendships.

Болтаю с ней такие откровенные вещи, что ух! — а она только смеется.  
I would chatter such frank things to her — phew! — and she would only laugh.
> Narrative present + contrastive «а»: Mitya switches to the vivid historical present («болтаю» — I chatter, «смеется» — she laughs) to make the scene immediate. The «а» again hinges two simultaneous actions: he talks, she laughs.
> «ух!» — an exclamation of intensity: An interjection conveying a rush of feeling — here, 'phew!', the daring frankness of what he said. Such bursts of unstructured emotion punctuate Mitya's speech throughout.

Многие женщины откровенности любят, заметь себе, а она к тому же была девушка, что очень меня веселило.  
Many women love frankness, mind you, and besides she was a virgin, which amused me greatly.
> Imperative «заметь» + ethical «себе»: «заметь» is the singular imperative of «заметить» ('note'); the dative reflexive «себе» is an 'ethical dative', adding 'mind you, take note for yourself'. A buttonholing aside to the listener.
> Relative «что» summing up the clause: Here «что» is a relative pronoun referring not to a single noun but to the whole preceding fact — 'which amused me'. This sentential «что» is common in flowing 19th-century narration.

И вот еще что: никак бы ее барышней нельзя было назвать.  
And here is another thing: one could in no way have called her a young lady.
> Conditional «бы» in an impersonal frame: «бы» with «нельзя было» makes the impossibility hypothetical — 'one could in no way have called'. «никак» ('in no way') reinforces it. The whole is subjectless, with «бы» leaning on the first stressed word «никак».
> «барышня» — a young lady (gentry): «барышня» is an unmarried young woman of the gentry/genteel class — a 'miss'. In instrumental «барышней» after «назвать». The point is precisely that Agafya, though a colonel's daughter, did not carry herself as one.

Жили они у отца с теткой, как-то добровольно принижая себя, со всем другим обществом не равняясь.  
They lived with the father and the aunt, somehow voluntarily abasing themselves, not setting themselves on a level with the rest of society.
> Two gerunds with reflexive «себя» and «-ся»: Two imperfective gerunds describe attendant circumstance: «принижая себя» ('lowering themselves', with the full reflexive pronoun «себя») and «не равняясь» ('not setting themselves level', with the «-ся» verb «равняться»). Both share the subject of «жили».
> «принижать себя» — to abase oneself: «принижать себя» is to humble or lower oneself in status. The detail that they did so «добровольно» ('voluntarily') is part of Mitya's portrait of these women as humble 'angels'.

Ее все любили и нуждались в ней, потому что портниха была знатная: был талант, денег за услуги не требовала, делала из любезности, но когда дарили — не отказывалась принять.  
Everyone loved her and had need of her, because she was a distinguished seamstress: there was a talent, she demanded no money for her services, she did it out of kindness, but when she was given a gift — she did not refuse to accept it.
> «знатный» here = first-rate, not 'noble': «знатная портниха» means a 'distinguished, first-rate dressmaker'. Note that «знатный» elsewhere in this chapter means 'of noble birth' — a single word doing double duty, so context decides. «портниха» is the feminine of «портной», tailor.
> Genitive of negation: «денег»: «не требовала денег» — the negated object «деньги» appears in the genitive «денег». A textbook genitive of negation: she 'demanded no money'.
> «из любезности» — out of kindness: «из» + genitive here gives motive — 'out of courtesy/graciousness'. «любезность» is amiable kindness; the idiom «из любезности» means doing something as a favour, not for pay.

Подполковник же, тот — куда!  
But the lieutenant colonel — he was another matter altogether!
> Emphatic «же» + resumptive «тот»: The particle «же» insists and singles out the colonel; the demonstrative «тот» ('that one') resumes him as topic before the comment lands. This topic-then-comment staging, with the verb left unspoken, is pure spoken Russian.
> «куда!» — 'no comparison!': Literally 'where!', this exclamatory «куда!» dismisses any comparison — 'he was something else altogether, far beyond that'. An idiomatic burst marking the colonel as on a wholly different level.

Подполковник был одно из самых первых лиц по нашему месту.  
The lieutenant colonel was one of the foremost persons in our parts.
> Superlative «самых первых» + partitive genitive: «самых первых лиц» — 'of the foremost persons': «самый» forms the superlative and declines with «первых», while «из … лиц» is a partitive genitive ('one of the…'). «лицо» here means 'person, personage', not 'face'.
> «по нашему месту» — in our parts: «по» + dative «месту» here means 'in our locality / parts'. A colloquial, slightly provincial turn for the small town where the action unfolds.

Жил широко, принимал весь город, ужины, танцы.  
He lived on a grand scale, received the whole town, suppers, dances.
> «жить широко» — to live on a grand scale: The idiom «жить широко» ('to live broadly/wide') means to live lavishly, openhandedly, beyond modest means — a telling detail, since the colonel in fact has no money.
> Imperfective of habit + animate accusative: «принимал» (imperfective past) describes a recurring habit of entertaining. «весь город» ('the whole town') stands as accusative object — here the town's people as guests. The bare nouns «ужины, танцы» follow as vivid asyndeton.

Когда я приехал и в баталион поступил, заговорили во всем городишке, что вскоре пожалует к нам, из столицы, вторая дочь подполковника, раскрасавица из красавиц, а теперь только что-де вышла из аристократического столичного одного института.  
When I arrived and joined the battalion, the talk went all through the little town that the lieutenant colonel's second daughter would soon be coming to us from the capital — a beauty among beauties — and that she had only just, so they said, left some aristocratic institute in the capital.
> Perfective future «пожалует» — bookish 'will deign to come': «пожалует» is the perfective (simple) future of «пожаловать», an elevated, slightly ironic verb for an honoured arrival — 'will be pleased to come'. The future sits entirely in the ending, with no auxiliary.
> «городишко» — the belittling «-ишк-»: «городишко» is «город» with the pejorative diminutive «-ишк-»: a wretched, paltry little town. It conveys Mitya's contempt for the provincial backwater, and recurs in this passage.
> «раскрасавица из красавиц» — beauty of beauties: The intensive prefix «рас-» on «красавица» yields «раскрасавица», a stunning beauty; «из красавиц» ('among beauties') is the superlative-by-genitive idiom — 'a beauty even among beauties'.
> Reportative particle «-де»: The clitic «-де» marks reported speech — 'so they said, allegedly'. Attached here to «что» (with «только что» = 'just now'), it distances Mitya from the rumour he is relaying.

Эта вторая дочь — вот эта самая Катерина Ивановна и есть, и уже от второй жены подполковника.  
This second daughter is the very same Katerina Ivanovna, and she was by the lieutenant colonel's second wife.
> Emphatic «вот … и есть» with «самая»: «эта самая» ('this very') plus the emphatic frame «вот … и есть» identifies her insistently — 'this is the very same Katerina Ivanovna'. «и» here is the emphatic particle, not 'and'; «есть» is the rare overt present of 'to be', used for emphasis.

А вторая эта жена, уже покойница, была из знатного, какого-то большого генеральского дома, хотя, впрочем, как мне достоверно известно, денег подполковнику тоже никаких не принесла.  
And this second wife, by then deceased, came of a noble line, of some great general's house, though, however, as I know for certain, she too brought the lieutenant colonel no money whatsoever.
> «из» + genitive of family origin: «из знатного … дома» ('of a noble house') uses «из» + genitive to state lineage, with the adjectives «знатного», «большого», «генеральского» all agreeing in genitive. Here «знатный» does mean 'noble, high-born'.
> Double negation + genitive of negation: «никаких … не принесла» pairs the «ни»-word «никаких» with the verbal «не» — Russian negative concord, two negatives for one meaning. The object «деньги» goes genitive «денег»: 'brought no money whatsoever'.
> «мне … известно» — impersonal 'as I know': An impersonal construction: «известно» ('it is known') with the dative experiencer «мне» — 'as is known to me'. «достоверно» ('reliably, for certain') vouches for the source.

Значит, была с родней, да и только, разве там какие надежды, а в наличности ничего.  
So there was kin, and that was all — some expectations, perhaps, but in ready cash, nothing.
> Elliptical speech: «да и только»: Subjectless, clipped narration — «была с родней» ('she came with relatives', i.e. connections) followed by the idiom «да и только» ('and that's that'). The whole sentence reads as Mitya thinking aloud.
> «в наличности» — in ready cash: «наличность» is cash actually on hand (from «налицо», 'present, in evidence'). «в наличности ничего» — 'in ready money, nothing' — opposed to «надежды» ('expectations'), the merely prospective.

И однако, когда приехала институтка (погостить, а не навсегда), весь городишко у нас точно обновился, самые знатные наши дамы — две превосходительные, одна полковница, да и все, все за ними, тотчас же приняли участие, расхватали ее, веселить начали, царица балов, пикников, живые картины состряпали в пользу каких-то гувернанток.  
And yet, when the institute girl arrived (to stay a while, not for good), our whole little town fairly came alive: our most distinguished ladies — two of them wives of Excellencies, one a colonel's wife, and all the rest, all of them after these — at once took an interest, snatched her up, began to fête her — the queen of the balls, of the picnics; they got up tableaux vivants for the benefit of some governesses or other.
> «институтка» — the institute girl: The feminine noun for a graduate of an aristocratic «институт» (see s82), carrying a faint stereotype of sheltered refinement. Mitya uses it half-mockingly for Katerina.
> «живые картины» + dismissive «состряпать»: «живые картины» are tableaux vivants, fashionable amateur theatricals where guests pose as a painting. «состряпать» literally means to 'cook up' and adds a contemptuous, slapdash flavour — they 'threw together' the show.
> Chained perfectives driving the action: A rapid sequence of perfectives — «приняли участие», «расхватали», «начали» — fires off the events one after another, the perfective's job of advancing narrative. «расхватали» ('snatched up') vividly conveys the ladies competing over her.

