Posts tagged with "russian literature"

Summer Time and the Reading is Russian

Posted by yelena 22 Comments
Jun 10 2011

Finally, «наступило лето» [summer is here]! There are lots of not so good things that are associated with summer – «ураганы» [hurricanes], «лесные пожары» [forest fires], «жара» [heat], «засуха» [drought] and such. But let’s look at the bright side! Summer, above all, is time for «каникулы» [summer break] and «отпуска» [vacations].

Many Russians will be spending their vacations at various «курорты» [resorts]. And as it happens, some will have «курортный роман» or several, depending on their length of stay and the amount of time they spend by the pool or on the beach. The more the better I say!

You see, in Russian the word «роман» can mean either an affair or a novel. I figure, reading a few novels «загорая на пляже» [while sunbathing on the beach] isn’t such a bad way to spend one’s summer.

The question, in my mind, is not «читать или не читать» [to read or not to read], but «что читать» [what to read]. On one hand, there’s light reading, both in terms of «содержание» [content] and «вес книги» [book’s weight].

These usually tend to be easy-flowing pieces such as «любовные романы» [romance novels], «детективы» [crime fiction], «научная фантастика» [science fiction] and various other «книжный ширпотреб» [books that are popular, but not necessarily substantial; run-of-the-mill books].

The compound word «ширпотреб» means «широкого потребления» [items of popular consumption] and is frequently used disparagingly with the meaning of “rubbish” as in

«Я не читаю Коэльо, так как это не интеллектуальная литература, а ширпотреб какой-то»

[I don’t read Coelho because it’s rubbish and not intellectual literature]

(to all Coelho fans out there – it is just an example and does not reflect my personal opinion on the author)

But I digress… Let’s get back to our question of «что читать этим летом» [what to read this summer]. If light reading «вам не по вкусу» [isn’t your cup of tea] then how about choosing some heavier books, both in terms of substance and «число страниц» [page count]?

May I suggest the following:

  • «История государства Российского» [History of the Russian State] by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (if lugging 12 tomes around with you doesn’t sound very appealing, you can always watch its animated version, all 500 episodes of it).
  • «Борис Годунов» [Boris Godunov] by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (or watch its subtitled version on YouTube)
  • «Мёртвые души» [Dead Souls] by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (the writer, not the fictional KGB general from James Bond movies)
  • «Отцы и дети» [Fathers and Sons] by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (just in time for Father’s Day too)
  • «Преступление и наказание» [Crime and Punishment] by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (reading this is a rite of passage for all Russian learners, but if you must watch a movie, here’s a link to a BBC adaptation)
  • «Анна Каренина» [Anna Karenina] by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (either that or «Война и мир» [War and Peace], although why not both?! And yes, you can watch movies as well – Anna Karenina and War and Peace)
  • «Мастер и Маргарита» [Master and Margarita] by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (especially if you it’s on your unfinished reading list from last summer)
  • And for a healthy dose of humor nothing beats «Золотой телёнок» [Golden Calf] by Ilya Ilf and Evgeniy Petrov (yes, there’s a movie here as well)

This list is by no means all-inclusive as there’s lots more great Russian literature, both prose and poetry, classical and contemporary, with movies and without. The list above is an excerpt from a list of so-called «летнее чтение» [summer reading] for high school students in Russia (grades 9 through 11).

Now, you might note that reading all these books (or even watching all the movies) is very time-consuming. You might argue that reading everything on the list would take up all your free time and none would be left for «курортный роман» in its meaning of a summer fling.

You’re right, of course! But let me tell you, it is so worth it. Remember, «русская литература лучше секса» [Russian literature is better than sex]! BTW, let’s add «Доктор Живаго» [Doctor Zhivago] to the summer reading list.

Whatever you choose to do this summer in terms of «курортный роман», remember to use sufficient protection. Considering the length of these books, I think SPF 100 should do the trick.

So what’s on your summer reading list?

Ай да Пушкин!

Posted by yelena 34 Comments
Jun 6 2011

Today is a special day. «Вы знаете, что случилось в этот день в далёком 1799-ом году?» [Do you know what happened on this day in the distant year of 1799?]  If you Google this date in Russian – «6 июня 1799 года» – the top result is the birth of «Александр Сергеевич Пушкин» [Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin].

