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1. По грибы: Accusative is used when it's about the aim of somebodie's "going" or "coming".
e.g. Мы пришли по твою душу. (*We have come for your soul -> We have come to kill you, to take your soul away with us) - sometimes they use it ironically (if you're sitting in a cafe in your free time and you see somebody of your colleagues coming to take you back to work or your chef who wants to criticize you).
Though, we say so relative seldom: it's like an idiom referring to mushrooms and berries (ходить по грибы / по ягоды).

2. По щиколку is the author's word for "по щиколотку" (may be it's a dialekt word or просторечие). It means that the grass is a bit higher than one's feet ("to the ankle"?).

3. Тьма / Темнота - no semantical difference, but тьма sounds a little more ancient, poetical and meaningful.
e.g. тьма египетская, referring to the Bible

From:

gera.livejournal.com

Why "по грибы" and not "по грибам"?

Steady expression. May have to do with its rural origin.

And then later on, the "по щиколку" in the grass?

Up to the ankle, ankle deep. Works with other things: по колено, по пояс, по горло.

What's the difference between "тьма" and "темнота"?

Just styllistical. The former is more poetic.

I didn't understand this line "Нам вехой - наша тень"

Our guiding line (or reference point) is our shadow.
Нам вехой -> является вехой для нас. Also poetic.

"Едва ль до нас заре сквозь чащу дотянуться".
The dawn will hardly make it to us through the thicket.

In both cases the predicate is missing - common in Russian poetry.

волнушки - kind of mushroom.

куцо - short (куцый, куцая).
Kind of archaic.

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ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com

"по грибы" is idiomatic, it means "mushroom hunting".
"по щиколку" = "по щиколотку" is "up to ankle".
"тьма" is more poetic.
"Нам вехой - наша тень" = "Нам вехой служит наша тень", "our shadow is our guide".
"Едва ль до нас заре сквозь чащу дотянуться" = "Едва ль до нас заря сможет сквозь чащу дотянуться". "Едва ль" = "едва ли" is "hardly". Ему не сделать этого = Он не сможет сделать этого. Едва ли ему сделать это = Едва ли он сможет сделать это.
волнушки are a kind of mushrooms, coral milky cap.
куцо = adverb from куцый, short, scanty, curtailed.

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4. "Нам вехой - наша тень" -> "Наша тень служит нам вехой."
(Instrumental because of the verb служить - кем? чем?)
Our shadow is like an "ориентир" for us, with the help of our shadow we can orient ourselves in the wood / forest.
The word "веха" has more usual meaning "mile pile" (I'm not sure about the english construction), nowadays mosly in absract contexts: "вехи [в] истории Отечества"

5. "Едва ль до нас заре сквозь чащу дотянуться" -> "Едва ли / Вряд ли заря сможет дотянуться до нас"
modal meaning (possibility) can sometimes be expressed with infinitiv + logical subject in dative:
Ему нас не догнать. -> Он не может / не сможет догнать нас. (He won't be able to capture us)
Ей не жить. -> Она не выживет. (She is unlikely to survive)
Не мне тебя учить. -> Я не могу учить тебя. (I'm not qualified enough / I don't know enough to teach you)

6. Куцо (also куце) is an adverb from the adjective куцый. Referring to the time (время отмерено так куце) it means "shortly", "too little".

7. Волнушки are a kind of mushrooms. In my dictionary: "coral milky cap"

From:

ex-kurunir601.livejournal.com

Why "по грибы" and not "по грибам"?

It depends of the local dialect.

What's the difference between "тьма" and "темнота"?

there is no difference between "тьма" and "темнота" in this case.

I didn't understand this line "Нам вехой - наша тень"
and this one "Едва ль до нас заре сквозь чащу дотянуться"

One of receptions of orientation in the forest or some wild ground without a compass,
by sun.

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wolk-off.livejournal.com

>Why "по грибы" and not "по грибам"?

>It depends of the local dialect.

No way. Nobody would ever say "по грибам" meaning that he's set off for mushroom hunting. "Идти по грибам" might exclusively mean that somebody was actually stepping on the mushrooms :)

From:

ex-kurunir601.livejournal.com

"Идти по грибам" might exclusively
mean that somebody was actually stepping on the mushrooms :)

Ага, счас :-) А "идти по бл#дям" might exclusively mean that
somebody was actually stepping on the girls?! 8-)

From:

wolk-off.livejournal.com

There is no such construction - in fact, you mix a perfect/imprefect pair of verbs together. In this case, this would be "пойти/ходить", not "идти". Anyway, you mix up different set expressions. Your example, being fixed with the right form of verb, would be correct grammatically (though unnecessarily foul,) but it's another story - it's a set expression, like in "пойти по рукам" (nobody would expect that somebody walked someone's hands, as you might guess - this set expression ony means that something/someone startet to change owners/users swiftly.) Note that "пойти по грибам" sounds even more weird than "идти по грибам". Set expressions are not necessarily grammatically clear and correct, you see.

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suku-vse.livejournal.com

О! Отличная тема, между прочим:

пойти по бабам- Но пойти по грибы, пойти по ягоды

пойти по блядям
пойти по рукам
пойти по мужикам

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Out of curiosity... since it was censored in the last comment, what does блядь (or however the spelling is) mean?

And shouldn't... I'm confused. Because if you're saying пойти по рукам meaning "hand in hand" and пойти по мужикам means "go by the men" and пойти по блядям means "to go for a 'good time'", then... where and how and what and... it's confusing! HELP!

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::Why "по грибы" and not "по грибам"?
:It depends of the local dialect.

