Pushkin text problem: Kapitanskaya dochka

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

I am retranslating Kapitanskaya dochka.  I have stumbled upon a small
textological problem in chapter 7.  In the fifth para. there is a
description of four treacherous Cossacks who have deserted to Pugachev.
Odin iz nikh derzhal pod shapkoyu list bumagi.  Some editions have POD
shapkoyu; some have NAD shapkoyu.

Neither version is very easy to understand.  I can’t see why someone would
carry a letter ABOVE his cap, though I suppose it could be tucked into some
kind of band.  I can imagine that someone might carry a letter tucked UNDER
his cap, but then how would an onlooker be able to see this?

Some of you have an edition you consider 100% trustworthy, please let me
know what it says: POD or NAD.

Also – since it was only by chance that I noticed this – are any of you
aware of other textual problems with the novel?

Or any of you aware of linguistic subtleties in the novel that translators
usually get wrong?

Or have any of you been working on the novel recently?  DO any of you have
any insights which (with due acknowledgments!) I should be including in
footnotes or in a brief (around 1500 words) preface aimed at the general
reader?

Will be grateful, as always, for help!

R.

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