Pushkin is the Zeus of Russian poetic Olympus. He’s Russian Dante. No, Russian Shakespeare! He is admittedly «величайший русский поэт» [the greatest Russian poet], solely responsible for creating «современный литературный русский язык» [the contemporary Russian literary language]. But don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself in this Wiki page about Pushkin.

Russians start listening to Pushkin’s poetry «с младых ногтей» [from early childhood]. Remember the mythical «Лукоморье»? Pushkin not only defined it in the opening verses of «Руслан и Людмила» [Ruslan and Lyudmila], but wrote many of the now-classic fairy tales, including «Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке» [The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish] and «Сказка о царе Салтане» [The Tale of Tsar Saltan].

To say that Pushkin wrote a lot would be an understatement. In addition to poems he wrote no-less brilliant and famous «романы» [novels], «рассказы» [short stories], «афоризмы» [maxims], and «эпиграммы» [quips]. Russians quote his «бессмертные строки» [immortal lines] in everyday speech, sometimes without knowing the author.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Few Russians can «декламировать» [recite] any of Pushkin’s poems «от начала до конца» [from start to finish]. But if you were to ask to recite «что-нибудь из Пушкина» [some of Pushkin’s works], they will recall at least a line or two. Most popular in my unofficial survey seem to be:

«Я помню чудное мгновенье, передо мной явилась ты» [I remember the magic moment when you appeared to me]

«Мороз и солнце – день чудесный!» [Frost and sunshine: day of wonder!]

«У Лукоморья дуб зелёный» [A green oak grows in Lookomorie]

«Я к вам пишу, чего же боле? Что я могу ещё сказать?» [I write to you - no more confession is needed, nothing’s left to tell]

As for the «крылатые фразы» [popular quotations], the ones I hear or say most often include:

«А счастье было так возможно, так близко!» [And happiness was so possible, so near!]

«И сердце вновь горит и любит» [And the heart once again is ablaze and in love]

«К беде неопытность ведёт» [Inexperience leads to misfortune]

«Ещё одно последнее сказанье» [Just one last tale]

«Кто раз любил, тот не полюбит вновь» [Who loved once shall never love again]

«Любви все возрасты покорны» [To love all ages surrender]

«Я сам обманываться рад!» [I am glad to be made a fool!]

«Быть можно дельным человеком и думать о красе ногтей» [One can be both a sensible person and care about one’s nails]

«Жизнь, зачем ты мне дана» [Life, why were you given me?]

Pushkin has become ubiquitous in Russian life – streets, squares and theaters named after him, children committing his works to memory all through high school, references to Pushkin’s work throughout contemporary Russian literature, etc. So it’s no surprise that when one is expected to do something and doesn’t, he might be asked «а делать кто будет? Пушкин?» [Do you think Pushkin is going to do this?]:

«Коля, кто за тебя будет домашнюю работу делать, Пушкин что-ли?» [Kolya, do you think Pushkin is going to do your homework for you?]

«Сломать-то ты сломал, а чинить кто будет? Пушкин?» [Of course, you broke it, but who’s going to fix it? Pushkin?]

And now I have questions for you:

  1. What is one phrase that springs to mind when you hear the name Pushkin?
  2. Which American movie features General Pushkin (hint: General Gogol is also in it)?

Russian Poetry: Летний сад, Part 2

Posted by Natalie 2 Comments
Feb 9 2011

«Дорогие друзья» [Dear friends], I did something very bad this Tuesday: «я пропустила занятие по русскому языку» [I skipped Russian class]. I really did not want to, I assure you. «Но мне было надо написать письменную работу» [But I had to finish my essay (literally "written work")]. But luckily, this does not mean I have run out of ideas for posts on this blog. This is the second post in a series, so please read the first part if you have not already, otherwise this will not make much sense. In the photo: the woman who wrote the poem below, «Анна Ахматова» [Anna Akhmatova].

As promised, here is the second half of the poem.

И замертво спят сотни тысяч шагов
Врагов и друзей, друзей и врагов.

А шествию теней не видно конца
От вазы гранитной до двери дворца.

Там шепчутся белые ночи мои
О чьей-то высокой и тайной любви.

И всё перламутром и яшмой горит,
Но света источник таинственно скрыт.

Translation:

And through frozen sleep one hundred thousand footsteps
Of enemies and friends, friends and enemies.

You cannot see the end of the procession
From the vase of granite to the doors of the palace.

There my white nights are whispering
About someone’s lofty and secret love.

And everything burns with mother-of-pearl and jasper,
But the source of the light is mysteriously hidden.

