Can anyone give me a hand with a xlation?

[Daniel Michael Hendrick]

Hi Seelangers,

I am currently translating a short story by Gazdanov written in the 20s.
There are a couple of trouble spots that aren't so troublesome in
meaning, just in rendering.

1) Speaking of two artists, a character says that "by comparison with
Repin... he is just (brevno)."  A log just doesn't seem to fit here.

2) Speaking of his down-and-out past, one characters notes that (all in
Russian here) "Nocheval ya na postrojke, vse-taki krysha, khot' dozd' ne
zalivaet."  How does the roof and the rain fit together?

Finally, there is a section of a Panikhida included in the story.  I
obtained a translation of one in a book for the Commemoration of the
Living and the Dead, but it is not a parallel translation, and there are
things in Russian (OCS) that I can get the general idea of, but this is
insufficient for a xlation.  Can anyone offer some assistance here?  It
is only some 10-15 lines.

Thanks in advance, Daniel Hendrick