Tsar'-devitsa again

[Olga Meerson]

Wow, Will! You seem right: Chto mne can also mean "what do I care about..."! So, then "chto mne ne chest'?" means "chto mne beschest'e", meaning, "what do I care about the dishonour [the whole thing will entail]?" 

As for the watering at the well, some of the meaning may come from the Bible: when Jakob falls in love with Rachel at the well, etc. But it takes him a while to "water" at that well. In fact, this postponement (not of sex per se but of the marriage) may come, in the fairytale, from the bible story in Genesis! Robert, perhaps using a Biblical locution as a euphemism in translation sounds scandalous, but Biblical allusions often are--certainly not Victorian! As Pushkin used to say, about Russian, iazyku nashemu ne xvataet nekotoroj biblejskoj poxabnosti. Perhaps ditto about English, esp. when dealing with folklore?

Thanks, Will!
o.m.

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