#пл��хо

[chitaemvmeste]

The Agency. Continuation VIII

Я поплотнее запахиваю капюшон - так, что лица практически не видно, только кончик носа и очки - и направляюсь к ней.

I pull my hood down, so my face is barely seen, just the tip of the nose and glasses, and head to her. The word запахивать is very rare now, it may seem that is somehow connected with запах (smell), but no. I didn’t try to find an equivalent in English and never mind about it. Плотнее means tighter, and prefix по- is a colloquial form of a comparative degree besides the ending -ee. We use it to say “a little bit more”. So he pulled the hood down even more than it was before and the fabric tightens, so that’s why the word “плотный” is here. “Лица не видно” is a passive construction, that’s why the noun is in Genitive, and the verb видеть (see) has this strange form. Направление is direction, and направляться к (imprf) is to head to some particular point. After preposition к there’s always Dative (ней).

Свои обычные тёмные очки я сегодня надевать не стал - выбрал другие, с круглыми зеркальными стёклами. 

I decided not to wear my usual sunglasses today, chose other ones, with round mirror glass. The construction of the first part is quite complicated, it starts from “my usual sunglasses” and the most difficult part is about “не стал надевать”. “Стал” is the past form of стать (become) but here can be translated as decided not to. I’ll make a post on @uchimsyavmeste about it later today, I hope. Стёкла here means glass lenses. It’s common in Russian to call “стекло” (glass as a material) everything that is made of glass (Windows, lenses and so on). After the preposition c the adjective and the noun are Instrumental.

Я не хочу, чтобы она запомнила меня, но беспокоиться не о чем, и я могу подойти к ней совсем близко.

I don’t want her to remember me, but there’s nothing to worry about, and I can approach her very closely. Запомнить is the perfective form of помнить (remember) and means “memorize”, and I doubt that you can memorize a face in English, but the meaning is to see for the first time and remember it from now on. Беспокоиться не о чем can be learnt as there’s nothing to worry about. To pronounce it right не о чем should be said as it’s one word with the first е stressed. 

Она будет смотреть, но запомнит только себя - своё отражение на моём лице.

She’ll look [at me], but will remember only herself, her reflection on my face. Everything should be clear here. На моём лице is Prepositional as we can ask (отражение где?) on the surface of a face.

У неё добрая круглая физиономия с тремя дрожащими подбородками.

She has a kind round face with three trembling chins. Физиономия is not a very pleasant word for a face. It’s close to ugly, but more of ridiculous. Your face can be called физиономия while making a funny grimace. It’s not a rude word, but you better not call a stranger’s face this way. Дрожащие подбородки should produce an association with a trembling jelly. In the text, it’s Instrumental plural.

Глупые голубые глаза изучают себя в моих зеркалах, когда я тихо прошу её дать мне адрес Писателя.

Stupid blue eyes are studying themselves in my mirrors when I quietly ask her to give me the Writer’s address. Писателя - Genitive because we can ask (whose address?). Possession is Genitive.

Кто я? Просто большой поклонник его таланта... Такое горе...

Who am I? Just a big admirer of his talent... Such misery... Поклонник is the same as fan, but without this connotation of craziness and aggression. 

У меня тоже дети, страшно себе представить...

I also have kids, it’s scary to imagine... себе here is a part of a colloquial element here that does not mean anything. It can mean imagine oneself, but it’s clear that we can only imagine in our own heads and there’s no other option. But it’s a part of the phrase anyway and can be used without this word too.

Нет, я не собираюсь надоедать визитами, я просто хочу отправить письмо с соболезнованиями, вы же знаете, иногда это помогает.

No, I’m not going to annoy [him] with visits, I just want to send a letter of sympathy and condolence, you know that sometimes it helps, don’t you?  Мои соболезнования - is a phrase to say to a person who has just lost a relative or a friend (my condolence). There’s no question in the text as you see, but it’s the only way for me to express this же word. We use it to remind about commonly known information. More info on же here.

Я бы ограничился телефонным звонком, но у них ведь нет телефона.

I would be satisfied with a phone call, but they don’t have a telephone, do they? Literally, this means: I would restrict myself with a phone call, meaning that I don’t need too much, just a phone call”. Ведь means exactly the same as же and they can be interchangeable.

Она доверчиво кивает и диктует адрес.

She nods gullibly and dictates the address.

