Translation question

[quem98.livejournal.com]

I found an old family letter that my mother wants me to translate, and I came across a wierd spot.

Начала я еще до войны вышиветь на грубой панаме гуцульским узором (низина) ковер, для только что родившейся племянницей.  Вышила 3/4 черной шерстью как шло а дальше работу приостановилась, не могы подобрать нужной шерсти.  Наши гуцулки заброцили старую ношу, одеваються по модерному, и не красит ниток.  Моя племянница давно замужем, сама имеет дочуркуи им приходиться напрасно дожидать обешанного коврика.  мы обое живем по стариковски. 

This is the best I got...

Before the war, I began embroidering a rug on a crude _____ [multitran says panama hat] using a Hutsul (lowland)  pattern for my newborn niece. After stitching ¾ of the black wool, it so happened that I stopped further work, and I can’t match it with the right wool.  Our Hutsuls have abandoned the old burden [ways?], dress modernly, and don’t embroider.  My niece has been long married, has her own little girl, and they must await the promised rug in vain. We live as old people. 

Comments

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

here, ноша must be dialectal for something that's worn

[oryx_and_crake]

и не красит ниток. - it is not "embroidering". They don't dye wool any more. That's the reason that the letter's writer could not find the black wool of the required colour. Evidently for this type of embroidering the homemade and home-dyed wool was used.

[oryx_and_crake]

ноша (a burden) can also refer to the old householding ways, like doing everything manually (keeping sheep, carding wool, spinning, dying, weaving, embroidering) instead of buying it ready-made. The younger hutsuls abandoned this way of living, preferring the new labour-saving ways.

[quem98.livejournal.com]

Oh ok... and на панаме... What on earth could that mean? I'm flummoxed.

[oryx_and_crake]

could be either a hutsul hat (not likely because she mentions a rug) or some dialect word meaning felt

[oryx_and_crake]

Actually, according to Russian Wikipedia, panama is a kind of cloth:
it says "Панама (ткань) — вид ткани". Unfortunately, there are no details. But it is very likely that she was embroidering a rug on a piece of rough cloth.

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. Some corrections for your translation:
Вышила 3/4 черной шерстью как шло а дальше работу приостановилась, не могы подобрать нужной шерсти.
I have embroidered three quarters of it as well as I could and then I stopped because I could not find the right wool.

[oryx_and_crake]

That was mostly women's responsibility and I can very well understand why someone might call it a burden. It may also explain the last sentence. The author says that she (and presumably her husband are still keeping the old ways, meaning, probably, that she would do the handcrafts if she only had the required materials.

[sofa-m.livejournal.com]

"жить по стариковски" does not necessarily mean keeping old ways - my grandparents say it all the time when asked about their health -
- 'как дела?'
- 'по стариковски'
meaning, what else can you expect from them at this age; that it's going as well as it can at their age, etc...

[oryx_and_crake]

In general, yes. But in this context it is likely a contraposition with what was said earlier about young hutsuls not keeping the old ways.

[quem98.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think she's right, because after that paragraph, she talks about her health and the problems of old age.

[oryx_and_crake]

Oh, I see.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

"Ноша" here is "wear", not "burden". The whole letter is heavy on dialectisms and colloquialisms. "И не красит ниток" is "and don't dye wool/threads".

[quem98.livejournal.com]

That's me retyping a section of the letter at 3 am and misspelling могла and забросили.