Translation problems

[roselyndoll.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I'm trying to translate a short story Еврейка Верочка as an exercise and I have problems with some of the utterances. I'd be glad if someone could help me with these:

брючница - I guess this is a person who makes trousers?
дым стоял коромыслом - There was a stir?
она-то - What is the meaning of то here? (она-то все делала как...)
светлая мечта - What kind of dream is this? Happy?
дела мои шли, в свою очередь, далеко не блистяще, было не до брюк - What does далеко не блистяще, было не до брюк mean? She speaks of trousers which she wanted to have made but never got herself to go to the seamstress.

Comments

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>дым стоял коромыслом primarily means that there was a party with loud noise, a lot of smoking, drinking etc.

>-то is an emphasizing particle with no standalone meaning. It means that [unlike others,] SHE was doing everything like...

>светлая мечта - What kind of dream is this? Happy?
Happy, lofted

>дела мои шли, в свою очередь, далеко не блистяще, было не до брюк
1st of all, it must be блестяще. Дела идут не блестяще means that [her] own business [or life circumstances] are not good (and therefore she has other more important problems to deal with than trousers.)

[roselyndoll.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And yes, блистяще was a typo. :)

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

Светлая мечта is an expression, which is equivalent to English expression sweet dream.

она-то всё делала... - as for her, she was doing things...

Дела мои шли, в свою очередь, далеко не блестяще, было не до брюк - On the other hand, I was not doing very well, I had other things to worry but pants.

You can think of it as of [мне] было не [добраться] до [решения проблемы] брюк.

[anonymous8216.livejournal.com]

In modern parlance, брючница is an implement for hanging trousers.

http://images.google.com/images?q=%D0%B1%D1%80%D1%8E%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0

But it could be a trouser-maker too, more context is needed.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I still remember the time when the word meant women brave enough to WEAR trousers :)