translation Archives -

01 Oct

На Командорах / On the Commander Islands – Meteorologists and sled dogs

Quick and dirty translation, part 4. See also, part 1, Fur Seals, part 2, Sea Birds and part 3, Foxes.

На Командорах [Na Komandorakh] On the Commander Islands. Author: Gennady Snegirev. Artist: M. Miturich. Izdatel’stvo “Malish”. Publisher “Little One”. For older preschoolers. A print run of 350,000 in 1975. Cost, 16 kopecks.

Full Russian book scanned here.

On the Commander Islands there are meteorologists at any time of year — in snowstorms and in fog they keep watch, marking down readings from their instruments. The strength of the wind, the temperature of the air and water. How high and fast the water flows in the rivers in the spring and after rain. Just now they let go a weather-balloon, it carries instruments high-high and the instruments transmit signals to earth about what’s happening at that altitude. The flouds fly in one direction and still higher, perhaps, the wind blows in the complete opposite direction, and they need to know how strong the wind is and at what altitude it blows. If a pilot doesn’t know this exactly, he can neither take off nor land a plane.

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24 Sep

На Командорах / On the Commander Islands – Foxes

Quick and dirty translation, part 3. See also, part 1, Fur Seals and part 2, Sea Birds.

На Командорах [Na Komandorakh] On the Commander Islands. Author: Gennady Snegirev. Artist: M. Miturich. Izdatel’stvo “Malish”. Publisher “Little One”. For older preschoolers. A print run of 350,000 in 1975. Cost, 16 kopecks. Read More →

06 Aug

На Командорах / On the Commander Islands – Sea Birds

kairi Quick and dirty translation, part 2. See also, part 1, Fur Seals.

На Командорах [Na Komandorakh] On the Commander Islands. Author: Gennady Snegirev. Artist: M. Miturich. Izdatel’stvo “Malish”. Publisher “Little One”. For older preschoolers. A print run of 350,000 in 1975. Cost, 16 kopecks.

Full Russian book scanned here.

In spring endless caravans of murres [кайра] fly to the hanging cliffs.

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31 Jul

На Командорах / On the Commander Islands – Fur Seals

20130731_112735[1] This is really quick and really dirty translation from the Russian. I have left out a few words here and there that I didn’t bother to look up. I haven’t massaged it for English grammar and style — there are Dostoevskian run-on sentences.

На Командорах [Na Komandorakh] On the Commander Islands. Author: Gennady Snegirev. Artist: M. Miturich. Izdatel’stvo “Malish”. Publisher “Little One”. For older preschoolers. A print run of 350,000 in 1975. Cost, 16 kopecks.

Full Russian book scanned here.

The Commander Islands were discovered in the first half of the 18th century by Commander Bering, an officer in the Russian fleet, at the time of his expedition along the coast of North America and therefore received their name. They are located in a sea which also was named in honor of the famous seafarer – the Bering Sea.

Vitus Bering

Politics of (Russian) Pop: Election Edition

Towards the end of my undergrad, after I’d studied abroad and achieved a reasonable level of linguistic skill, I started collecting Russian pop songs that seemed to reflect political and cultural attitudes. Songs about AIDS, or Saddam Hussein, or army service. For today I want to share a clip from a Russian movie — a musical of sorts, which follows a group of musicians on a campaign cruise with a candidate, putting on concerts and getting out the vote in various ways. One of the first songs is sung by Shnur, the irreverent and generally foul-mouthed lead singer of the ska band Leningrad, and in the end it’s a farce – they get the guy elected, only to realize they’ve been in the wrong district the whole time. (If you want an overview of Russian music styles, search youtube for “день выборов” (election day) or “день радио” (radio day), both musical films by the same group lampoon a wide variety of Russian music genres.) Read More →