Obviously it is better «в подлиннике» [in the original] and I know I am «плохая переводчица» [a bad translator] of poetry.

One of my favorite things about this poem is the longing present in it. «Ахматова тосковала по родине» [Akhmatova longed for her homeland] but after the revolution in 1917, that homeland did not exist anymore. I think she used St. Petersburg as a metaphor for the Russia of her youth because she was not born in St. Petersburg. «Санкт-Петербург был столицей бывшего Российской империи» [St. Petersburg was the capital of the former Russian empire].

If you have any interpretations about the poem, please leave them in the comments! After all, I am not «литературовед» [a literature expert], so I’m sure some of you know way more about this than I do.

Russian Winter Myth Exposed

Posted by yelena 5 Comments
Jan 13 2011

Do you like «зима» [winter]? I don’t! When my American friends hear me complain about yet another cold snap, they inevitably ask “But aren’t you from Russia, the country infamous for its long and harsh winters?”

I blame Russian literature for this question (although Russian artists added to the myth with beautiful paintings such as this one by Nikifor Krilov, called “Russian Winter“). It’s done so much to romanticize winter, more so than any other «время года» [season]. Wake up a Russian in the middle of the night and ask him to quote you some wintry poetry and I bet you’ll hear

«Зима! Крестьянин, торжествуя,

На дровнях обновляет путь.

Его лошадка, снег почуя,

Плетётся рысью как-нибудь.»

[Winter!... The countryman, enchanted,

 breaks a new passage with his sleigh;

 his nag has smelt the snow, and planted

 a shambling hoof along the way;]

They might not know the author or remember the name of the poem or anything that follows, but these four lines are «знакомы с детства» [familiar since childhood]. (BTW, it’s from Eugene Onegin by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and you can find the full translation here.)

Or you might hear something like

«Мороз и солнце; день чудесный!»

[Cold frost and sunshine: day of wonder!] (this is the opening line of another of the Pushkin’s poems, Winter Morning)

You see what I’m talking about here, don’t you? Winter is presented as the time of joy, celebration, cleansing and renewal. Even in Nekrasov’s somber «Мороз, Красный Нос» [Father Frost, the Red Nose] the snow-covered landscape «в алмазах блестит» [sparkles like diamond].

Stop with the myth already! Winter is the time for «пурга» [snow blizzard], «метель» [snowstorm], «гололедица» [black ice], «гололёд» [icy rain], and frostbite-inducing «мороз» [frost]. Oh, and did I mention all of these might be happening at once? «Какой уж тут «день чудесный»!» [Some kind of “day of wonder” that would be!]

Do I sound «раздражённая» [cranky]? I told you, «я не люблю зиму» [I don’t like winter]. Sure, «морозное утро» [a crispy cold morning] with a blanket of fresh snow over everything is fine every now and then. And so is walking over «наст» [snow crust] and hearing its satisfying «хруст» [crunch]. Plus what can be more cheerful than hearing «кап-кап» [drip-drip] of «таящие сосульки» [melting icicles] during a brief «оттепель» [thaw].

But in between all this fun I want «тёплая солнечная погода» [warm sunny weather] when «травка зеленеет, солнышко блестит» [the grass is greening and the sun is shining] (do you know the rest of this poem?)

Unfortunately, there are at least two more months until that happens. In the mean time, I check weather updates for various Russian cities, including «мой любимый Волгоград» [Volgograd, my favorite city].

In case you want to check the weather in your favorite city (in Russia or around the world) on GISMETEO, here’s a little cheat-sheet of the terms you’re likely to see:

  • «прогноз» – forecast
  • «атмосферное явление» – atmospheric phenomena, what English sites describe as “clear skies”, “partly cloudy”, “rain”, etc.
  • «температура воздуха» – atmospheric temperature, in degrees Centigrade
  • «температура воды» – water temperature, in degrees Centigrade
  • «атмосферное давление» – atmospheric pressure
  • «ветер» – wind, particularly, its speed in meters per second and direction («С» – northerly, «Ю» – southerly, «В» – easterly, «З» – westerly plus various combinations of these, such as «ЮЗ» – south-westerly)
  • «влажность воздуха» – humidity
  • «комфорт» – a relatively new addition to the Russian weather forecasts, this refers to the wind-chill factor in winter and to heat-humidity factor in summer. For example, tonight in Volgograd it is expected to be «пасмурно, небольшой снег» [cloudy, light snow] with «комфорт» [wind-chill] indicator at a balmy -7 degrees, up from -14 degrees in the morning.  

