Little bit of translation help?

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Zoshchenko's "Летняя передышка" and I'm having trouble with this sentence:

Один у нас такой был жилец--грузчик, так он буквально свихнулся на этой почве.

The first half is throwing me for a loop. I feel like I should understand it, but each time I think I have it puzzled out I get confused again. If you need more context, let me know.

Edit: The typos were my fault, and aren't what's confusing me. (I'm just horrible at spotting my own typos in Russian.)

Comments

[grinkod.livejournal.com]

это наверное хилый человек который всех грузит =) типа зануда =)

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

's a typo. you want «жилец — грузчик»

[night1ngale.livejournal.com]

It's misprinted text.
Original:
Один у нас такой был жилец — грузчик, так он буквально свихнулся на этой почве. Он спать перестал и всё добивался, кто из жильцов по ночам алгебру читает и кто на вилках продукты греет. И не стало человека. Свихнулся.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

That's my fault. It's correct in the copy I'm using.

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

"we had one tenant here, a porter, he literally lost his wits on this ground".

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

What's the main trouble?

[colonelrabin.livejournal.com]

What don't you understand exactly?

"свихнуться" is a colloquial for "сойти с ума" - to get crazy.

"на почве чего-либо" means "в связи с чем-то" - in connection with smth., because of smth.

Is something else to detailize?

Re: What's the main trouble?

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Один у нас такой был жилец--грузчик

The syntax in this part is just very foreign, which makes it harder to work around the parts I don't understand.

How is ""такой" being used here? Is it just being used as emphasis?

Also, it looks like "жилец--грузчик" is being used as a relative phrase ("tenant who is a porter") because of the context, but I don't remember seeing that type of construction being used as a relative before. I want to read it as "the tenant is a porter" but that doesn't fit into the sentence.

Re: What's the main trouble?

[colonelrabin.livejournal.com]

"tenant who is a porter" is absolutely correct. The texts of Zoschenko may have a certain syntax mannerism. Also, check whether a hyphen or a dash have been used. In the former case there can exist NO OTHER explanation except "tenant who was a porter".

"такой" is being used in the meaning like "the guy like that, you know". So, mostly really as emphasis.

[oryx_and_crake]

Please note that this community's working language is English.

Re: What's the main trouble?

[ming-lian.livejournal.com]

why do you think the sentence makes no sence? he is telling us about a tenant. who was (the writer uses dash instead of verb) a porter.

Re: What's the main trouble?

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

It doesn't make no sense. My Russian is just sometimes not good enough to deal with Zoschchenko. =)