Thread: площадка сад, 'кентурия', etc

'...,заносило дымком в колоннаду через верхнюю площадку сада, и к горьковатому дыму, свидетельствовавшему о том, что кашевары в кентуриях начали готовить обед, примешивался все тот же жирный розовый дух.' (Bulgakov)

I translate the sentence as:-
' a plume of smoke carried into the colonnade across the upper (landing/area?) of the garden, and into that bitterish smoke, testifying to this;- that the cooks in the (?) had started to prepare dinner, (was) mixed all this greasy rosey air.

Which makes some sense to me, after a lot of effort. The reference to 'rosy air' (rose scent in the air) is from a previous paragraph. It's set in a Roman courtyard, by the way.

Can anyone provide translations for 'площадка сад' and 'кентурия'? The first one brings up pictures of children's playgrounds on google, but I can't quite picture Roman centurians playing happily on the swings...

The structure of this sentence is complicated, but I think it is a bit like:-
заносило дымком в колоннаду через верхнюю площадку сада, и к горьковатому дыму, примешивался жирный розовый дух, with another clause added in the middle. In which case I think I understand it to mean:-

'a plume of smoke carried into the colonnade across the upper (landing/area?) of the garden, and into that bitterish smoke, (was) mixed all this greasy rosy air.'

In general I'm having a lot of trouble distinguishing between the various uses of commas in Russian text; which ones begin dependant clauses, which ones are part of phrases, etc. For instance, it took me a while to work out that 'свидетельствовавшему о том, что кашевары в кентуриях начали готовить обед' was a complete clause. Is 'свидетельствовавшему о том' a standard phrase of some sort? I've translated it as 'testifying to this;-'

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Is 'свидетельствовавшему о том, что...' a standard phrase of some sort?

Yup. It's "testifying to the cooks in the centuries to have started preparing dinner".
I hope it makes sense in English.

кентурия (центурия) is a Latin military unit consisting of 100 men.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centuria

верхняя площадка сада looks like an UPPER LANDING of a garden (for step-down/multi-layered/staircase-like ones)
http://www.acrossrome.com/wp-content/gallery/13/06.jpg

Ah, thank you. I've got those 2 words now.

So 'свидетельствовавшему о том, что' is a phrase I can expect to find again?

Yes, it's a set phrase, worth memorizing.
https://yandex.ru/search/?text=%22%D...D0%BE%22&lr=47

It seems to mean 'indicates that'.
I can't find anything in any Russian/English dictionary, but this seems to fit when I translate other sentences with this phrase in it. Thanks for the help.

It seems to mean 'indicates that'

Exactly!