Next part Previous part The beginning of the story

[uchimsyavmeste]

Я чувствую себя

If you had an opportunity to speak English to a Russian, there’s a high chance that you had a similar dialog: you: Hey, how are you? a Russian: I feel myself great! It’s not a joke or an attempt to abuse you. Russian often tends to omit “unnecessary” elements, like articles or “be” in present tense (can’t we really do without them?) or we don’t say “I brush MY teeth”, because who else’s teeth can I brush, I’m not a dentist.  But this structure “I feel” requires “себя” - “oneself”, otherwise it can be unclear what you mean by saying: “Я чувствую хорошо”. Sounds like your sensory organs are working fine. So you can say: Я чувствую себя хорошо/плохо, can say лучше/хуже (better/worse) in case you are sick. You can say: “Я чувствую себя как дома” (I feel like home), Я чувствую себя не в своей тарелке (lit. not in my plate/ like a fish out of water). With other pronouns we change the verb, but “себя” will always stay the same. Он чувствует себя чужим в их компании (he feels strange in their comany). Notice that чужой is an adjective, and it is put in the Instrumental case. Мы чувствуем себя важными когда голосуем на выборах (we feel important when we vote in elections). Важными - Instrumental plural adjective. Когда она надевала корону, она чувствовала себя королевой (when she put on a crown, she felt like a queen). Королевой - an Instrumental singular noun in such sentences can substitute “она чувствовала себя как королева (Nom.)”, which is also possible.

[uchimsyavmeste]

Dative personal pronoun

To say even the simplest “I like you” (but not “I love you”), we need to change the syntax of the sentence. It’s not “I”, who is the subject, but “you”, or anything that is liked. So the most literal meaning of the Russian phrase “I like you”, which is “ты мне нравишься” is “you are liked by me”, though this “by me” formula usually works for Instrumental case. It may seem unusual for the English language, but German, for example, (and I’m sure many other languages) also has “du gefällt mir” (I like you) which is absolutely the same as in Russian. Here I’ve already tried to explain a bit the function of the Dative case, and I think it requires a little bit more commentary, especially about the personal pronoun constructions like “ты мне нравишься”.

Some of the phrases can be only learned. If you don’t know that “I like *anything*” should be said this particular way, there’s a small chance you can make it up correctly yourself.

But it’s easier with, for example, expressing feelings. When you’re about to say “I feel bad” or “I feel great” or “I feel ashamed”, “I feel bored”, then in Russian it’s most likely “мне плохо”/”мне хорошо”/”мне стыдно”/”мне скучно”. It would not be the Russian language if there were no exceptions, but it's very common anyway. For example, you can’t say “I feel humiliated” or “I feel happy” the same way in Russian, because these two words are different parts of speech. “мне…” only works with adverbs. In Russian “bored” and “ashamed” are adverbs. And “humiliated” or “happy” are not. For this case, we have “Я чувствую себя” (I feel), but this one requires one more post, so I won’t tackle it now. In conclusion, if you can express your feeling with an adverb, use “мне…” construction, don’t say “я чувствую холод”, say “мне холодно”, because the first one sounds like “I feel the coldness” instead of “I’m cold”. The same is about the other personal pronouns of the Dative case - тебе, ей, ему, нам, вам, им.

One more interesting way we use them in modern Russian.  First of all, “Она дала ему книгу” - “She gave him a book” - a typical Dative case example, where he is a recipient, so we change he into him - он into ему. “Она посмотрела ему в глаза” - “She looked him in the eye” - It’s also Dative, the same pronouns as in the first example in both languages. And while for English it’s not very common to speak such constructions, in Russian it’s absolutely ok to say “Она дала книгу ему в руки” (she gave the book him in the hands) or “Она ударила ему в нос” (she punched him in the nose”, though it’s also possible to say “она ударила его…” with Accusative.  Ты наступил мне на ногу - You stepped me on the foot Мы сломали ему жизнь - We ruined him the life In all the examples the subject does something with a part of a recipient, whether it’s a body part or something that belongs to them. ”Они написали картину ему на день рождения” - they painted a picture [for] him for the birthday instead of “for his birthday”. This picture is for him, it belongs to him. Я приготовила суп тебе на ужин - I cooked a soup [for] you for the dinner. This soup is cooked for him, it’s “his” soup, though we don’t say it this way. Russians don’t use “my”, “yours”, “his” possessive pronouns as much as English speakers do, we more often say nothing or use a Dative personal pronoun.

“You like to comb my hair”. According to what has been said, the best translation for this phrase would be “Тебе нравится причёсывать мне волосы”.