Sergey Dovlatov - The Suitcase / Чемодан. Книга для чтения на английском языке

But even like this… precious to me: From a 1914 poem 'Greshit' besstydno, neprobudno’ (‘To sin shamelessly, ceaselessly’) by Alexander Alexandrovich Blok (1880–1921), leading figure of the Symbolist movement.

OVIR: The Russian Office of Visas and Registrations, which issued legal documents for those wishing either to enter or leave the Soviet Union.

to knit brows – нахмуриться

to make do with smth – обходиться, довольствоваться

clothes line – верёвка для сушки белья

Rocky Marciano, Louis Armstrong, Joseph Brodsky, Gina Lollobrigida: Rocky Marciano (1923-69), Italian-American undefeated champion heavyweight boxer; Louis Armstrong (1901-71), famous American jazz musician; Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky (1940-96), Russian Nobel Prize-winning poet and close friend of Dovlatov; Gina Lollobrigida ( h .1927), Italian actress mostly active in the 1950s and 60s.

poplin – поплин, двусторонняя ткань с мелким рубчиком

crêpe – креп, группа прочных, износостойких тканей

Karl Marx – Карл Маркс (1818-83), немецкий философ, социолог, общественный деятель, политический журналист, писатель, экономист

to hail a cab – ловить такси

to run into (smb) – случайно встретить

black marketeer – фарцовщик (фарцовка – сленговое название запрещённой в СССР покупки или перепродажи импортных товаров)

Dacron – дакрон, название полиэстеровой материи

shipping clerk – экспедитор

average Joe – средний человек

hard currency – ( зд. ) иностранная валюта

What’s he trying to pull? – Чего он нам голову морочит? (от выражения to pull a fast one – обмануть, провести)

Karjalainen, perhaps: An unclear reference since Karjalainen is a common Finnish surname. One possibility is the children’s author Elina Karjalainen (1927–2006), who wrote a series of books about a teddy bear called Uppo-Nalle.

Mein Gott (нем.) = My God

the Suez crisis – Суэцкий кризис, международный конфликт (октябрь 1956 – март 1957), связанный с определением статуса администрации Суэцкого канала

Maybe Mantere: Again, the reference is unclear, but it may allude to the singer Eeki Mantere (1949–2007), a popular Finnish musician of the 1970s.

felt-tip pen – фломастер

to screw around – бездельничать

Chezet – чешская марка мотоциклов

nomenklatura – высший слои руководства в СССР

the historian Nikolai Karamzin: Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766–1826), prominent conservative Russian historian and writer.

ballot box – избирательная урна

Paul Robeson: Paul Robeson (1898–1976) was an African-American civil-rights activist, singer and actor who received the International Stalin Prize in 1952. His political leanings and outspokenness caused him tremendous problems in America.

the famous artist Shemyakin: Mikhail Mikhailovich Shemyakin ( b. 1943), a painter who studied at the Repin Academy in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and, after frequent clashes with the KGB, left the Soviet Union in 1971.

with pull – по блату

Yuri Gagarin, Mayakovsky, Fidel Castro: Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin (1934-68), Soviet cosmonaut and the first man in space, who received the most prestigious award in the USSR, “Hero of the Soviet Union”; Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893–1930), Russian Futurist poet and Soviet propagandist, often seen as the exemplar of Soviet art; Fidel Castro (1926–2016), leader of the Cuban revolution and subsequently First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.

to have hair-of-the-dog – опохмеляться (от выражения to have hair of the dog that bit you)

Zaporozhets – «Запорожец», марка заднемоторных легковых автомобилей, выпускавшихся в городе Запорожье

Lomonosov: Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-65), pioneering Russian grammarian, poet, scientist and founder of Moscow State University.

Cordilleras, Appalachians and Guiana Highlands – Кордильеры, Аппалачи и Гвианское нагорье, горные системы Северной и Южной Америки

Bach’s Sixth Invention – шестая инвенция Баха. Инвенция – сборник небольших учебных пьес полифонического склада. Иоганн Себастьян Бах (1685–1750) – немецкий композитор, педагог

tackle – тали, подвесное грузоподъемное устройство с ручным или механическим приводом

Khrushchev – Хрущев, Никита Сергеевич (1894–1971), советский государственный деятель.

to come to the fore – пробудиться, проявиться ( букв. выступить на передний план)

Pushkin Hills: An area in the Pskov Oblast named after Russia’s most celebrated poet, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799–1837), who spent a period of exile and wrote some of his best-known works in the region.

Leger: Fernand Léger (1881–1955), French painter and sculptor, who joined the Communist Party in 1945.

to get sidetracked – отвлечься, отойти от темы