Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Michele A. Berdy - A Spoonful of Sugar


Here is Michele Berdy's column from last Friday's Moscow Times.


Friday, September 15, 2006. Issue 3498.
A Spoonful of Sugar
By Michele A. Berdy


Сахарный песок: granulated sugar

You're sitting at the table with your sweet landlady, about to have tea. She pours you a cup, and then asks: С лимоном? (With lemon?) You nod affirmatively. Then she picks up the sugar bowl and asks, Положить песок? Your brain short-circuits. Put sand in my tea? Why would I want to do that?

Чудные люди, эти русские! (Odd people, these Russians.)

Foreigners who have been around a while know that she's offering to put сахарный песок (granulated sugar, literally "sugar sand") in your tea. If she had sugar cubes, she'd call them куски (lumps, pieces) and ask: Сколько кусков положить? (How many sugar cubes do you take?) Don't make the mistake of calling them кубики -- she might think you wanted to put either ice cubes or bullion cubes in your hot tea.

Чудные люди, эти иностранцы! (Odd people, these foreigners!)

You wouldn't think something as simple as sugar could get so confusing.

To further muddy matters, most people call sugar cubes кусковой сахар (literally "lump sugar"), but if you're searching in a store, you won't find it under that name. Look for the word рафинад on the box -- usually followed by the claim that it is быстрорастворимый (fast-dissolving).

Confectioner's sugar can also cause some problems. In Russian, it's сахарная пудра (literally, "sugar powder"), but it is often called just пудра (powder). If you are in the kitchen, chances are the cook isn't talking about face powder. For example, a cake recipe might end with the instructions: Когда торт остынет, его посыпают пудрой. (When the cake is cool, sprinkle it with confectioner's sugar.)

For a total linguistic meltdown, there's сахарная кость. It sounds like it's a bone made out of sugar -- something, say, to decorate your pooch's birthday cake. It's not, but your pooch would definitely like it. It's a marrowbone.

The adjective сахарный can be used in the figurative sense, too, although this usage is rather dated. Он соблазнил ее своими сахарными речами. (He seduced her with a lot of sweet talk). If you were feeling poetic, you might sigh: От его слов я растаяла, как сахар. (I melted like sugar when he spoke words of love.) Or, if you wanted to sound like the character in a Russian fairy tale: Поцелую тебя устами сахарными. (I'll kiss you with lips of sugar.)

If something is sickeningly sweet -- like sugary kisses -- you can use the very satisfying word слащавый, the very sound of which seems to hiss contempt. When used in reference to a person, it can mean either the person's appearance or his manner. Некоторым нравятся слащавые актёры. (Some people like pretty-boy actors.) Он слащавый -- постоянно говорит комплименты, целует ручку. (His manner is so saccharine -- he's always giving compliments and kissing your hand.)

When things are not sweetness and light, you can use the handy phrase не сахар (literally "not sugar"). Хорошая парочка. Она -- стерва, и у него характер не сахар. (They're a good pair. She's a shrew, and he's got a miserable personality.) Жизнь в деревне не сахар. (Rural life is no bowl of cherries.)

Another handy phrase to use when things aren't going well is чтобы жизнь мёдом/сахаром не казалась (literally "so that life doesn't seem like honey/sugar"). You use it to describe any irritation or misfortune that appears unexpectedly and that you are taking in stride. In English, we might exclaim: Great! Just what I need! Чтобы нам жизнь мёдом не казалась, накануне отъезда на дачу ребёнок заболел. Пришлось остаться в городе. (Life always throws you a curve. Just as we were ready to go to the dacha, my child got sick. We had to stay in the city.)

Actually, with a bit of poetic license the whole phrase could be encapsulated in four little words: Just my dumb luck!

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.

posted by Kate @ 11:31 AM 0 comments

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Котенок Гав - другое видео

В этот раз собачка ищет свою кличку. :-)





posted by Maxie @ 12:48 PM 2 comments

Friday, September 08, 2006

Michele Berdy - Big Problems for Such a Little Word


to the article

Friday, September 8, 2006. Issue 3493
Big Problems for Such a Little Word
By Michele A. Berdy

Ходить по грибы: to gather mushrooms

After several days of rain, the sun is finally shining. Your Russian friend says cheerfully: Какой прелестный день! Поехать бы за город и пойти в лес по грибы! (What a beautiful day! Why don't we get out of the city and go mushroom hunting!)

Great idea. The only problem is the grammar: ходить по грибы. What's up with that? Normal folks would shrug and go off for a nice ramble in the woods, but I'm not normal. I head for my bookshelves.

По is such a multi-purpose preposition, Russians seem to pucker up and pop out "по" whenever they feel like it. It has dozens of meanings. In fact, even the great lexicographer Vladimir Dal threw up his hands over this little word: Иногда трудно грамматически оправдать предлог "по" (Sometimes it's hard to justify the preposition "po" grammatically.)

The use of ходить по and the accusative case is rather uncommon and means "to walk to get something." So you might say: Вчера я ходила по грибы и ягоды. (Yesterday I gathered mushrooms and berries.) Out in the country you might hear someone say, Я ходил по воду. (I went for water.)

Most commonly, ходить по takes the dative case and means to walk along or about: Я шёл по дороге (I walked along the road); Я ходил по лесу (I took a walk in the forest). You would never, ever have cause to use the nouns вода, ягоды, грибы (water, berries, mushrooms) with ходить and the dative case. If you said, я ходил по воде, you'd mean you walked on water and chances are you'd be reading this column in a small padded cell. And if you ever said я ходил по грибам, you'd mean you trampled on some mushrooms and your mushroom-gathering Russian friends would have strangled you the moment you said it.

