It looks like we haven’t talked about Master and Margarita for a while. «Приступим к четырнадцатой главе» [Let’s get to Chapter 14] .

It is intense and sinister, don’t you think? Yet there are also quite a few «юмористические моменты» [comical episodes] that can make even the most serious reader smile. Here also we encounter not one, but two wonderful examples of onomatopoeia – «гоготать» and «улюлюкать» as in «явственно слышный гогот и улюлюканье» [clearly heard cackles of laughter and hoots].

This also is where translation falls far short of the original since neither “laughter” nor “hoots” adequately describe the goings-on. And now it’s up to us, the students of Russian, to recreate the street scene from the opening of the Chapter 14 in all its linguistic glory.

Have you ever tried feeding a flock of Canada geese with some bread? It seems that the more bread you give them, the more and louder they will cackle. Now, in your mind’s eye, replace these «гуси» [geese] with «весёлые молодые люди» [cheery young men] and «куски хлеба» [pieces of bread] with «полуголые дамочки» [half-naked women, lit. “little dames”] and you get a good idea of what «гогот» sounded like to the financial director «Римский» [Rimsky].

«Гоготать – это грубо и невежливо. Культурные люди не гогочут» [To cackle is rude and impolite. Cultured people do not cackle.] Neither do they «ржать» [hoot and howl, lit. neigh]. But how do polite and cultured Russians express their mirth? They can «улыбаться» [to smile], «усмехаться» [to smile with a short and quite laugh], «смеяться» [to laugh], or «хохотать» [roar with laughter].

Depending on the type of joke and the situation, they might try to «усмехаться в усы или в рукав» [to smile into one’s beard or into one’s sleeve], «прятать улыбку» [hide a smile], «проглотить смешок» [to suppress a chuckle], «сдавленно засмеяться» [to chuckle], «громко смеяться» [laugh out loud] or «хохотать во всё горло», «хохотать до упаду», or «хохотать до коликов», all meaning to laugh uproariously, literally – “loudly”, “until one falls down”, or “until one gets a side-stitch”.

«Улюлюкать» is even more interesting, especially in the larger context of the book and Bulgakov’s life. Originally «улюлю» was a command hunters gave to their dogs when directing them to chaise, surround and attack their prey, a process known as «травля». The verb «улюлюкать» is linked with another, originally related to hunting, verb «науськивать» [to sic].

However, both words are used widely outside of hunting. Thus «науськивать» now means “to encourage someone to attack someone else” and «улюлюкать» acquired a second meaning of “to mock and bully someone publicly”. «Травля» also shifted its meaning from “hunt” or “chaise” to “singling out, targeting” and “harassment”.

«Пакостный» is another unpleasant word from this chapter that is used to describe the same street scene: «на улице совершилось ещё что–то скандальное и пакостное» [something else scandalous and nasty has happened outside]. The noun «пакость» means dirt, nastiness, filthiness. Definitely not a nice word! Yet you won’t hear it all that often nowadays. Unfortunately, it’s not for the lack of nastiness itself, but rather because it was replaced by other synonyms – «гадость», «дрянь», «мерзость». Another synonym, also used in this dark chapter is «паскудство» [nastiness].

«Вот такая мрачная картина вырисовывается. Что за петрушка?» [Such a gloomy picture is being revealed. What’s up with that?]

By the way, speaking of «петрушка» [parsley], recall that the same financial director Rimsky asks just a few pages later this question – «что означает вся эта петрушка» [what’s the meaning of all this mess].

The idiom «что это за петрушка» means “what does it mean” and is generally used to express one’s «недоумение» [bewilderment] combined with «недовольство» [discontent] regarding a given situation. However, it is not an expression that a well-educated and cultured person, such as Rimsky, would use since it’s just too «обиходное» [colloquial]. Note that just a bit earlier Rimsky phrased the same question differently: «что всё это значит?!» [what’s the meaning of all this?!]. Maybe Rimsky chose this less formal phrase to set a warmer tone with his strangely-acting administrator, Varenuha?

It never occurred to me before, but isn’t it interesting how Bulgakov reserves such dark, menacing, heavy language for a chapter that deals with secondary characters doing something that has no bearing on plot development. Is Bulgakov «задаёт тон» [setting the stage] for a darker narrative that follows?

What other “dark” words and phrases have you spotted in this chapter?