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In general, it is a forked twig (a piece of a tree branch). But I would like to see the entire phrase, to be sure.

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dr-s.livejournal.com

Рогулька can be analyzed as рог (horn) + -улька (diminutive suffix). That is, some unidentified small object, resembling a horn (crooked, protruding, maybe forked).

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Oh, I found the story. In this context it means "a thing with horns". Please note that this usage of "рогулька" is highly unusual - in everyday life, I think, no one understands "рогулька" in this sense until you explain.

And this is yet another corroboration of the fact that when asking for a translation of a certain word, you SHOULD ALWAYS explain the context and/or quote the entire sentence.

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In general, correct, but in this case your method does not work, please see the original story by Zoshchenko
http://www.azbuk.net/cgi-bin/az/az_book.cgi?aut_id=1387&book_id=4633&type=html

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Sorry, I just assumed it must be a slang word for something.

So in this sentence, it would mean something like flotsam or debris?

Выплыл наружу и сразу же ухватился рукой за какую-то рогульку, которая торчала из-под воды.

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No it's not; I suppose that you have not finished reading the story. The main character grasped some floating thing with horns, which later proved to be a floating mine (it is normally, as far as I remember, a sphere with several horns protruding from it).

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Yeah, I just started reading it.

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Have fun.
:-)

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Note, that Zoshenko's characters usually speak incorrect Russian. And since most of his stories are kind of being told by the characters' themselves, this also applies to the author's text.
Their mistakes are pretty funny for the Russian speakers and make it a very delightful reading, but the language learners should be very careful.
I would rate his stories: Russian speaker's guidance required :)

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Why not? It is a horn-like handle on a sea mine.

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I had an impression that the author uses рогулька as a name for the whole thing (sphere with horns), not for one of the handles. But you might be right.

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I second this. Besides, you have to know the cultural realities of Russian life of 1920s and 30s to understand the stories properly. Amnd all in all, they might impress you as horror stories, not funny stories that they are supposed to be.

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I've read many of his short stories in English already. I wrote a thesis paper on gender relations in the 1920s and used one of his short stories about a man and a woman who meet, marry and divorce all in one day.

Though I realize I probably missed out on a lot of what makes them funny by reading them in translation, I found them to be quite humorous nonetheless, which was why I thought I might tackle them in Russian, for a challenge.

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Good luck then, and we'll be happy to answer any of your questions.

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used one of his short stories about a man and a woman who meet, marry and divorce all in one day

Is it the one where he couldn't recognize her at the wedding?
That wasn't on the same day, though :)

which was why I thought I might tackle them in Russian, for a challenge.

Good luck. Well, the mistakes are not that bad or that numerous, but it is usually a simpleton's language (purposely so).

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I can't remember (I read it over two years ago).... you may be right. They met on the bus and she was wearing a hat or something that covered her face, so he didn't recognize her at the wedding.

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