And while the site lacks fancy Doppler radar images or videos of the latest snow-related traffic accidents, it does have «региональные карты погоды» [regional weather maps], «геомагнитый прогноз» [geomagnetic forecast], local times for sunrise and sunset, and links to non-weather-related articles. So if you’re tired of Weather.com’s raw footage of students in South Carolina having a snowball fight, you should totally check it out.

What’s the weather like in your area? Let me know in the comments here or on our Facebook page. Oh, and if you can think of any other deceptively cheerful Russian poems about winter, please-please tell me about them!

Reading “Мастер и Маргарита”: Chapter 17

Posted by yelena No Comments
Nov 5 2010

I first saw a photo of this ship in an NPR article: “On a recent day in Moscow, a newly revamped four-tier cruise ship named the Mikhail Bulgakov departs amid rousing music and much fanfare to ply the Moskva and Volga rivers. Named after a brilliant Soviet writer whose work was banned, the ship pulls out next to another passenger ship, the Felix Dzerzhinsky. He founded the KGB, and was the man who, on orders from Josef Stalin, silenced Bulgakov.”

Did you enjoy reading Chapter 17 of Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita”? «Лично» [personally], I love all of it, from the sniffing dog «Тузбубен» whose «кличка» [name] literally means Ace of Diamonds to the empty suit, «ведущий дела» [conducting business] to the hapless and unwilling «хор» [choir].

But what I love even more is the great examples of everyday conversational Russian. Consider the case of the word «нету» [no] that appears throughout the chapter. Is it just a careless way of saying «нет» [no]?

It seems to be used interchangeably with the word «нет»:

«Никакого мага там не оказалось. Самого Лиходеева тоже нет. Домработницы Груни нету, и куда она девалась, никто не знает.» [No magician was to be found. Nor was Likhodeyev. Grunya the maid wasn’t there either, and no one knew where she had gone.]

«Но прошло десять минут, а его нету.» [But then ten minutes passed, but he wasn’t back yet.]

Then again a lot of times «нету» comes up in «прямая речь» [direct or quoted speech], as in

«Сдачи, что ли, нету?» – робко спросил бухгалтер.

[“Are you short on change?” the bookkeeper asked timidly.]

«Нету, нету, нету, милые мои! – кричала она, обращаясь неизвестно к кому. – Пиджак и штаны тут, а в пиджаке ничего нету!»

[“He’s not there, not there, not there, my dears!” she was screaming, to no one knows whom. “His jacket and trousers are there, but there’s nothing in the jacket!”]

Ok, no more suspense – yes, such word exists as confirmed by a number of most-respected dictionaries of Russian language. It is generally used as «сказуемое» [a predicate] – a word or phrase in a sentence that answers the question of what the object of the sentence is doing, did in the past or will do in the future.

It’s true that in many cases the words «нет» and «нету» can be used interchangeably, although the latter is viewed as «просторечие»  [vernacular], «разговорная речь» [everyday speech].

So if you’re talking about an absence of something or someone, go ahead and use «нету» instead of «нет» if you wish:

«Нет, денег у меня нету.» [No, I don’t have money.] – handy when talking to whomever it is you don’t feel like «дать взаймы до получки» [to lend money ‘til payday]

«Нет у нас подушки, нету одеяла» [We have neither a pillow, nor a blanket]. That’s actually a line from «Кошкин дом» [Cat’s House], a beloved old cartoon.

«У меня нету слов!» [The words fail me!]. It’s well-known that a person who indignantly proclaims this is impossible to shut up.

«Результатов лотереи ещё нету» [There are no lottery results yet]

However, if «нет» is used as a negative determiner, then it can’t be replaced with «нету» without losing the original meaning. Example would be the phrase «Он приехал или нет?» [Has he arrived or not?] or a popular (in the US) anti-drug slogan «Просто скажи – нет» [Just say “no”]. Using «нету» in the former sounds funny while in the latter it changes the meaning of the phrase to “Just say “there are none”.

Finally, a quick note on the word «нетушки» [no] – it is a diminutive of «нет», not of «нету». It is a vernacular particle that’s used mostly by children (and by adults who act childishly) to express their «несогласие» [disagreement] and «протест» [objection] tinged with «обида» [bitterness].

«Нетушки, я не буду делиться с Васей игрушками!» [No way I will share toys with Vasya!]

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