Я молчу, я кучу, я одну штуку именно тогда удрал такую, что весь город тогда загалдел.  
I keep silent, I carouse, and just at that time I pulled off a certain stunt that set the whole town clamoring.
> Historical present, staccato: Three present-tense verbs ('I keep silent, I carouse, I pulled…') drop into the narrative present for immediacy, then snap to perfective past «удрал». The repeated «я» drums the self-portrait.
> «кутить» — to carouse: «кучу» is 1st-person of «кутить», to go on a spree, drink and revel wildly. The noun «кутёж» ('carousal') recurs below — a keynote of Mitya's reckless youth.
> «удрать штуку» — to pull a stunt: «штука» is a trick or prank; «удрать штуку» (literally 'to make off with a trick') is the idiom 'to pull a stunt, play a prank'. «загалдел» ('set up a clamour') captures the town's uproar.

Вижу, она меня раз обмерила взглядом, у батарейного командира это было, да я тогда не подошел: пренебрегаю, дескать, знакомиться.  
I see her once measure me with a glance — it was at the battery commander's — but I did not go up to her then: I scorn, I implied, to make her acquaintance.
> «обмерить взглядом» — to size up with a look: Literally 'measured me with a glance', the idiom «обмерить взглядом» means to look someone up and down appraisingly. «взглядом» is instrumental, the means of the measuring.
> Reportative «дескать» framing his own pose: «дескать» is a reportative particle ('as if to say, supposedly') that here flags Mitya's affected attitude — 'I scorn, as I implied, to make her acquaintance'. It quotes the pose he was striking.

Подошел я к ней уже несколько спустя, тоже на вечере, заговорил, еле поглядела, презрительные губки сложила, а, думаю, подожди, отмщу!  
I went up to her only some while later, also at an evening party, struck up a conversation, she barely looked at me, set her lips contemptuously — and, I think, wait, I'll have my revenge!
> Prefixed motion verb «подойти к»: «подошел» is the perfective of «подходить/подойти», 'to approach', built from «идти» with the prefix «под-» (toward). It governs «к» + dative «к ней» — approaching toward her.
> «губки» — diminutive 'little lips': «губки» is the diminutive of «губы» ('lips'); «сложить губки» is to purse the lips. The diminutive sharpens the picture of a delicate, contemptuous little mouth.
> Imperative «подожди» + bookish «отмщу»: «подожди» is the singular imperative 'wait'; «отмщу» is the perfective future 'I will avenge' from the elevated «отмстить» (a Church-Slavonic-flavoured doublet of «отомстить»). The solemn verb gives his threat a grandiose ring.

Бурбон я был ужаснейший в большинстве тогдашних случаев, и сам это чувствовал.  
A most frightful boor I was in most cases back then, and I felt it myself.
> «бурбон» — a coarse martinet: «бурбон» (from the Bourbon dynasty, via French army slang) meant a rude, ignorant officer risen from the ranks — a boor in uniform. «ужаснейший» is the bookish superlative 'most frightful'.
> Intensifier «сам» — 'myself': «сам» intensifies the subject — 'I felt it myself'. Distinct from the reflexive «себя», «сам» stresses that the agent personally, of his own awareness, registered it.

Главное, то чувствовал, что «Катенька» не то чтобы невинная институтка такая, а особа с характером, гордая и в самом деле добродетельная, а пуще всего с умом и образованием, а у меня ни того, ни другого.  
Above all, I felt that this "Катенька" was not exactly the kind of innocent institute girl one imagines, but a person of character — proud and genuinely virtuous, and, more than anything, with intelligence and education, while I had neither the one nor the other.
> «не то чтобы … а» — 'not exactly … but': A correlative construction qualifying a claim: «не то чтобы X, а Y» means 'not so much X as rather Y'. Here it nuances Katerina — not the naive institute girl, but a person of real character.
> «ни … ни» — neither … nor: «ни того, ни другого» ('neither the one nor the other') uses paired «ни» for emphatic negation; the genitive forms follow from an implied 'I had none of'. The clause is elliptical — the verb 'have' is left out.
> «пуще всего» — 'most of all' (folk): «пуще» is an archaic/folk comparative of «много/сильно» ('more, worse'); «пуще всего» means 'above all, most of all'. A homely, popular turn amid the analysis.

Ты думаешь, я предложение хотел сделать?  
You think I wanted to make a proposal?
> «сделать предложение» — to propose marriage: «сделать предложение» is the fixed idiom 'to make a marriage proposal'. The perfective infinitive «сделать» after «хотел» frames it as a single contemplated act; the inverted word order fronts «предложение» for focus.

Нимало, просто отмстить хотел за то, что я такой молодец, а она не чувствует.  
Not in the least — I simply wanted to take revenge for the fact that I was such a fine fellow and she did not feel it.
> «за то, что» — 'for the fact that': «за то, что» is a causal subordinator, 'because / on account of the fact that'. The correlative «то» is governed by «за» + accusative and points forward to the «что»-clause naming the offence.
> «молодец» — a fine, dashing fellow: «молодец» is a term of admiration — a brave, capable, dashing fellow. Mitya applies it to himself ironically, the boast undercut by the very revenge he is plotting.

А пока кутеж и погром.  
And meanwhile carousing and havoc.
> «кутеж и погром» — carousing and havoc: A verbless exclamation. «кутёж» is a wild drinking spree; «погром» here means riotous destruction, mayhem (not yet the later sense of an organized pogrom). «а пока» = 'and meanwhile'.

Меня наконец подполковник на три дня под арест посадил.  
In the end the lieutenant colonel put me under arrest for three days.
> Perfective «посадить» — completed event: «посадил» (perfective past of «посадить») reports the single completed act of putting him under arrest, with «наконец» ('at last') marking it as the culmination of the colonel's mounting irritation.

Вот к этому-то времени как раз отец мне шесть тысяч прислал, после того как я послал ему форменное отречение от всех и вся, то есть мы, дескать, «в расчете», и требовать больше ничего не буду.  
Just about that time Father happened to send me six thousand, after I had sent him a formal renunciation of all claims whatsoever — that is, that we were, so to speak, "square," and that I would demand nothing more.
> «отречение от всех и вся» — a formal renunciation: «отречение» is a (legal/solemn) renunciation; «форменное» means 'formal, proper'. The fossilized idiom «от всех и вся» ('from each and every', mixing genitive and an old neuter «вся») means 'of every claim whatsoever'.
> «в расчёте» — square, quits: «мы в расчёте» is the set phrase 'we are square / even, all accounts settled'. Set in quotation marks, Mitya cites the very words of his renunciation to his father.

Не понимал я тогда ничего: я, брат, до самого сюда приезда, и даже до самых последних теперешних дней, и даже, может быть, до сегодня, не понимал ничего об этих всех наших с отцом денежных пререканиях.  
I understood nothing then: I, brother, right up to my arrival here, and even up to these very latest days, and even, perhaps, up to today, have understood nothing about all these money quarrels of ours with Father.
> Negative concord + genitive object: «ничего … не понимал» pairs the «ни»-word «ничего» with verbal «не» (negative concord). «ничего» is itself the genitive of «ничто», doubling as the genitive-of-negation object: 'understood nothing at all'.
> Anaphoric «до самого…» piling up time: Three «до» + genitive phrases stack to push the moment of (non-)understanding ever closer to now — 'right up to … even up to … even, perhaps, up to today'. The repetition and «даже» enact Mitya's groping self-examination.
> «пререкания» — wrangles, squabbles: «пререкание» is a bickering dispute, a wrangle — here the chronic 'money quarrels' between Mitya and his father, central to the whole novel.

Но это к черту, это потом.  
But to the devil with that — that comes later.
> «к чёрту» — 'to the devil with it': «к чёрту» (to the devil) is a dismissive idiom waving a topic aside. The clipped, verbless «это потом» ('that's for later') shows Mitya brushing off the painful money question to keep his story moving.

А тогда, получив эти шесть, узнал я вдруг заведомо по одному письмецу от приятеля про одну любопытнейшую вещь для себя, именно что подполковником нашим недовольны, что подозревают его не в порядке, одним словом, что враги его готовят ему закуску.  
But back then, having received these six thousand, I suddenly learned for certain, from a letter sent by a friend, about a most curious matter for me — namely, that our lieutenant colonel was in disfavor, that he was suspected of irregularity — in a word, that his enemies were preparing a nasty surprise for him.
> Past gerund «получив» — 'having received': «получив» is the perfective past gerund (деепричастие) of «получить», marking a completed prior action — 'having received'. It shares the subject of «узнал» and sets the temporal frame for the discovery.
> «письмецо» — diminutive 'little letter': «письмецо» is the diminutive of «письмо» ('letter'), suggesting a small, casual, confidential note. The «-ецо» suffix softens and familiarizes.
> «готовить закуску» — 'cooking up a nasty surprise': Literally 'preparing a snack/appetizer for him', «закуска» is used ironically/idiomatically here for an unpleasant trap or surprise his enemies are readying — a savoury menace, not food.

