See Raskol'nikov Hear

More on Hearing

The impersonal in Russian, as you know, is very effectively used to show that the source of the action/state lies outside the subject. Ему послышалось, что руки слабеют ‘he felt his arms numbing’ shows Raskol’nikov’s helplessness; он слышал, как руки слабеют ‘he felt his arms numbing’ has his much more of a participant, as it were, in the source of the action, with a nominative subject. Cf. the classic example он хочет поехать в Россию ‘he wants to go to Russia’ , and ему хочется в Россию ‘he feels like going to Russia/has the yen to go (no pun intended)’. The impersonal is very often negative: мне сегодня не работается ‘I just can’t work today’, мне здесь не спится ‘I (just) can’t sleep here’.

Raskol’nikov in his auditory adventures in I.7 often is the logical, dative subject of a reflexive verb, which is therefore not strictly speaking impersonal, but nonetheless R. is a sort of flabbergasted recipient of the sounds. Ему вдруг послышались тяжелые шаги ‘he suddenly heard heavy steps’, послышалась его одышка ‘he could hear (the man’s) asthmatic breathing’, послышался сильный шум ниже ‘he heard a loud noise below’. One exception to this sort of ‘middle voice’ in Russian (reflexive, but dative subject of the perceiver and a true nom. subject) is the truly impersonal phrase (147) послышалось, что ходят translated by Grace, Sasha and Katya, I believe, as something like ‘there was a sound that someone was walking’, which is quite correct; this awkward sentence probably wouldn’t go into a translation. The perceiver, Raskol’nikov, would be in the dative, but he is omitted. What does Connie Garnett say? I will check it later.

I, were I writing a translation of this, my favorite all-time book, might write ‘he heard the sound of footsteps in the next room’. It’s got to make your spine crawl along with Raskol’nikov. The verb is by default impersonal because the subordinate clause, containing the source of the action, is an indefinite personal in the third person, like здесь говорят по–русски ‘here Russian is spoken’. Even though there is an animate, indefinite, subject, послышалось has to be impersonal neuter.

O.K., I give up, I’ve got to find what Connie says. Why, here’s a handy Connie translation (one of many I must own): “Suddenly he heard steps in the room where the old woman lay.” I remember reading that at the age of eleven. (A la recherche du temps perdu.)

Remember the words of the sentimental Russian song, подмосковные вечера ‘Moscow Suburban Nights’: песня слышится...и не слышится... ‘you can hear a melody waft...and then it’s gone’.
This verb is like the Raskol’nikov’s auditory verbs: reflexive and dative, grammatical subject is the sound itself, песня.

Isn’t this pretty interesting?

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