a few Teffi questions

[Oleksandr Spirin]

"Святые ангелы у вас, батюшка?" I don't understand this at all.  "Are your angels holy"? Or is it more along the lines of  "Do you have holy angels living with you?"?

- I understand this as: "Do you have the holy angels, reverend father? " (i.e., "Are the holy angels here (здесь, у вас), father?" 

Oleksandr Spirin
translator
Kharkiv, Ukrine
oleksandr.spirin at ymail.com





On , Oleksandr Spirin <oleksandr.spirin at ymail.com> wrote:
 


"Лик" - 1. in common sense: archaic, poetic face; 2. image, representation of face (on icons).


On Sunday, June 15, 2014 5:18 PM, Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> wrote:
 


Dear all,

Teffi is in Odessa in early 1919.  Odessa has been occupied by French troops, but these are now being evacuated.  Nearly everyone in Teffi's circle has already left, but Teffi has not yet managed to arrange for her own departure.  Feeling anxious, she drifts off into a reverie, remembering her visit to Solovki several years earlier.

Старенький монашек у глухой церковки далеко в глуби леса. На стенах церковки все архангелы: Михаил с мечом, Рафаил с кадилом, Варахиил, вертоградарь  райский, с розами в руках, и
 Гавриил, ангел благовещения, с веткой лилий, и Иегудиил — карающий, с бичами, и Силахиил, ангел молитвы, со сложенными руками, и Уриил, скорбный ангел смерти со свечой, перевернутой пламенем вниз.
—   Святые ангелы у вас, батюшка?
Старичок моргает, не понимает, не слышит:
—  Куды? Куды?
Улыбнулся мелкими лучиками сухих морщин.
— Лики, милая, лики!..

My questions:
1. "Варахиил, вертоградарь  райский" - gardener or guardian?  Both seem possible, according to dictionaries.

2. "Святые ангелы у вас, батюшка?" I don't understand this at all.  "Are your angels holy"? Or is it more
 along the lines of  "Do you have holy angels living with you?"?

3. "Лики, милая, лики!.."  This seems still more difficult.  Perhaps just, "They're holy, my dear, holy!)

4. And lastly, on the page after the memory of Solovki, some minor public figure calls on Teffi and laments how a friend has let him down, making false promises about how the French would look after him and his family:
"Он клялся, что французы заберут нас всех. Назначил прийти за пропусками сегодня к одиннадцати… Мы сидели, как дураки, перед запертыми дверями до трех, и вдруг входит секретарь и выражает полное удивление нашим присущствием."
The word that confuses me here is "входит".  Is it being used as a synonym for "prikhodit"?

All the
 best,

Robert

Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD





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