Kreutzer translation problem

[R. M. Cleminson]

If there is a biblical or ecclesiastical source here, it is totally garbled, and therefore unlikely to be recognisable.  As far as I can see the nearest one can get is Ecclesiasticus xxi 17, Утроба буяго яко сосудъ сокрушенъ и всякаго разума не удержитъ, but in older versions (as quoted in the Izbornik of 1073, for example) Сьрдьце буяго яко съсудъ утьлъ..., hardly likely to be part of the reading of the old man in the story and in any case totally irrelevant to the point he is attempting to make.

"Женщина-жено" is impossible in Church Slavonic - and to my mind also in Russian, hence my question.  "Жено-утлый" as a compound is morphologically possible, but apparently meaningless.

Could one of the Tolstovedy out there please get hold of a really authoritative edition (preferably one corrected by the author, if such there be) and ascertain the correct reading?  The fact that there seems to be variance between editions, at least as far as the punctuation is concerned, suggests that we may be dealing with a corrupt text - far more prevalent than people imagine, and with an author with handwriting like Tolstoy's perhaps not altogether surprising.

----- Pôvodná správa -----
Od: "Jules Levin" <ameliede at EARTHLINK.NET>
Komu: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Odoslané: utorok, 28. august 2012 19:01:18
Predmet: Re: [SEELANGS] Kreutzer translation problem

On 8/28/2012 10:22 AM, John Dingley wrote:
> Some online versions have the following punctuation,
> which might suggest a compound.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/8j4e8kx
>
>   - Позволенья никто не дает,  а только  что  от
> мужчины в доме ничего не прибудет, а женщина-жено-утлый
> сосуд,- продолжал внушать купец.
>    
Maybe I am not following what the issue is here, but surely this phrase 
is from some Orthodox biblical or ecclesiastical source.  The best 
translation is to find the source and translate IT, just as the speaker 
was citing IT.
Jules Levin
Los Angeles




> John Dingley
>
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