No it does not. "пойти по грибам" is not correct in any dialect or literary Russian, unless you mean physically walking on a layer of mushrooms which hardly makes sense. "Пойти по грибы (по ягоды, по воду)" is quite correct.

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"пойти по рукам" actually does not mean "hand in hand"; it is usually said about a woman who "went bad" and started having many sexual partners or change them frequently. It is insulting.

блядь is a very dirty word for a prostitute or a bad woman in general; can also be used to characterise men, or generally as an interjection. Works well together with the previous expression. Пойти по *** therefore means to go to a brothel or to use a prostitute's service. Пойти по бабам is usually said about a man who goes somewhere to have sex (usually not paid sex, unlike the previous expression). Note the absense of negative judgement compared with "пошла по рукам".

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Please do not forget that the working language of this community is English. However insightful your comment may be, many people here will not be able to benefit from it unless you provide an English translation. Thanks in advance.

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P.S. I am not really sure what "пойти по мужикам" would mean, but I can guess that it is a female equivalent of "пойти по бабам". I never came across this one before. Maybe this is a recent time development created to achieve the balance of male and female roles. Normally (linguistically speaking) the woman's role is considered passive (as in "пошла по рукам" which is also used to speak about a thing passed from one owner to another), while the man's role is active (in "он пошел по бабам" the man is the actor).

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This certainly is news to me. How strong is the connotation по женщинам/мужикам? Or... in describing a situation. For example "Я ходил по каким-то мужикам когда увидел старого друга?" No one would think I was going around for men, would they? I... whew... I'm at a lost.

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"Я ходил по каким-то мужикам когда увидел старого друга?"

This phrase does not make any sense whatsoever. What exactly did you want to say?

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I was walking by some men when I saw an old friend.

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Sorry, my English is not good enough to understand "walking by some men". Do you mean that they were standing on the street and you were walking by? Or that you went visiting some of your male friends? Anyway, пойти по мужикам is not applicable in any of these cases. It is applicable only in sex-related context. Besides, "ходить (пойти) по бабам/мужикам" is a set phrase, so you can use neither "идти по мужикам" nor "ходить по каким-то мужикам". Both of these would mean that you are physically walking upon a layer of men lying down.

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>Do you mean that they were standing on the street and you were walking by?

Yes, it's a rather random sentence, but I was trying to make a point. Hm... I didn't realize по meant you were walking on them. I've learned по meaning either in an aimlessly manner or by something or someone. But come to think of it... there's мимо.

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I would say that the main meaning of по would be "on" or "upon", as in ходить по полу - to walk upon the floor, ходить по канату - to walk a tightrope. Also
ходить по школе/по дому - to walk all over school/house (not necessarily aimlessly, maybe with an inspection or looking for something etc.)
идти по улице - walk down the street (again, does not mean walking aimlessly)
ходить по домам - make house visits (about a doctor etc.)
ходить по урокам - give lessons at the pupils' houses

another usage of по is
по пятницам, по нечетным дням (something is done on Fridays, on odd days)

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>Не мне тебя учить. -> Я не могу учить тебя. (I'm not qualified enough / I don't know enough to teach you)

Thank you! For some reason... I didn't make the connection between pronouns and being able to use it for other nouns. )

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BTW "ходить по женщинам" also means either physically walking upon a layer of women or visiting women, going from one woman's house to another... It may still have some sexual connotations but much, much less than the original. As soon as you change the set phrase, even a little, its meaning changes quite a lot. Consider "кровь с молоком" (an idiom meaning healthy complexion, this of white skin with red cheeks) and "молоко с кровью" (which is milk probably coming from a sick cow or something, and makes a plainly disgusting image)

From:

wolk-off.livejournal.com

I have never heard this one, either. As far as I'm concerned there's a simple (though really insulting) verb that describes that same behavior as in "пойти по бабам", only applied to women, not men - "забл*довать".

From:

staring-frog.livejournal.com

>Не мне тебя учить. -> Я не могу учить тебя.

It's more like "It's not me who would teach you" (accent on "me")

From:

staring-frog.livejournal.com

As you noted below, "пойти по рукам" is not necessarily about women, but more about a thing/book. For example, when you borrow your friend's book, and then someone boorows it from you, the book "пошла по рукам".

From:

ex-kurunir601.livejournal.com

I'm agree with you, because I'm live in city. But i meant country folks dialect.
I have some еxperience on communication with country folks, and i heard very frequently this phrase for ignore this fact.

From:

est-lladon.livejournal.com

тьма - is more poetical and usually refers to some "greater" darkness. For example when you turn lights of in your house it is always "темнота", but when in some fantasy book an evil warlock put whole land in darkness it will be "тьма".

тьма is also ancient russian word for "ten thousand". And there are still some expressions in russian language referring to this meaning:
там тьма(or even тьма-тьмущая) народу - there are lots of people there

From:

est-lladon.livejournal.com

and not only Dative and Accusative, but some times even Propositional (о ком)after it:

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" - "По ком звонит колокол"

:-)

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parallel to the sentences with pronouns:
Ему нас не догнать. - Этому злодею нас не догнать.
Ей не жить. - Этой старушке не жить.
Не мне тебя учить. - Не такому идиоту тебя учить. :)

See also:
e.g. Этому негодяю несдобровать! (I'm not quite sure what's the english for it. According to the dictionary: This villain / scoundrel is in for it.) It means that this evil man cannot expect anything good - they will beat him or something like that.

or

Такой красавице недолго быть одной. - Such a beautiful woman cannot / will not stay alone for a long time - somebody will soon become her man or her boyfriend.

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