Grossman VSE TECHET - chto oni perezhivali

[Elena Ostrovskaya]

Dear Robert,
It seems to be the obvious "what they must have felt" or, as you put it,
"must they have been going through". You are right, syntactically this
'chto' is supposed to be connected to the warmth of their houses that is
still with them, but it does not. I would think of using  a semicolon in
this case rather than a comma, but once again, it is the way it is.
And the phrase is more of an exclamation than a question, I'd say, but they
are very close in this case, anyway.

Hope it helps.
Elena Ostrovskaya.

2009/9/27 Robert Chandler <kcf19 at dial.pipex.com>

> Dear all,
>
> I have suddenly felt deeply uncertain about my understanding of one
> sentence.
>
> The narrator of this chapter is an intelligent, but not highly educated
> woman.  She is telling someone she loves about her experiences during the
> early 1930s.  Her syntax is casual, but not slangy.
>
> А из нашей деревни гнали раскулаченных пешком. Только что на
> себя взяли - постель, одежду. Грязь была такая, что сапоги с ног
> стаскивала.
> Нехорошо было на них смотреть. Идут колонной, на избы оглядываются, от
> своей
> печки  тепло  еще  на  себе  несут, ЧТО ОНИ ПЕРЕЖИВАЛИ - ведь в этих домах
> родились,   в  этих  домах  дочек  замуж  отдавали.
>
> It is the words in capitals that I don't understand.  Does the 'chto' refer
> to 'teplo' - as if the peasants have so deeply experienced this warmth that
> it has become a part of them?  Or could the phrase be a question -
> something
> like 'What on earth must they have been going through at this time?
>
> Vsego dobrogo,
>
> Robert
>
>

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