Если окажутся, хоть некоторые, хоть слабые шансы на успех, было бы грешно их не использовать. (Yesli okazhutsya, khot’ nekotoryye, khot’ slabyye shansy na uspekh, bylo by greshno ikh ne ispol’zovat’.)

If there are at least some, even faint, chances of success, it would be a sin not to make use of them.

— Yuri Doykov, Pochemu molchal Pitirim Sorokin?; Ot Lubyanki do Garvarda (1918-1930) [Why was he silent?; Pitirim Sorokin? From the Lubyanka to Harvard (1918-1930]

The words are a quotation from Alexander Guchkov, a minister of war in Kerensky’s provisional government, in a letter to Sorokin.

 

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Russian is, indeed, an intricate and beautiful language.

The subjunctive is used here; and subtle wording to get the writer’s point across.

грешно: dative case of грех (sin)

грешно (dative), pronounced greshno

грех (nominative), pronounced grekh

The Russian letter х has no sound corresponding to any English letter. It is the first letter in the surname Khrushchev.

I love studying languages. French, for instance, in high school Learning the intricacies of verbs and conjugations. The passé composé; le subjonctif.

 

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иди и впредь не греши

idi i vpred’ ne greshi

go and sin no more

— John 8:11 (Old Church Slavonic)

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

   July 2024