Language through Literature

The Student


Кричали дрозды, и по соседству в болотах что-то живое жалобно гудело, точно дуло в пустую бутылку.

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Thrushes were calling, and close by in the marshes something alive was humming plaintively, as though blowing into an empty bottle.

Where it stands

Погода вначале была хорошая, тихая. At first the weather was fine and still.

Протянул один вальдшнеп, и выстрел по нем прозвучал в весеннем воздухе раскатисто и весело. A solitary woodcock came flighting over, and the shot fired at it rang out in the spring air, rolling and gay.

Но когда стемнело в лесу, некстати подул с востока холодный пронизывающий ветер, всё смолкло. But when it grew dark in the forest, a cold, piercing wind blew up out of the east, quite out of season, and everything fell silent.

The words in this sentence

крича́ли
they shouted (past pl) — кричать
дрозды́
thrushes (nom pl) — дрозд
и
and; also, even
по
along, by, according to (+dat)
сосе́дству
neighborhood (dat sg); «по соседству» nearby — соседство
в
in, into
боло́тах
in the marshes (prep pl) — болото
что́-то
something; somehow
живо́е
living, alive (n sg) — живой
жа́лобно
plaintively, pitifully
гуде́ло
it droned, hummed (past n) — гудеть
то́чно
exactly; as if
ду́ло
it blew (past n, impersonal of дуть); also muzzle — дуть
пусту́ю
empty (acc f adj) — пустой
буты́лку
bottle (acc sg) — бутылка

А. П. Чехов, «Студент», 1894 · sentence 1 of 52

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