И впрямь приехал начальник дивизии и распек на чем свет стоит.  
And sure enough, the division commander arrived and gave him a dressing-down for all he was worth.
> «на чём свет стоит» — for all he was worth: «распечь» is to scold severely; the vivid idiom «на чём свет стоит» (literally 'on what the world stands') intensifies any verb to 'like anything, for all one is worth' — here, a thorough tongue-lashing.

Затем немного спустя велено в отставку подать.  
Then, a little while afterward, he was ordered to send in his resignation.
> Short passive participle «велено» (impersonal): «велено» is the short neuter passive participle of «велеть» ('to order'), used impersonally — 'it was ordered [that he] submit his resignation'. No agent or subject is named; the command simply comes down.

Я тебе рассказывать не буду, как это всё вышло в подробности, были у него враги действительно, только вдруг в городе чрезмерное охлаждение к нему и ко всей фамилии, все вдруг точно отхлынули.  
I will not relate to you in detail how it all came about — he really did have enemies — only suddenly there was an extreme cooling in the town toward him and his whole family; everyone all at once seemed to ebb away from them.
> Compound future «не буду рассказывать»: Earlier «рассказывать не буду» is the imperfective compound future — «буду» + imperfective infinitive — declining to narrate the ongoing detail. Here «вышло» (perfective) reports how it all 'came out' as a finished result.
> «отхлынуть» — to ebb away: «отхлынуть» is to surge back, recede like a wave — a striking metaphor for the townspeople withdrawing their warmth all at once. «точно» here means 'as if', softening it to a simile.
> «фамилия» — family (older sense): Here «фамилия» means 'family, household' (its older, Latin-derived sense), not 'surname' as in modern Russian. A period usage a reader of Dostoevsky meets often.

Вот и вышла тогда первая моя штука: встречаю я Агафью Ивановну, с которой всегда дружбу хранил, и говорю: «А ведь у папаши казенных-то денег четырех тысяч пятисот рублей нет».  
And here then my first stunt came off: I meet Agafya Ivanovna, with whom I had always kept up a friendship, and I say: "You know, Papa is short by four thousand five hundred rubles of the government's money."
> Historical present in a relative frame: Mitya stages the scene in the present («встречаю», «говорю») for immediacy, while «с которой … хранил» is a relative clause: «который» in instrumental «с которой» ('with whom') takes its case from «хранить дружбу с».
> «нет» + genitive of absence: «денег … нет» is the existential negative: «нет» governs the genitive «денег» to state absence — 'there is none of the government's money'. The clitic «-то» on «казённых» foregrounds the known topic.
> «казённый» — belonging to the treasury: «казённый» means 'state-owned, of the treasury' (from «казна», the public purse). «казённые деньги» are government funds — embezzling them is the colonel's looming crime.

— «Что вы это, почему говорите? Недавно генерал был, все налицо были…»  
— "What are you saying, why do you say that? The general was here recently, it was all on hand…"
> Polite «вы» of address: Agafya addresses Mitya with «вы», the polite/formal second person, throughout — appropriate to their friendly-but-not-intimate footing and to her social deference. The «это» is an emphatic 'what is this you're saying?'.
> «налицо» — present, on hand: «налицо» means 'present, in evidence, accounted for' — here the funds were all 'on hand' when the general inspected. It is the root behind «наличность» (ready cash) seen earlier.

— «Тогда были, а теперь нет».  
— "Then it was, but now it is not."
> Terse antithesis on «а»: A minimal exchange: «были» (existed then) set against «нет» (none now) by the contrastive «а». Both clauses drop the subject «деньги», which the case-free zero leaves understood — maximally compressed dialogue.

Испугалась ужасно: «Не пугайте, пожалуйста, от кого вы слышали?»  
She was dreadfully frightened: "Don't frighten me, please, from whom did you hear it?"
> Negated imperfective imperative «не пугайте»: «не пугайте» is the polite (plural «-те») imperative of imperfective «пугать» — a request to stop/desist, 'don't frighten me'. Negative commands in Russian normally take the imperfective.
> Interrogative «кто» in genitive after «от»: «от кого» — 'from whom': the interrogative «кто» declines to genitive «кого», governed by «от» (which always takes the genitive). «кто» takes masculine agreement regardless of the actual referent.

— «Не беспокойтесь, говорю, никому не скажу, а вы знаете, что я на сей счет могила, а вот что хотел я вам только на сей счет тоже в виде, так сказать, „всякого случая“ присовокупить: когда потребуют у папаши четыре-то тысячки пятьсот, а у него не окажется, так чем под суд-то, а потом в солдаты на старости лет угодить, пришлите мне тогда лучше вашу институтку секретно, мне как раз деньги выслали, я ей четыре-то тысячки, пожалуй, и отвалю и в святости секрет сохраню».  
— "Don't worry," I say, "I'll tell no one, and you know that on this score I am a tomb; but here is what I only wanted to add to you on this score too, by way, so to speak, of „just in case“: when they demand of Papa the four-odd thousand five hundred, and it turns out he hasn't got it, then — rather than face a court-martial and afterward be sent down to the ranks as a common soldier in his old age — send me your institute girl in secret; money has just been remitted to me, and I'll fork over the four-odd thousand to her, perhaps, and keep the secret in all sanctity."
> «я могила» — 'I am a tomb' (I'll keep mum): The metaphor «я могила» ('I'm a tomb / a grave') promises absolute silence — to be as silent as the grave. «на сей счёт» ('on this score', with archaic «сей') frames it; the image is darkly apt in this novel.
> Archaic demonstrative «сей»: «сей» ('this') is the bookish, 19th-century demonstrative, surviving in set phrases like «на сей счёт» ('on this score') and «по сей день'. It marks the elevated, slightly formal register Mitya slips into when being arch.
> «тысячки» — diminutive of the sum: «тысячки» is the diminutive of «тысяча» ('thousand'); the «-то» clitic foregrounds it. The diminutive makes the colossal embezzled sum sound breezy and trifling — a 'mere four-odd thousand' — heightening Mitya's cynical ease.
> «отвалить» — to fork over (slang): «отвалю» (perfective future of «отвалить») is coarse, jaunty slang for handing over a large sum — 'I'll fork over'. The vulgar verb matches the cynicism of the whole proposition.

— «Ах, какой вы, говорит, подлец (так и сказала)! какой вы злой, говорит, подлец! Да как вы смеете!»  
— "Ah, what a scoundrel you are," she says (that is just what she said), "what a wicked scoundrel you are! How dare you!"
> «подлец» — scoundrel, villain: «подлец» is a strong word of contempt — a base, dishonourable scoundrel. Agafya's repetition («какой вы подлец … какой вы злой подлец») measures her outrage; it is among the harshest everyday insults.
> Particle «да» + «как смеете» — 'How dare you!': The initial «да» is not 'yes' but an emphatic, indignant particle launching the outburst. «как вы смеете» ('how dare you') uses «сметь» ('to dare') — the indignant idiom of affronted virtue.

Ушла в негодовании страшном, а я ей вслед еще раз крикнул, что секрет сохранен будет свято и нерушимо.  
She went off in dreadful indignation, and I shouted once more after her that the secret would be kept holy and inviolable.
> Periphrastic passive: «сохранён будет»: «сохранён … будет» is the future passive — short past-passive participle «сохранён» joined to the future of «быть»: 'the secret will be kept'. The bookish inversion (participle before «будет») gives the vow a solemn ring.
> «свято и нерушимо» — holy and inviolable: «свято» ('sacredly') and «нерушимо» ('inviolably, unbreakably') are solemn, near-liturgical adverbs. Mitya's mock-sacred oath over a blackmail offer is bitterly ironic, weaponizing the language of the holy.

Эти обе бабы, то есть Агафья и тетка ее, скажу вперед, оказались во всей этой истории чистыми ангелами, а сестру эту, гордячку, Катю, воистину обожали, принижали себя пред нею, горничными ее были…  
These two women, that is, Agafya and her aunt — I'll say it in advance — proved in this whole story to be pure angels, while this sister of theirs, the proud one, Katya, they truly adored, abasing themselves before her, were her very chambermaids…
> «баба» — woman (homely/coarse): «баба» is a plain, folksy, sometimes dismissive word for a woman (especially a peasant or simple one). Mitya uses it affectionately-roughly of Agafya and her aunt, whom he then calls «чистыми ангелами».
> «гордячка» — a proud one (pejorative): «гордячка» is the feminine of «гордец», a haughty, proud person, with a faintly disapproving ring. Set against the humble «ангелы», it marks Katya's proud aloofness.
> «воистину» — verily (Church-Slavonic): «воистину» ('verily, truly') is an elevated, Church-Slavonic-tinged adverb, famous from the Paschal greeting «Воистину воскресе» ('He is risen indeed'). It lends near-religious force to how the women 'adored' Katya.
> Predicate instrumental «горничными»: «были … горничными» — 'were her chambermaids': the predicate noun after «быть» (past tense) takes the instrumental «горничными», framing the role as one they assumed. A textbook predicate instrumental.

Только Агафья эту штуку, то есть разговор-то наш, ей тогда и передай.  
Only Agafya went and passed this stunt on to her then, that is, our whole conversation.
> Imperative form as expressive past: «передай» looks like an imperative but here is the 'dramatic imperative' standing for an unexpected past action — 'Agafya up and passed it on to her'. The particle «и» reinforces the sudden, vexing turn. A lively colloquial idiom.
> Topic clitic «-то» on «разговор»: The hyphenated «-то» on «разговор» foregrounds it as the known topic — 'our conversation, that is'. This emphatic «-то» (distinct from indefinite «кто-то») is a hallmark of spoken, folksy Russian.

