Skuka stoit v serdtse - Andrey Platonov's HAPPY MOSCOW

[Alina Israeli]

This may be a good solution. I've been long advocating that someone  
study the word "skuka" and its evolution in Russian literature. We  
tend to project our 20th century notions which are wrong. Consider this:

«Скучно жить на этом свете, господа» (Gogol)

Это меня ужас как расстроило, и вообще нервы у меня ходят, и я очень  
угрюм. Нет, Аня, скука не ничего. При скуке и работа мучение. Да и  
лучше каторга, нет, каторга лучше была!" {Письмо ко мне от 10 августа  
1879 г. (Прим. А. Г. Достоевской) {232}}

Хотя Негров с двенадцати часов
   утра и до двенадцати ночи не бывал дома, во все же скука мучила  
его; на
   этот раз ему и в деревню не хотелось; (Герцен)


Clearly, it's not boredom, but rather depression if not desperation.   
Although Nekrasov's "Osennjaja skuka" is already more like boredom.

AI



On Dec 6, 2011, at 10:57 AM, Penelope Burt wrote:

> How about: "I'm sick at the heart" (cf. the old English ballad Lord  
> Randall)?
> And "a child was/got heartsick and died all by himself ("all by  
> himself" sounds like "alone" but the locution is also used when a  
> child first learns to walk "all by himself," without support).
>
> Penny Burt
>
>

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu





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