A Reckless Character, and Other StoriesTurgenev, Ivan Sergeevich
General
A Reckless Character, and Other Stories
Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich
Russia -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich, 1818-1883 -- Translations into English
[32] The author is slightly sarcastic in the name he has chosen for this
family, which is derived from _telyega_, a peasant-cart.--TRANSLATOR.
[33] St. Petersburg.--TRANSLATOR.
[34] Both these are bad omens, according to superstitious
Russians.--TRANSLATOR.
[35] Priests and monks in Russia wear their hair and beards long to
resemble the pictures of Christ. Missionaries in foreign lands are
permitted to conform to the custom of the country and cut it
short.--TRANSLATOR.
[36] "Had been educated on copper coins" is the Russian expression. That
is, had received a cheap education.--TRANSLATOR.
[37] The nickname generally applied by the Little Russians to the Great
Russians.--TRANSLATOR.
[38] The racing-drozhky is frequently used in the country. It consists
of a plank, without springs, mounted on four small wheels of equal size.
The driver sits flat on the plank, which may or may not be
upholstered.--TRANSLATOR.
[39] The baptismal cross.--TRANSLATOR.
[40] The bath-besom is made of birch-twigs with the leaves attached, and
is soaked in hot water (or in beer) to keep it soft. The massage
administered with the besom is delightful. The peasants often use besoms
of nettles, as a luxury. The shredded linden bark is used as a
sponge.--TRANSLATOR.
[41] The great manoeuvre plain, near which the Moscow garrison is
lodged, in the vicinity of Petrovsky Park and Palace. Here the disaster
took place during the coronation festivities of the present
Emperor.--TRANSLATOR.
[42] It is very rarely that a bishop performs the marriage ceremony. All
bishops are monks; and monks are not supposed to perform ceremonies
connected with the things which they have renounced. The exceptions are
when monks are appointed parish priests (as in some of the American
parishes, for instance), and, therefore, must fulfil the obligations of
a married parish priest; or when the chaplain-monk on war-ships is
called upon, at times, to minister to scattered Orthodox, in a port
which has no settled priest.--TRANSLATOR.
[43] The Order of St. George, with its black and orange ribbon, must be
won by great personal bravery--like the Victoria Cross.--TRANSLATOR.
[44] Head of the Secret Service under Alexander I.--TRANSLATOR.
[45] That is, living too long.--TRANSLATOR.
[46] _Sukhoy_, dry; _Sukhikh_, genitive plural (proper names are
declinable), meaning, "one of the Sukhoys."--TRANSLATOR.
[47] The third from the top in the Table of Ranks instituted by Peter
the Great.--TRANSLATOR.
[48] Corresponding, in a measure, to an American State.--TRANSLATOR.
[49] The Great Russians' scornful nickname for a Little
Russian.--TRANSLATOR.
[50] Each coachman has his own pair or troika of horses to attend to,
and has nothing to do with any other horses which may be in the
stable.--TRANSLATOR.
[51] Yakoff (James) Daniel Bruce, a Russian engineer, of Scottish
extraction, born in Moscow, 1670, became Grand Master of the Artillery
in 1711, and died in 1735.--TRANSLATOR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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