Я это потом всё как пять пальцев узнал.  
I learned all this afterward as plainly as the five fingers of my hand.
> «как пять пальцев» — clear as the five fingers: The idiom «знать как пять пальцев» ('to know like one's five fingers') means to know something inside out, perfectly. English prefers 'like the back of my hand'; the Russian counts the fingers.

Не скрыла, ну а мне, разумеется, того было и надо.  
She did not hide it — well, and that, of course, was exactly what I needed.
> Impersonal «надо» + genitive «того»: «мне … того было и надо» is an impersonal necessity construction: the experiencer «мне» is dative, «надо» the predicate of need, and «того» genitive — 'that was just what I needed'. The «и» emphasizes 'exactly that'.

Вдруг приезжает новый майор принимать баталион.  
Suddenly a new major arrives to take over the battalion.
> Narrative present «приезжает» + «вдруг»: The historical present «приезжает» ('arrives') with «вдруг» ('suddenly') drops the reader into the moment. «приезжать/приехать» is the prefixed motion verb for arriving by vehicle.

Принимает.  
He takes it over.
> One-word present: «принимает»: A single imperfective present verb forms a whole sentence ('He takes it over'), subject dropped. The terse, clipped staging mimics the brisk, inexorable handover of command.

Старый подполковник вдруг заболевает, двинуться не может, двое суток дома сидит, суммы казенной не сдает.  
The old lieutenant colonel suddenly falls ill, cannot stir, sits at home two whole days, does not hand over the government funds.
> Chain of imperfective presents: A string of present-tense imperfectives («заболевает», «может», «сидит», «сдаёт») paints the unfolding situation as a continuous tableau. «двинуться не может» — perfective infinitive under «не может» — denies even a single movement.
> «сутки» — a 24-hour day (plurale tantum): «сутки» means a full day-and-night (24 hours) and exists only in the plural, so it counts with collective numerals: «двое суток» — 'two full days'. There is no singular form.

Доктор наш Кравченко уверял, что действительно болен был.  
Our doctor Kravchenko assured everyone that he really was ill.
> Short adjective «болен» as predicate: «болен» is the short (predicative) form of «больной» ('ill'), used after «был» to assert a temporary state — 'he really was ill'. Short adjectives can only predicate; «действительно» insists on its truth.

Только я вот что досконально знал по секрету и даже давно: что сумма, когда отсмотрит ее начальство, каждый раз после того, и это уже года четыре сряду, исчезала на время.  
Only here is what I knew thoroughly, in secret, and indeed had known for a long time: that the funds, each time after his superiors had inspected them — and this had been going on four years running — would vanish for a while.
> Iterative pairing of aspects: «каждый раз» frames a recurring routine: the perfective «отсмотрит» (each completed inspection) triggers the imperfective «исчезала» (the funds 'would vanish'). Russian uses perfective-in-the-subordinate / imperfective-in-the-main to render English 'would, used to'.
> «сряду» — running, in a row (archaic): «сряду» (a colloquial/older variant of «подряд») means 'consecutively, running'. «года четыре сряду» — 'some four years running', with the inverted «года четыре» again signalling approximation.

Ссужал ее подполковник вернейшему одному человеку, купцу нашему, старому вдовцу, Трифонову, бородачу в золотых очках.  
The lieutenant colonel would lend it to one most trustworthy man, a merchant of ours, an old widower named Trifonov, a bearded fellow in gold-rimmed spectacles.
> Imperfective of habit + dative recipient: «ссужал» (imperfective past of «ссужать», to lend) describes a repeated practice. «вернейшему … человеку» is the dative recipient ('to a most trustworthy man'), with the bookish superlative «вернейший» in «-ейш-».
> «бородач» — a bearded fellow: «бородач» is an expressive noun, 'a bearded man', from «борода» ('beard') + the «-ач» suffix that names a person by a salient trait. The detail «в золотых очках» (in gold spectacles) sketches the prosperous merchant Trifonov in a stroke.

Тот съездит на ярмарку, сделает какой надо ему там оборот и возвращает тотчас подполковнику деньги в целости, а с тем вместе привозит с ярмарки гостинцу, а с гостинцами и процентики.  
The latter would go off to the fair, turn whatever deal he needed there, and return the money to the lieutenant colonel intact at once, and along with it would bring a present back from the fair, and with the present a little interest besides.
> Habitual perfective + imperfective mix: Describing Trifonov's recurring routine, perfectives «съездит» (makes the round trip), «сделает» (does the deal) alternate with imperfective «возвращает», «привозит». The perfective-present here is iterative-future, the standard way to narrate a repeated habit.
> «гостинец» + diminutive «процентики»: «гостинец» is a present, esp. food or a treat brought back from a trip. «процентики» is the cosy diminutive of «проценты» ('interest, percentage') — a 'nice little bit of interest' slipped in alongside the gift, exposing the cheerful corruption.

Только в этот раз (я тогда узнал всё это совершенно случайно от подростка, слюнявого сынишки Трифонова, сына и наследника, развратнейшего мальчишки, какого свет производил), в этот раз, говорю, Трифонов, возвратясь с ярмарки, ничего не возвратил.  
Only this time (I learned all of it quite by chance from a youngster — Trifonov's drooling little son, his son and heir, the most depraved boy the world has ever brought forth), this time, I tell you, Trifonov, on returning from the fair, gave nothing back.
> Superlative + expressive «мальчишка»: «Развратнейший» is the bookish synthetic superlative in -ейший («the most depraved»), and «мальчишка» is the pejorative-affectionate form of «мальчик» — a brat of a boy. The whole phrase «какого свет производил» («the like of whom the world has produced») is Mitya's hyperbolic, theatrical register.
> Perfective gerund «возвратясь»: «Возвратясь» is the perfective adverbial participle («деепричастие») of «возвратиться», naming a completed prior action: "having returned from the fair, he returned nothing." The play «возвратясь… ничего не возвратил» (returned / returned-nothing) is a deliberate pun built on the same root.
> Diminutive «сынишка»: «Сынишка», from «сын» (son) via the belittling-affectionate suffix -ишк-, casts the boy as a contemptible little nobody — "a measly little son." The suffix here drips disdain rather than tenderness.

Подполковник бросился к нему: «Никогда я от вас ничего не получал, да и получать не мог» — вот ответ.  
The lieutenant-colonel flew at him: "I never received a thing from you, nor could I have" — that was the answer.
> Negative concord: «никогда… ничего… не»: Russian piles negatives that cancel into a single denial: «никогда» (never) + «ничего» (nothing) + the obligatory «не» on the verb all reinforce one meaning. English forbids this stacking; Russian requires it.
> Genitive of negation «ничего»: Under negation the object slides to the genitive: «ничего» is the genitive of «ничто», the negated object of «получать». The coordinating «да и» ("and besides, nor") then adds a second, intensifying clause.

Ну, так и сидит наш подполковник дома, голову себе обвязал полотенцем, ему они все три льду к темени прикладывают; вдруг вестовой с книгою и с приказом: «Сдать казенную сумму, тотчас же, немедленно, через два часа».  
Well, so there sits our lieutenant-colonel at home, his head bound up in a towel, all three of them pressing ice to his crown; when suddenly an orderly arrives with the ledger and an order: "Hand over the government funds at once, immediately, within two hours."
> Vivid present + «так и»: The imperfective present «сидит» is a historical present, dropping us into the scene as though it were unfolding now — a hallmark of Mitya's breathless oral telling. The particle «так и» adds a resigned "and so there he just sits."
> Reflexive «себе» + instrumental «полотенцем»: «Себе» (dative of the reflexive «себя») marks the colonel as the one for whom the binding is done — "bound his own head." «Полотенцем» is the instrumental of means: the towel is the thing he binds it with.
> «Вестовой» (orderly): A «вестовой» is a military orderly or dispatch-bearer, a soldier assigned to carry messages and run errands for an officer. He arrives "с книгою" — with the official ledger that must be signed for receipt of the order.

Он расписался, я эту подпись в книге потом видел, — встал, сказал, что одеваться в мундир идет, прибежал в свою спальню, взял двухствольное охотничье свое ружье, зарядил, вкатил солдатскую пулю, снял с правой ноги сапог, ружье упер в грудь, а ногой стал курок искать.  
He signed for it — I afterward saw that signature in the ledger myself — rose, said he was going to put on his uniform, ran to his bedroom, took down his double-barreled hunting gun, loaded it, rammed in a soldier's bullet, pulled the boot off his right foot, braced the gun against his chest, and began feeling for the trigger with his toe.
> Chain of perfective pasts: The sentence is a string of perfective past verbs, each a single completed event clicking the action forward — signed, rose, said, ran, took, loaded, rammed, pulled off, braced. This staccato perfective chain is exactly how Russian narrates rapid sequential action.
> Reflexive possessive «своё»: «Своё» means the gun belongs to the subject of the clause — his own hunting gun. Russian prefers «свой» over «его» whenever the possessor is the sentence's subject; «его ружьё» would suggest someone else's.
> Imperfective infinitive of purpose «одеваться»: «Идёт одеваться» — "is going to dress" — pairs a motion verb with an imperfective infinitive naming the process he sets out to do. The imperfective is right here: dressing is viewed as an activity, not a single bounded act.
> «Вкатил» — rammed it in: «Вкатить» literally "to roll in," used colloquially for ramming the ball-bullet down the barrel. «Солдатская пуля» is a military-issue round, heavier than birdshot — he means business. The earthy verb fits Mitya's rough, immediate narration.

