[lit-ideas] Re: Colloquial Russian
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 09:14:36 -0500
That's one of the problems with translations. Kak dela (deLAH)? is really,
how's it going, how are things, how you doing? In the last movie I saw
(The Return), the older brother accuses the younger brother of being a
koz'yl for being afraid of heights. It literally translates to goat, but
it's really intranslatable. The translators translated it to "pig", but
that's not English. Pig doesn't capture at all the spirit of what he was
saying. Jerk is a little closer but it's too strong, it's not really what
the brother was saying. A wimp or a wuss may work, but intended as real
barb. They use the word coward as well, so it's not coward. I suspect the
translator in your movie knew the slang more than he felt it. Translating
is an art, or should be. Even the title Remembrances of Things Past is
rendered in different ways (I believe).
Over the summer I had conversations with a Russian woman, she turned 80
last summer, who emigrated here about 15 years or so ago. She asked me how
Americans go on vacation, meaning that in Russia (she is actually
Ukrainian, but they mostly all speak Russian and Ukrainian as first
languages) in Russia people vacation at "rest houses", like resorts, where
they get away from it all. They swim, have dinner, go to shows (here it's
big in the Catskill Mountains), pretty much what we'd do in a hotel. It's
cultural, unquestioned, pretty much how Russians, especially of a certain
generation, vacation or "rest". Americans are more free-wheeling, although
many people regularly go to their summer houses if they have one, or rent a
house at the beach year after year. Over there it's more organized,
societally more organized, not by the government. Younger Russians are as
likely to go skiing or sightseeing, especially in areas we'd never
consider, like Dubai, although the concept of "rest houses" is native to
them. They all talk about "resting", meaning vacationing. In any case, my
point is that "rest house" is an example of intranslatability in a language.
Russian is so beautiful. I think in terms of sound, it's prettier than
French. One might argue that I know Russian and don't know French, but I
know English too and I like the way Russian sounds better than English.
For a while there we were watching a string of Italian movies, and Italian
is beautiful, very "round". I heard an argument that Italian and German
music developed the way they did because of the languages. Italian is full
of vowels, so the operas were melodic, while German is more staccato, which
apparently accounts for the more defined notes of Bach's music and the
German school. Interestingly, I love J.S. Bach above all others. J.S.
Bach and Mozart. Rambling. Gotta go.
> [Original Message]
> From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 2/7/2006 1:07:43 AM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Colloquial Russian
>
> I'm watching the beginning of what may turn out to be a spy movie
> on AMC.
>
> One character to another: Alexi, kak delya?
>
> Subtitle: Alexi, how's it hanging?
>
> Robert Paul
> multi-tasking somewhere south of
> Reed College
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