Problem with comprehension

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

As we all know, russians word sentences differently thank native speakers of english do in russian. It is because of this factor I have much difficulty understanding russian text, especially this exerpt from "The seasons through russian literature":

Зимяя Дорога

сквозь волнистые туманы
пробирается луна
на печальные поляны
льёт печально свет она.

По дороге зимней, скучной,
тройка борзая бежит,
колокольчик однозвучный
утомительно гремит.

Что-то слышатся родное
в долгих песнях ямщика:
то разгулье удалое,
то сердечная тоска

Ни огня, ни чёрной хаты...
Глущь и снег...Навстречу мне
только вёрсты полосаты
попадаются одне.

I translated it as this, well, as far as I could get:

Through the way fog
The moon shines through
At the sorrowful meadows
It gives faint light.

On the wintery road, boring,
Тройка(?) russian winter dog runs,
a monotonous hand-bell
rings tiresomely.

Something dear is heard in the long songs of the driver:
A bold spree,
A warm depressing...

Neither a fire, nor a black hut...
The wild and the snow...Through to me
only striped versti
hit one.

I know for a fact I didn't translate this correctly. If someone would be as kind as to translate this all for me, and show me how they got it grammatically, that'd be great. Thanks!

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

тройка is three horses
бОрзая is not a dog (you have confused it with борзАя which is a greyhound) but an adjective, synonym to быстрая (fast, speedy). So, тройка борзая бежит means that three horses harnessed into some kind of chariot are running fast.

The rest is very fine except for the last lines

Навстречу мне
Только версты полосаты
Попадаются одне -

Towards me (i.e. in the opposite direction on the road)
Only the striped mileposts I can see.
(версты is short for верстовые столбы; верста is an obsolete measure of distance, about 1.8 km if I am not mistaken;
одне is an outdated version of одни which in this context means "only")

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. сердечная тоска is more like "heart's sorrow"

[oryx_and_crake]

P.P.S. колокольчик in this case is not a hand-bell but one fixed on the horses' harness.

[lena-talaeva.livejournal.com]

( лошадей) troika {three horses harnessedabreast}, carriage-and-three;

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

Well, apparently I only found one mistake... Тройка means three horses harnessed abreast, борзая is an old-fashion word for swift. Борзый конь means 'swift steed'. Th rest seems fine, though I am rather tired and could have missed smth.

Please keep in mind that poetry is constructed differently in Russian and in English and can never be easily translated.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

Hey, it was certainly not the only mistake :)
But it's fine...

Do you know the author's name, btw?

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

It's Pushkin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Pushkin).

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

Я в курсе, спасибо :)))
Меня интересовало, знает ли автор поста.

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

> Зимяя Дорога
Btw, it's "зимняя дорога", a winter road.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Well, thanks a lot. I didn't understand a big part of it because of the grammar and what not. However, I do ponder why they worded like this, with two words means only.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Wow. I totally missed on that.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

How would one know the difference?

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Thanks. My dictionary didn't give me horse. Why wouldn't one use ëîùàäü though?

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry, I haven't looked into your LJ before posting the answer ;))

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

it's ok, never mind

[gland.livejournal.com]

In translations of Russian literature, words like "troika", "versts", and "borzois" are never converted to American equivalents. It would be like translating borshch as "Campbell's Soup". See also samovar, roubles, drozhky.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I can get it. I was given the name only in russian, so here it goes: À. Ïóøêèíà.

[chirashi-don.livejournal.com]

тройка is the title of my учебник. it's three horses -i think from a myth.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

My bad.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

How would I translate them then?

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

I see.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Wicked.

[lena-talaeva.livejournal.com]

ëîùàäü -???
я только учу английский,
словари - это только словари :)
а тройка - это 3 лошади, запряженные в 1 сани (как вилка), использовались зимой для быстрой езды

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

I am Russian myself and I know it, just wanted to focus your attention on the name, because if you ever deal with Russians they will be most pleased to find out you know their greatest poet's name :))

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

it's not a myth, it's just a traditional way of harnessing horses.