А Агафья уже подозревала, мои тогдашние слова запомнила, подкралась и во-время подсмотрела: ворвалась, бросилась на него сзади, обняла, ружье выстрелило вверх в потолок; никого не ранило; вбежали остальные, схватили его, отняли ружье, за руки держат…  
But Agafya had already grown suspicious — she had remembered what I had said earlier — and she crept up and peered in just in time: she burst in, threw herself at him from behind, flung her arms around him, the gun went off upward into the ceiling; no one was hurt; the others came running in, seized him, took the gun away, and held him by the arms…
> Perfective rush of events: Another volley of perfective pasts — crept up, peered, burst in, threw herself, embraced — each a discrete completed beat. The asyndeton (clauses heaped without conjunctions) speeds the rescue to breakneck pace.
> Impersonal «никого не ранило»: «Ранило» is a neuter, subjectless verb form ("it wounded no one") — an impersonal construction where no nominative actor is named, the gun or the shot doing the harm implicitly. «Никого» is the genitive object under negation.
> Historic present «держат»: After a run of pasts the verb flips to the imperfective present «держат» ("they hold him"), freezing the final tableau before our eyes — the men still gripping his arms. This switch into the vivid present is a signature of excited oral narration.
> Agafya, the colonel's daughter: Agafya is Agafya Ivanovna, the lieutenant-colonel's elder daughter (Katerina Ivanovna's plain elder sister), not a hired servant. Her quick wits — remembering Mitya's earlier warning and creeping up to watch — make her the one who actually thwarts the suicide, a small character given a decisive narrative role.

Всё это я потом узнал до черты.  
All of this I learned afterward down to the last detail.
> «До черты» — down to the last line: «Черта» is a line or boundary-mark; «узнать до черты» means to learn something exhaustively, "down to the last detail / to the very line." The idiom conveys complete, precise knowledge of the whole affair.

Сидел я тогда дома, были сумерки, и только что хотел выходить, оделся, причесался, платок надушил, фуражку взял, как вдруг отворяется дверь и — предо мною, у меня на квартире, Катерина Ивановна.  
I was sitting at home then, it was dusk, and I had just meant to go out — I had dressed, combed my hair, scented my handkerchief, and taken up my cap — when all at once the door opens and there before me, in my own lodgings, stands Katerina Ivanovna.
> Reflexive grooming verbs: «Оделся» (dressed himself) and «причесался» (combed his own hair) carry the reflexive -ся, where the action turns back on the doer. The cluster of quick perfectives sketches his unhurried toilette just before Katerina's sudden arrival shatters it.
> «как вдруг» + present «отворяется»: «Как вдруг» ("when all at once") is the classic narrative pivot to a surprise, and the imperfective present «отворяется» dramatizes the door opening in real time. The reflexive «отворяется» is the middle/intransitive use of -ся: the door opens of itself.
> Archaic «предо мною»: «Предо» is the elevated, fuller variant of the preposition «перед» (before, in front of), and «мною» is the bookish long instrumental of «я». Together they raise the register, lending Katerina's apparition a near-theatrical solemnity.

Бывают же странности: никто-то не заметил тогда на улице, как она ко мне прошла, так что в городе так это и кануло.  
Strange things do happen: not a soul in the street noticed how she came to me then, so that in the town it simply sank away without a trace.
> Iterative «бывают» + particle «же»: «Бывают» is the iterative-habitual of «быть» — "such oddities do occur, do happen now and then." The particle «же» adds a musing emphasis ("strange things really do happen"), one of those tiny modal words that carry the speaker's wonder.
> Emphatic clitic «-то» on «никто»: The hyphenated «-то» here is the topic-highlighting clitic (distinct from indefinite «кто-то»), lending an affectionate, marveling stress: "not a single soul, mind you, noticed." «Никто… не» is again negative concord.
> «Кануло» — sank without a trace: «Кануть» (to sink, vanish) survives chiefly in the idiom «кануть в Лету / в вечность» — to disappear utterly, as into oblivion. Here "in the town it simply sank away" means the visit left no rumor, no record at all.

Я же нанимал квартиру у двух чиновниц, древнейших старух, они мне и прислуживали, бабы почтительные, слушались меня во всем и по моему приказу замолчали потом обе, как чугунные тумбы.  
Now I was renting my rooms from two clerks' widows, ancient old women, and they waited on me — deferential old creatures who obeyed me in everything, and at my order they both later fell silent as cast-iron posts.
> «Чиновница» and the superlative «древнейших»: «Чиновница» is the wife or widow of a «чиновник», a civil servant — the translation's "clerks' widows." «Древнейших» ("most ancient") is a hyperbolic synthetic superlative, comically aging the two landladies.
> Reflexive «слушались» (obeyed): «Слушаться» (+ genitive/accusative) is a -ся verb meaning "to obey," distinct from plain «слушать» ("to listen to"). The reflexive form has lexicalized into a separate verb — one of the cases where -ся does not mean "oneself" at all.
> «Бабы» and the simile «как чугунные тумбы»: «Бабы» is a plain, folksy word for peasant women / old women, faintly condescending here. The simile «замолчали… как чугунные тумбы» — "fell silent like cast-iron posts" — likens their total, immovable discretion to roadside iron bollards.

Конечно, я всё тотчас понял.  
Of course I understood everything at once.
> Perfective «понял» — the click of comprehension: «Понял» is the perfective past: understanding arrives as a single completed event, "I grasped it all at once." The adverb «тотчас» (instantly) reinforces the perfective's sense of an action seized whole.

Она вошла и прямо глядит на меня, темные глаза смотрят решительно, дерзко даже, но в губах и около губ, вижу, есть нерешительность.  
She came in and looked straight at me, her dark eyes regarding me resolutely, even boldly, but in her lips and about her lips I could see there was irresolution.
> Perfective entry, imperfective gaze: The aspectual contrast is exact: perfective «вошла» (she came in — one completed step) gives way to imperfective present «глядит / смотрят» (looks / are looking — sustained, ongoing). The shift paints her entrance as done and her stare as held.
> «Дерзко» — boldly, insolently: «Дерзко» spans "boldly" and "insolently / impudently"; the related «дерзость» is daring effrontery. Mitya reads her gaze as resolute and almost defiant — even as he notices the irresolution betrayed by her lips.

— Мне сестра сказала, что вы дадите четыре тысячи пятьсот рублей, если я приду за ними… к вам сама. Я пришла… дайте деньги!..  
"My sister told me you would give four thousand five hundred rubles if I came for them… to you myself. I have come… give me the money!.."
> Two perfective futures «дадите… приду»: Both verbs are perfective presents-as-futures: «дадите» (you will give) and «приду» (I come / will come). In the «если» (if) clause Russian simply uses the future, where English slips into a present "if I came."
> Case after numerals: Compound numerals govern the noun's case: «четыре тысячи» takes «тысячи» in the genitive singular (after 2–4), while the full sum 4500 "roubles" surfaces as «рублей», the genitive plural demanded by the final magnitude. Russian counting forces these case shifts at every step.
> Imperative «дайте»: «Дайте» is the polite/plural imperative of perfective «дать» (give), built with the -те ending. The perfective imperative asks for a single, complete handing-over — exactly what the desperate Katerina demands.

— не выдержала, задохлась, испугалась, голос пресекся, а концы губ и линии около губ задрожали.  
— she could not hold out, her breath caught, she took fright, her voice broke off, and the corners of her lips and the lines about her lips trembled.
> Perfective collapse: A cascade of perfectives marks the breakdown as a chain of sudden completed events: she couldn't hold out, gasped, took fright, her voice broke off, the lips trembled. Several carry -ся (задохлась, испугалась, пресёкся) as middle/inchoative change-of-state verbs.
> «Пресёкся» — broke off: «Пресечься» (to be cut short, break off) is a somewhat elevated verb; «голос пресёкся» — "her voice broke off" — is a fixed literary turn for a voice failing under emotion, sharper and more formal than the everyday «голос сорвался».

— Алешка, слушаешь или спишь?  
"Alyoshka, are you listening, or are you asleep?"
> The form «Алёшка»: «Алёшка», from Алексей via the -ка suffix, is the rough-familiar diminutive — affectionate between brothers but a notch coarser than the gentle «Алёша». Mitya's choice of «Алёшка» catches his intimate, jostling, big-brother tone.
> Imperfective present for ongoing states: Both verbs are imperfective present — «слушаешь» (are you listening) and «спишь» (are you sleeping) — naming states in progress. With the ending alone marking 2nd-person singular, the pronoun «ты» is freely dropped.

— Митя, я знаю, что ты всю правду скажешь, — произнес в волнении Алеша.  
"Mitya, I know you will tell the whole truth," said Alyosha in agitation.
> «что» clause + perfective future «скажешь»: The subordinator «что» (that) reports a plain fact, and «скажешь» is the perfective future — "you will tell" the whole truth as a single complete act. Contrast «чтобы», which would demand the irrealis past form for a willed or hypothetical outcome.
> «В волнении» — in agitation: «Волнение» means agitation, emotional turmoil, a stirred-up state of feeling (root «волна», wave — literally a "waving" of the soul). The phrase «в волнении» ("in agitation") recurs through the chapter to mark the brothers' charged exchange.

