Teffi - "Rasputin"

[William Ryan]

As an alumnus of Oriel College Oxford who once compiled an 
English-Russian dictionary, and wrestled with this word, I can confirm 
that окно-фонарь can indeed be an oriel window, i.e. a multi (usually 
three) facetted window projecting out from a wall, but is more usually a 
"lantern window" i.e. a kind of skylight. Dal's dictionary description 
(Фонарь, фонарик, выступ в здании на весу, башенка с окнами, привешенная 
к стене) is not entirely clear, and he does not list the more specific 
word for an oriel window "*эркер*", which is what I settled for in my 
dictionary.
I suggest that that the "mirror" bit is perhaps because the scene in the 
street is being seen as a kind of reflected panorama in a multi-sided 
window opposite the viewer, although the preposition через might argue 
against that.

Will Ryan

On 20/07/2013 12:16, R. M. Cleminson wrote:
> What Jan Zieliński has provided a link to is an oriel window; that this is indeed the meaning of окно-фонарь could easily have been ascertained by looking up фонарь in Dal's dictionary.  I confess I do not really understand the meaning of зеркальное in this context, unless it simply means that one could see one's reflection in it.
>
> As for "растушеванный карандашный мазок", this is rather "smudged pencil shading"; as Seelangers will recall from an earlier exchange, карандаш is graphite, which, in English at least, is pencil, not crayon.
>
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