Thread: ...тоска осталась необъяснённой, ибо не могла же её объяснить ... другая мысль.

Она улетела, It flew off /correct/
а but is closer than and by meaning
тоска there's no such exact word in English, it's more like anguish, not gloom.
осталась необъяснённой, kept/left/remained unexplained (passive)
ибо because
... мысль a ... thought
не могла её объяснить could not explain it.

The 'proper' translation seems to be:
'It flew off, and the anguish remained unexplained, for it could not well be explained by another brief thought that flashed like lightning and at once went out;-'

But for this to be correct, I think объяснить would need to mean 'to be explained by' not 'to explain.'

I don't understand what you're takling about

My try (just rewording plainly closer to the original sentence meaning -- slightly changed clause order)
It flew off, but the anguish remained unexplained, because a brief thought ... , flashing like lightning and then dying away, could not explain this anguish.

Okay, it was word order that confused me. You're right Alex, I was stupid to overlook grammatical cases.

So:-

'It flew off, but the anguish remained unexplained, because another brief thought could not really explain it.'

Which, retaining the order of clauses in the original, becomes:-

'It flew off, but the anguish remained unexplained, since it could not well BE EXPLAINED BY ...another brief thought:-'

I need to remember to look at case first, then word order second, THEN work out how to express this in English word order. Not the other way around, or whatever I did with this sentence...

Thanks both.