— Ее самую и скажу.  
"The whole truth itself is what I'll tell."
> Emphatic «её самую» + fronting: «Её самую» is the accusative of «она сама» — "the very thing (truth) itself." Fronting the object before the verb «скажу», with the particle «и» ("the very truth is what I'll tell"), throws all the weight onto what is promised — a classic topic–comment reordering.

Если всю правду, то вот как было, себя не пощажу.  
If it's to be the whole truth, then here is how it was — I'll not spare myself.
> Reflexive object «себя»: «Себя» is the reflexive pronoun (no nominative form), object of «не пощажу» — "I will not spare myself." As a full pronoun it can take any case object position, unlike the bound verbal clitic -ся.
> Elliptical «если… то»: The conditional verb is simply dropped: «если всю правду» ("if [it's to be] the whole truth") leans on the «если… то» correlative frame to carry the sense without a stated predicate — a terse, spoken compression.

Первая мысль была — карамазовская.  
My first thought was a Karamazov thought.
> Predicate adjective «карамазовская»: The dash stands in for the absent past copula «была», and «карамазовская» is the long-form predicate adjective derived from the family name — "a Karamazov thought." Coining an adjective from the surname turns it into a moral category, the family's signature impulse.

Раз, брат, меня фаланга укусила, я две недели от нее в жару пролежал; ну так вот и теперь вдруг за сердце, слышу, укусила фаланга, злое-то насекомое, понимаешь?  
Once, brother, a tarantula bit me, and I lay two weeks in a fever from it; well, and now it was just so — suddenly, right at the heart, I felt it, a tarantula had bitten me, a vicious little creature, do you understand?
> «Фаланга» — the solifuge / "tarantula": «Фаланга» is a solifuge (camel-spider), a fearsome-looking arachnid of southern Russia and the Caucasus, popularly dreaded as venomous. Mitya uses it (and «тарантул» below) loosely for a poisonous biting creature — the governing image of his predatory "first thought."
> Perfective «пролежал» — duration measured out: The prefix про- on «пролежал» measures a span of time fully spent: "I lay [the whole] two weeks in a fever." This про- of completed duration is a productive perfectivizing pattern, pairing naturally with the accusative time-phrase «две недели».
> Topic clitic «-то» on «злое»: The clitic «-то» attached to «злое» highlights the noun phrase with a knowing, colloquial nudge — "that nasty little creature, you know." It is the emphatic, not the indefinite, «-то», coloring Mitya's confiding tone.

Обмерил я ее глазом.  
I measured her with my eye.
> Instrumental «глазом» + verb-first order: «Глазом» is the instrumental of means — he sized her up *with* his eye. Putting the verb «обмерил» first, before the subject «я», is an emphatic narrative inversion that drives the action.
> «Обмерить глазом» — to size up: «Обмерить» literally means to measure all round; «обмерить глазом» is the idiom "to size someone up with a glance, take their measure." The appraising, almost predatory verb fits the tarantula image he has just summoned.

Видел ты ее?  
Have you seen her?
> Animate accusative «её» + inversion: «Её» is the accusative of «она» (here animate, so the form is distinct), object of «видел». The verb-subject order «Видел ты» frames a direct, conversational question without the particle «ли» — pure spoken Russian.

Ведь красавица.  
She is a beauty, after all.
> Appeal particle «ведь»: «Ведь» appeals to shared knowledge — "she's a beauty, after all / you know." It takes a fact Mitya assumes Alyosha will grant and leans on it. The copula is again zero: «красавица» stands alone as the present-tense predicate.

Да не тем она красива тогда была.  
But it wasn't that which made her beautiful just then.
> Instrumental of cause «тем» + short adjective «красива»: «Красива» is the short (predicative) form of «красивый», and «тем» is the instrumental: "she was not beautiful *by that* / on account of that." The instrumental here names the quality or respect in which she was beautiful, setting up the «тем, что…» clause to follow.

Красива была она тем в ту минуту, что она благородная, а я подлец, что она в величии своего великодушия и жертвы своей за отца, а я клоп.  
What made her beautiful in that moment was that she was noble and I was a scoundrel — that she stood in the grandeur of her own magnanimity and her sacrifice for her father, while I was a bedbug.
> «тем, что…» + contrastive «а»: «Тем, что» ("by the fact that…") names the cause of her beauty, and the conjunction «а» draws the central moral contrast — "she was noble, *while* I was a scoundrel." «А» is the untranslatable Russian hinge of gentle opposition that this whole confession turns on.
> «Подлец» and «клоп»: «Подлец» is a strong word — a scoundrel, a base and dishonorable man — central to Dostoevsky's moral vocabulary of self-abasement. «Клоп» is a bedbug; calling himself a «клоп» beside her «великодушие» is Mitya's vivid self-disgust.
> Prepositional «в величии» + reflexive «своего»: «В величии» is the prepositional after «в» (location-in: she stood "in the grandeur"), and «своего великодушия» uses the reflexive possessive «своё» — *her own* magnanimity, referring back to the subject. The piled abstract nouns in -ие («величие», «великодушие») lift the register.

И вот от меня, клопа и подлеца, она вся зависит, вся, вся кругом, и с душой и с телом.  
And there she was, depending entirely on me, a bedbug and a scoundrel — wholly, wholly, every part of her, soul and body alike.
> «Зависеть от» + genitive: «Зависеть» governs «от» + genitive: «от меня, клопа и подлеца» — "on me, a bedbug and a scoundrel." The appositives «клопа и подлеца» stand in the genitive too, agreeing with «меня». Fronting this phrase before the verb hammers the bitter dependence.
> Instrumental of accompaniment «с душой и с телом»: «С душой и с телом» — "with soul and with body" — uses «с» + instrumental for accompaniment. The triple «вся» (whole, all of her) and the repeated «с» build an incantatory, possessive rhythm fitting Mitya's heated avowal.

Очерчена.  
Hemmed in.
> Short passive participle «очерчена»: A one-word sentence: «очерчена» is the short-form past passive participle of «очертить» (to draw a circle around, hem in), feminine to agree with the unspoken "she." It states a result — "[she is] circled in, hemmed in" — with magical overtones of a ring drawn round a victim.

Я тебе прямо скажу: эта мысль, мысль фаланги, до такой степени захватила мне сердце, что оно чуть не истекло от одного томления.  
I'll tell you straight out: that thought, the tarantula's thought, gripped my heart to such a degree that it nearly bled away from the longing alone.
> «до такой степени… что» + dative «мне»: The correlative «до такой степени… что» ("to such a degree that") sets up a result clause. The dative «мне» is a dative of the affected person — the heart it gripped was *mine* — a quiet possessive dative very natural in Russian where English says "my heart."
> «Томление» — languishing longing: «Томление» names a sweet, aching languor — a yearning, pining torment of the soul, half pleasure and half pain. It is a key word of Romantic and Dostoevskian inwardness; the heart "nearly bled away" from this longing alone.

Казалось бы, и борьбы не могло уже быть никакой: именно бы поступить как клопу, как злому тарантулу, безо всякого сожаления…  
It would seem there could no longer be any struggle at all: the thing to do was precisely to act like a bedbug, like a vicious tarantula, without any pity whatsoever…
> The irrealis particle «бы»: «Бы» twice marks the hypothetical: «казалось бы» ("it would seem") softens to a supposition, and «именно бы поступить» projects an unreal course of action — "the thing would be to act…" The particle is mobile, leaning here on «казалось» and on «именно».
> Dative «как клопу» in an infinitive clause: In the impersonal infinitive construction «поступить как клопу», the implied actor stands in the dative — "for [one] to act like a bedbug." The comparison «как» pulls «клопу» into the same dative as the understood subject of «поступить».
> Genitive of negation «борьбы… никакой»: In the negated existential «борьбы… не могло быть никакой», the subject goes obligatorily into the genitive: «борьбы» (gen. of «борьба») and «никакой» (gen. fem.) — "there could be no struggle of any kind." The neuter impersonal «не могло быть» governs this genitive of absence.

Пересекло у меня дух даже.  
It even cut my breath short.
> Impersonal «пересекло»: «Пересекло» is a subjectless neuter verb — "it cut short my breath" — with no named agent doing the cutting. The construction «у меня» ("with me / from me," genitive after «у») marks whose breath it is, a typically Russian impersonal framing of an involuntary bodily reaction.

Слушай: ведь я, разумеется, завтра же приехал бы руки просить, чтобы всё это благороднейшим, так сказать, образом завершить и чтобы никто, стало быть, этого не знал и не мог бы знать.  
Listen: for of course I would have driven over the very next day to ask for her hand, so as to bring the whole thing to a most honorable conclusion, so to speak, and so that no one, accordingly, should know of it or ever be able to know.
> Conditional «приехал бы» + particle «же»: «Приехал бы» is the conditional — a past-form verb plus «бы» — for the unreal "I would have driven over." The particle «же» fastened to «завтра» insists on the timing: "the very next day."
> Purpose «чтобы» with infinitive and past form: «Чтобы» builds two purpose clauses: first with a bare infinitive «завершить» (same subject — to conclude the thing), then with a past-form verb «не знал» (different subject — so that no one *should* know). The past form after «чтобы» is the irrealis required by this conjunction.

Потому что ведь я человек хоть и низких желаний, но честный.  
Because, you see, for all my base desires I am an honest man.
> «ведь» + concessive «хоть и… но»: «Ведь» again appeals to shared understanding ("you see, after all"), while «хоть и… но» frames the concession — "though of base desires, yet honest." «Низких желаний» is a genitive of quality describing «человек» ("a man of base desires").