Happily, these are the only grammatical mistakes that could result in the incarceration of the unfortunate person who utters them in a mental hospital or murder. Most of the time по is not fraught with danger to life and limb. But to use it correctly, you do have to furrow your brow and remember all those case endings that blight the lives of native English-speakers.

You use по with the dative case to describe the means by which something is transmitted: Я слышал это по радио. (I heard it on the radio). Я говорила по телефону. (I was speaking on the phone.) Or to indicate the means by which something has occurred: Я набрала твой номер по ошибке. (I dialed your phone number by mistake.)

In other cases, it means "according to": Всё идёт по плану. (Everything is going according to plan.) По-моему, он плохой писатель. (I think -- "according to me" -- he's a bad writer.)

You also use по and the dative to describe a profession or specialty: Он специалист по итальянскому искусству (He's a specialist in Italian art.) Or to describe when something usually happens in time. Я всегда работаю по утрам. (I always work in the morning.)

По gets a little bit tricky with numbers. With the dative case, по indicates the distribution of things by ones: Дайте нам по яблоку. (Give us each one apple.) In everyday speech, if you want to distribute people or things by twos or more, you have to switch to the accusative case: Дайте нам по два яблока. (Give us each two apples.) Туристы ходили группами по десять человек. (The tourists were traveling in groups of 10 people.)

По and the accusative case also express "up to," in both space and time. Вода была по пояс. (The water was up to my waist.) In time expressions, it means "up to and including." So when your friend says, Я живу на даче с июня по сентябрь it means he's out at the dacha from June through the end of September.

Which means you can still go out to his place and ходить по грибы.

 Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.

posted by Kate @ 4:23 PM 1 comments

Michele Berdy - When the Cats Are at the Dacha ...


to the article


Friday, September 1, 2006. Issue 3488.
When the Cats Are at the Dacha ...
By Michele A. Berdy

Играть, как кошка с мышкой: to play cat and mouse with someone

As dacha season winds down, it's hard to give up the joys of country living for the big city. Fresh air, the gentle sound of wind in the trees ... relaxed afternoons in the sun ... evenings on the terrace ... breakfast in bed...

If you are imagining me reclining and waiting for eggs Florentine and the morning paper on a tray, think again. At my dacha, the cats bring me their idea of a hearty country breakfast: a small creature delivered right in bed, sometimes dead but more often alive. The dead ones get dispatched; the live ones get scooped up in a specially designated rodent receptacle and deposited at the end of the street, where hopefully they will go on to lead long and happy lives, full of adventure less fatal than what my cats had in mind for them.

Over the years I've been made present of hundreds of полёвки (voles), кроты (moles), мышки (mice), землеройки (shrews), птенцы (fledglings), стрекозы (dragonflies), and once even a squirrel (белка) that was larger than the cat that dragged it in. There is one other animal that shares our yard that they won't go anywhere near: ёж (hedgehog). The cats figured out quickly (and presumably quite painfully): Look, don't touch.

Russians regard the comical, waddling little hedgehog with particular affection, even though the little guys are among God's most stupid creatures. Понятно даже ёжику! (It's as plain as the nose on your face!). In English you might also say "it's a no-brainer" or, if you are feeling a little more sophomoric, you might condense it to: Duh!

Over the years of having to rescue rodents, I've had ample time to contemplate the subject of mouse expressions. Some are like English expressions, such as: Он беден, как церковная мышь (He's as poor as a church mouse). Russian has several idioms connected with the great cat-and-mouse game. The most common, играть, как кошка с мышкой (play a game of cat and mouse), is what I think of as a one-way equivalent. You can translate it from Russian into English using the same expression: Ольга играла со мною, как кошка с мышкой. То она кокетничала, то она вдруг меня отталкивала. (Olga toyed with me like a cat with a mouse. She would flirt and then suddenly push me away.) But the English expression can also mean "to play hide and seek," so "the border guards play cat and mouse with illegal aliens" might be in Russian: нелегалы играют в прятки с пограничниками.

When you want to indicate that someone is a mouse and not a man, you can use the phrase: на мышку и кошка зверь (literally, to a mouse a cat is a beast). Его начальник очаровательный, мягкий человек, но он его боится. Ну, что ж: на мышку и кошка зверь. (His boss is a really nice, gentle guy, but he's afraid of him. What can I say? Even a cat seems like a beast to a mouse.)

For some reason, the Russian expression for "when the cat's away, the mice will play" is not very common. But if you want to show off your knowledge of folk idioms, you can say: без кота мышам раздолье (literally, without the cat, there's fun for the mice).

If you need to point out that someone is so low down on the food chain they won't even be noticed by the higher-ups, you can use a nice old saying: Директор фирмы не станет тебя ругать. Слон мыши не гоняет. (The head of your company isn't going to yell at you. An elephant doesn't chase after mice.)

Thanks to my thoughtful cats, even though the season is drawing to an end, I can continue to think about country critters in the city. The last time I hauled a bag of books back to my apartment from the dacha, I found a dead mouse at the bottom of the sack. Еда на дорожку! (Food for the road!)

Thanks, guys.

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.



posted by Kate @ 4:08 PM 1 comments

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Ни пуха ни пера! :-)

Случайно сегодня увидела это и улыбнулась:






Эх, эти русские! Играют на гармошке и танцуют (скорее плавают), свободно падая с неба! :-)

posted by Maxie @ 11:46 AM 0 comments