Grossman VSE TECHET - chto oni perezhivali

[maikabalalaika]

Hello Robert, I'd like to second Elena Ostrovskaya in that it is an exclamation and refers to their emotions on passing by their houses where they were born and married their daughters off.

Best,
~Maya

--- On Sun, 9/27/09, Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> wrote:

From: Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
Subject: [SEELANGS] Grossman VSE TECHET  - chto oni perezhivali
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Sunday, September 27, 2009, 12:41 PM

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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