И вот вдруг мне тогда в ту же секунду кто-то и шепни на ухо: «Да ведь завтра-то этакая, как приедешь с предложением руки, и не выйдет к тебе, а велит кучеру со двора тебя вытолкать. Ославляй, дескать, по всему городу, не боюсь тебя!»  
And then suddenly, at that very second, someone seemed to whisper in my ear: "But tomorrow, you know, this same one, when you come with your offer of marriage, won't even come out to you — she'll order her coachman to throw you out of the yard. Slander me, she'll say, through the whole town — I'm not afraid of you!"
> Imperative «шепни» as sudden past: «Шепни» looks like an imperative of «шепнуть» (whisper) but functions here as the so-called "dramatic imperative" — a vivid narrative form meaning "someone up and whispered." With «и» it conveys an abrupt, unbidden action: "someone just suddenly whispered in my ear."
> Topic clitic «-то» + colloquial «этакая»: «Завтра-то» fronts and highlights "tomorrow" with the emphatic «-то», and «этакая» is the colloquial demonstrative "this sort of one / this same creature." The whole line mimics a sneering inner voice in raw spoken Russian.
> «Ославлять» and reportative «дескать»: «Ославлять» is to defame, spread shame about someone — "slander me all over town." «Дескать» is a reportative particle flagging quoted or imagined speech ("she'd say, as it were"), here voicing the imagined defiance Mitya attributes to Katerina.

Взглянул я на девицу, не соврал мой голос: так конечно, так оно и будет.  
I glanced at the girl — my inner voice had not lied: yes, of course, so it would be.
> Perfective future «будет» of certainty: «Так оно и будет» — "so it will be" — uses the future of «быть» with the confirming particle «и» to assert inevitability. «Оно» is a neutral "it," and the past «не соврал» (didn't lie) sets the inner voice's prophecy against this certain future.
> «Девица» — maiden: «Девица» is a somewhat archaic, elevated word for a young unmarried woman (a maiden), more formal than «девушка». Its slightly old-fashioned ring suits both Mitya's heightened narration and Katerina's status as a respectable young lady.

Меня выгонят в шею, по теперешнему лицу уже судить можно.  
They would throw me out by the scruff of the neck — one could judge as much already from her present face.
> Indefinite-personal «выгонят»: «Выгонят» is a 3rd-person-plural verb with no stated subject — the "indefinite-personal" construction: "they'll throw [me] out," meaning *one* will, people in general. «Меня» is the fronted accusative object. This subjectless plural is Russian's everyday way of saying "I'll be thrown out."
> «Выгнать в шею» — throw out by the scruff: «Выгнать в шею» (literally "drive out by the neck") is a rough idiom for an ignominious expulsion — to be thrown out on one's ear. It belongs to Mitya's coarse, self-lacerating register.

Закипела во мне злость, захотелось подлейшую, поросячью, купеческую штучку выкинуть: поглядеть это на нее с насмешкой, и тут же, пока стоит перед тобой, и огорошить ее с интонацией, с какою только купчик умеет сказать:  
Spite boiled up in me, and I wanted to pull off the basest, most swinish, most shopkeeperly trick: to look at her with a sneer, and right there, while she still stood before me, to dumbfound her with the very intonation only a tradesman can manage:
> Impersonal «захотелось» (dative-experiencer): «Захотелось» is the impersonal-reflexive of wanting — literally "it came to be wanted [to me]," with the experiencer in the dative (here implied «мне»). This dative-experiencer pattern frames the urge as something that wells up *to* Mitya rather than something he wills, mirroring «закипела… злость» ("spite boiled up").
> «Поросячья», «купеческая» — swinish, shopkeeperly: «Поросячий» (piggish, from «поросёнок», piglet) and «купеческий» (merchant-/shopkeeper-like) heap class scorn onto the «штучка» (a nasty "little trick"). «Купчик» is the diminutive-contemptuous "petty tradesman" — Mitya despises the very vulgarity he is tempted to perform.
> «Огорошить» — to dumbfound: «Огорошить» means to take someone utterly aback, stun them speechless with something sudden and unexpected. The expressive, faintly comic verb captures the brutal effect Mitya wanted his sneering line to land.

— Это четыре-то тысячи! Да я пошутил-с, что вы это?  
"Why, four thousand! But I was only joking, sir — what are you thinking of?"
> The deferential particle «-с»: The clitic «-с» on «пошутил-с» is a contraction of «сударь» ("sir"), once appended to words for servile or ironic deference. Mitya assumes it to mimic the smarmy, cringing tone of the shopkeeper he imagines becoming as he crushes Katerina.
> Mocking clitic «-то»: «Четыре-то тысячи» drips sarcasm via the emphatic «-то»: "Four thousand, you say!" The clitic singles out and derides the very figure Katerina has named, turning her plea into a punchline.

Слишком легковерно, сударыня, сосчитали.  
Too credulous of you, madam, to have reckoned on it.
> Subjectless 2nd-person past + «сударыня»: «Сосчитали» drops its subject «вы» — "[you] reckoned too credulously" — leaving the polite plural to be inferred from the bow of «сударыня». The fronted adverb «слишком легковерно» (too credulously) carries the sneer.

Сотенки две я, пожалуй, с моим даже удовольствием и охотою, а четыре тысячи — это деньги не такие, барышня, чтоб их на такое легкомыслие кидать.  
A couple of hundred I might, perhaps, even with pleasure and gladness — but four thousand, miss, that is not the kind of money one flings away on such frivolity.
> Diminutives «сотенки», «барышня»: «Сотенки» is the diminutive of «сотня» (a hundred) — a dismissive "a measly couple of hundred." «Барышня» is the term for a young unmarried lady of the gentry; in this mouth it turns condescending, a tradesman patronizing his "betters."
> «чтоб» + infinitive of result: «Чтоб» (colloquial «чтобы») here opens a result/purpose clause with an infinitive «кидать»: "not the kind of money [such] that one flings it away." The imperfective «кидать» views the squandering as a careless, repeatable habit.

Обеспокоить себя напрасно изволили.  
You have been pleased to trouble yourself for nothing.
> Archaic polite «изволили» + infinitive: «Изволить» + infinitive is the old deferential auxiliary, "to be pleased / deign to do": «обеспокоить себя… изволили» = "you were pleased to trouble yourself." The form is mock-obsequious here, and «себя» is the reflexive object of «обеспокоить».

Видишь, я бы, конечно, всё потерял, она бы убежала, но зато инфернально, мстительно вышло бы, всего остального стоило бы.  
You see, I would of course have lost everything — she would have run off — but it would have come out infernally, vengefully, worth all the rest of it.
> Chain of conditionals with «бы»: Four parallel conditionals in one breath — «потерял бы, убежала бы, вышло бы, стоило бы» — project the whole unreal scenario. Each pairs a past-form verb with the mobile particle «бы», the standard Russian machinery for "would have…"
> «Инфернально» — infernally: «Инфернальный» (from Latin infernus, hellish) is a fashionable bookish loanword in Dostoevsky's Russia, used for the diabolically seductive or theatrically wicked. Mitya's relish — "it would have come out infernally" — flags the demonic streak he claims for the Karamazov nature.

Выл бы потом всю жизнь от раскаяния, но только чтобы теперь эту штучку отмочить!  
I'd have howled with remorse for the rest of my life afterward, only to pull off that little trick now!
> Conditional «выл бы» + purpose «чтобы»: «Выл бы» is the conditional "I would have howled," and «чтобы… отмочить» gives the perverse purpose — "only so as to pull off that trick now." The lifelong remorse is weighed against, and outweighed by, a single relished moment of spite.
> «Отмочить штучку» — to pull a stunt: «Отмочить» is vivid slang for pulling off some outrageous, unexpected stunt; «отмочить штучку» is "to pull a fast one, play a wild trick." The slangy register marks Mitya's gleeful, self-aware coarseness.

Веришь ли, никогда этого у меня ни с какой не бывало, ни с единою женщиной, чтобы в этакую минуту я на нее глядел с ненавистью, — и вот крест кладу: я на эту глядел тогда секунды три или пять со страшною ненавистью, — с тою самою ненавистью, от которой до любви, до безумнейшей любви — один волосок!  
Would you believe it, never had this happened to me with any woman, not with a single one, that I should look at her at such a moment with hatred — and here I make the sign of the cross: I looked at this one then, for three seconds or five, with a dreadful hatred — the very hatred that is but a hair's breadth from love, from the maddest love!
> Interrogative particle «ли»: «Веришь ли» fronts the verb and follows it with the enclitic «ли» to form the rhetorical "would you believe it?" The «ли» question is more literary and emphatic than a plain rising intonation, a favorite of Dostoevsky's heightened narration.
> Stacked «ни» for emphasis: «Никогда… ни с какой… ни с единою» piles «ни»-phrases ("never… with none… not with a single one") to drive the denial home, all licensed by the verb's «не бывало». The archaic instrumental «единою» (for «единой») heightens the literary tone.
> Relative «которой» + archaic «тою самою»: The relative «которой» (genitive after «от») links back to «ненавистью», taking the case its own clause demands while agreeing in gender/number with its antecedent. «Тою самою» is the archaic instrumental of «та самая» ("that very"), giving the line its old-bookish gravity.

Я подошел к окну, приложил лоб к мерзлому стеклу и помню, что мне лоб обожгло льдом, как огнем.  
I went up to the window, pressed my forehead to the frozen pane, and I remember that the ice scorched my forehead like fire.
> Impersonal «обожгло» + instrumental «льдом»: «Обожгло» is a subjectless neuter verb ("it scorched"), with the affected person in the dative «мне», the body part «лоб» as object, and the instrument «льдом» (ice) in the instrumental — "the ice scorched my forehead." This impersonal-instrumental frame is the natural Russian way to render an elemental force acting on the body.

Долго не задержал, не беспокойся, обернулся, подошел к столу, отворил ящик и достал пятитысячный пятипроцентный безыменный билет (в лексиконе французском лежал у меня).  
I didn't keep her long, don't worry — I turned around, went over to the table, opened the drawer, and took out a five-thousand five-percent bearer bond (it had been lying inside my French dictionary).
> Perfective sequence with prefixed motion: «Обернулся, подошёл» are prefixed perfectives of motion (об-, под- on -вернуться, -ойти), each a single completed move toward the table. Strung with «отворил» and «достал», they march the small action forward beat by beat.
> «Лексикон» — dictionary: «Лексикон» is a somewhat old-fashioned, bookish word for a dictionary or lexicon. That a bearer bond worth 5,000 roubles lay forgotten inside a French dictionary is a telling Karamazov touch — careless wealth and a veneer of culture both.

Затем молча ей показал, сложил, отдал, сам отворил ей дверь в сени и, отступя шаг, поклонился ей в пояс почтительнейшим, проникновеннейшим поклоном, верь тому!  
Then in silence I showed it to her, folded it, handed it over, myself opened the door to the hall for her, and, stepping back a pace, bowed to her from the waist in a most respectful, most heartfelt bow — believe that!
> Archaic gerund «отступя»: «Отступя» is the perfective adverbial participle («деепричастие») of «отступить» — "having stepped back." The -я ending on a perfective is the older, more literary variant (modern usage prefers «отступив»), giving the courtly bow its period flavor. «Шаг» is an accusative of measure (one pace).
> Superlatives in the instrumental: «Поклонился… поклоном» is a cognate-object construction ("bowed a bow") with the instrumental «поклоном» of manner. The two superlatives «почтительнейшим, проникновеннейшим» (most respectful, most heartfelt) agree with it in the instrumental, their -ейш- ending the elevated bookish superlative.

Она вся вздрогнула, посмотрела пристально секунду, страшно побледнела, ну как скатерть, и вдруг, тоже ни слова не говоря, не с порывом, а мягко так, глубоко, тихо, склонилась вся и прямо мне в ноги — лбом до земли, не по-институтски, по-русски!  
She shuddered all over, gazed at me intently for a second, went terribly pale — white as a tablecloth — and suddenly, again without a word, not with a rush but softly, deeply, quietly, she bowed down completely, right to my feet — her forehead to the ground, not in boarding-school fashion but in the Russian way!
> Imperfective gerund «не говоря» + genitive «ни слова»: «Не говоря» is the imperfective present gerund («деепричастие») of attendant circumstance — "saying not a word" while she bows. «Ни слова» is the genitive of negation («слово» in the genitive), intensified by «ни»: not so much as a single word.
> «Побледнела, как скатерть»: "She went pale as a tablecloth" — «скатерть» is a (typically white) tablecloth. The homely simile for deathly pallor is more vivid and oddly domestic than the English "white as a sheet," rooting her terror in everyday objects.

Вскочила и побежала.  
She sprang up and ran out.
> Two-word perfective sentence: «Вскочила» (sprang up — prefixed perfective of «вскочить») and «побежала» (the inceptive perfective of «бежать», "set off running") compress her flight into two clipped completed acts. The prefix по- on «побежала» marks the *beginning* of motion, a productive perfectivizing pattern with motion verbs.

Когда она выбежала, я был при шпаге; я вынул шпагу и хотел было тут же заколоть себя, для чего — не знаю, глупость была страшная, конечно, но, должно быть, от восторга.  
When she had run out, I was wearing my sword; I drew the sword and meant to stab myself then and there — why, I don't know, it was a frightful piece of folly, of course, but it must have been out of rapture.
> The particle «было» of the abandoned action: «Хотел было» uses the special particle «было», which marks an action begun or intended but then broken off — "I made to stab myself [but didn't]." It is a uniquely Russian device for the almost-done deed, perfectly fitting his aborted suicidal impulse. «Себя» is the reflexive object.

Понимаешь ли ты, что от иного восторга можно убить себя; но я не закололся, а только поцеловал шпагу и вложил ее опять в ножны, — о чем, впрочем, мог бы тебе и не упоминать.  
Can you understand that one might kill oneself out of a certain kind of rapture; but I did not run myself through — I only kissed the sword and slid it back into its scabbard — which, by the way, I might just as well not have mentioned to you.
> «ли» question + impersonal «можно убить»: «Понимаешь ли ты» is the literary «ли» question ("can you understand…"). The subordinate clause is impersonal: «можно убить себя» — "one can kill oneself," with the modal «можно» plus infinitive and no nominative subject, the affected person left general.
> Conditional «мог бы»: «Мог бы… не упоминать» is the conditional of softened possibility — "I might just as well not have mentioned it." The particle «бы» on «мог» makes it hypothetical/polite, and the dative «тебе» marks Alyosha as the one *to* whom he need not have said it.
> «Иной» and «восторг»: «Иной» here means "a certain (kind of)" rather than simply "other" — "out of a certain rapture." «Восторг» is ecstatic exaltation, rapture; the Karamazov capacity to be killed by sheer rapture is the paradox Mitya presses on his brother.

И даже, кажется, я сейчас-то, рассказывая обо всех борьбах, немножко размазал, чтобы себя похвалить.  
And it even seems to me that just now, in recounting all these struggles, I've laid it on a bit thick, to flatter myself.
> Imperfective gerund «рассказывая»: «Рассказывая» is the imperfective present gerund («деепричастие»), naming the action going on simultaneously with the main clause — "in [the course of] recounting…" It shares the subject «я» and is the bookish way to bind "while telling" to "I laid it on thick."
> «Размазать» — to lay it on thick: «Размазать» literally "to smear / spread out," used figuratively for overdoing a story, embroidering and dwelling on it self-indulgently. Mitya's self-aware confession — that he has "laid it on a bit thick" to flatter himself — turns the very telling into a moral problem.

Но пусть, пусть так и будет, и черт дери всех шпионов сердца человеческого!  
But let it be, let it stand so, and the devil take all the spies on the human heart!
> Hortative particle «пусть»: «Пусть» + a finite verb forms a 3rd-person imperative of permission or resignation — "let it be so." Doubled («пусть, пусть»), it conveys weary acceptance: let it stand, never mind. «Так и будет» seals it with the future of «быть».
> «Чёрт дери» + «сердце человеческое»: «Чёрт дери» ("the devil take / tear") is an explosive curse, «дери» an imperative of «драть». «Шпионы сердца человеческого» — "spies on the human heart" — is Mitya's contemptuous label for those who pry into one's inmost motives, perhaps the self-analytical voice within.

Вот весь мой этот бывший «случай» с Катериной Ивановной.  
There you have the whole of that bygone "affair" of mine with Katerina Ivanovna.
> Stacked determiners «весь мой этот… бывший»: Russian freely piles determiners and adjectives before a noun: «весь» (all/whole), «мой» (my), «этот» (this), «бывший» (former) all agree with «случай» in masculine singular. The presentative «вот» ("there you have") frames the whole as a summing-up.
> «Случай» in quotation marks: «Случай» means an incident, occurrence, or "affair." Mitya's quotation marks around «случай» — "that bygone *affair*" — make the word self-conscious and ironic, flagging that this was no mere incident but the morally fraught episode he has just bared.

Теперь, значит, брат Иван о нем знает да ты — и только!  
So now brother Ivan knows of it, and you — and that's all!
> Prepositional «о нём» + folksy «да»: «О нём» is «о» + prepositional, the case of the topic one speaks/knows "about" — "knows *of* it." The conjunction «да» here is the colloquial "and," linking «Иван» and «ты», and «и только» caps the list: "and that's all."

Дмитрий Федорович встал, в волнении шагнул шаг и другой, вынул платок, обтер со лба пот, затем сел опять, но не на то место, где прежде сидел, а на другое, на скамью напротив, у другой стены, так что Алеша должен был совсем к нему повернуться.  
Dmitri Fyodorovich rose, took a step and another in his agitation, drew out his handkerchief, wiped the sweat from his brow, then sat down again, but not in the place where he had sat before — on another, on the bench opposite, against the other wall, so that Alyosha had to turn fully toward him.
> Perfective narration returns: After Mitya's confession the narrator resumes in a calm chain of perfective pasts — rose, took a step, drew out, wiped, sat down — each a single completed gesture. The aspect shift from Mitya's feverish present-tense telling back to measured perfective narration cools the scene.
> «Должен был» + к + dative «к нему»: «Должен был» ("had to," past of obligation, agreeing with «Алёша») governs the perfective infinitive «повернуться» (to turn). «К нему» is «к» + dative — the case this preposition always takes, marking the person turned *toward*.
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Source text: public domain (Fyodor Dostoevsky, d. 1881; Russian from the Nauka academic edition via ru.wikisource). English translation: original, © 1732 Studios (2026); rendered freshly from the public-domain Russian, not derived from any prior English translation. Sentence-aligned by 1732 Studios.