Яolcats

Laughing till I'm crying. Thanks for keeping it real ;)

"white crow" is a russian idiomatic equivalent of "black sheep"

Superb

and droll
enough to LOL.

lmao - i loved this - poor Grigor

We, ugly Americans, sure do love to laugh - so long as its @ othersu00e2u0080u0099 expense. Someone hx0rz this site already. Lame.

Yep, count me, again, among those who really love the translations and cultural insights. Very cool stuff.

I actually 'get' this one, I think, thanks to the explanations. Crows everywhere have a unique set of attributions.

Can i just say yay for the translations?
Haters, hating is bad for your health. Go do something you find enjoyable.

EvilRus, u00d0u00b4u00d0u00beu00d0u00b3u00d0u00beu00d0u00b2u00d0u00beu00d1u0080u00d0u00b8u00d0u00bcu00d1u0081u00d1u008f -- u00d1u0082u00d0u00b5u00d0u00b1u00d0u00b5 u00d0u00bdu00d0u00b5 u00d0u00bfu00d1u0080u00d0u00beu00d1u0081u00d0u00b8u00d1u0082u00d1u008c u00d0u00bfu00d1u0080u00d0u00beu00d1u0089u00d0u00b5u00d0u00bdu00d0u00b8u00d1u008f u00d0u00b7u00d0u00b0 "u00d0u00bfu00d0u00bbu00d0u00beu00d1u0085u00d0u00beu00d0u00b9 u00d0u00b0u00d0u00bdu00d0u00b3u00d0u00bbu00d0u00b8u00d0u00b9u00d1u0081u00d0u00bau00d0u00b8u00d0u00b9", u00d0u00b0 u00d1u008f u00d0u00bdu00d0u00b5 u00d0u00b1u00d1u0083u00d0u00b4u00d1u0083 u00d0u00b8u00d0u00b7u00d0u00b2u00d0u00b8u00d0u00bdu00d1u008fu00d1u0082u00d1u008cu00d1u0081u00d1u008f u00d0u00b7u00d0u00b0 u00d0u00beu00d1u0088u00d0u00b8u00d0u00b1u00d0u00bau00d0u00b8 u00d0u00bdu00d0u00b0 u00d1u0080u00d1u0083u00d1u0081u00d1u0081u00d0u00bau00d0u00beu00d0u00bc!

Your English is really pretty good -- except that instead of "it is rooted from," the correct construction would be something like "it has its roots in a satire by Juvenal, who said..."

And by the way, I didn't know that the expression "white crow" goes all the way back to Latin -- thanks for that info.

Thank you all - Troodon, Andrei, Throbert, EvilRus, and everyone else in all the other threads - for the work you do in providing the translations. It's like getting two Rolcats in one!

"White crow" is an idiom - someone who differs very much from the rest.
It is rooted from Roman poet Juvenal who said in one of his satires something like "Slave can become Caesar and captive can turn out victorious but such a lucky man is rarer then a white crow."
Humor is supposed to be that by not conforming with the rest sparrow becomes figuratively a crow, although white one.
Sorry for my poor English.

thank you Throbert.

And if anyone is wondering, "Why on earth do you bother spending so much time thinking about a stupid translation," my answer is "for the same reason that other people spend a lot of time working on crossword puzzles, while other people spend a lot of time trying to beat their previous score on Guitar Hero."

How desirable [it is] among [those] similar to me
A different one to be - beautiful, strong, brave!
Such [individuals], in the sparrowu00e2u0080u0099s world - not welcomeu00e2u0080u00a6
[In fact,] Then, a CROW theyu00e2u0080u0099ll call [me]! Even if [they admit I'm] a white [one].

Andrei: This is close to what I was able to come up with in my head, and yet I still couldn't make sense out of it!

As I said, it was the "crow" part that was puzzling me -- I mean, WHY are the other sparrows calling her a u00d0u00b2u00d0u00beu00d1u0080u00d0u00beu00d0u00bdu00d0u00b0, and not u00d0u00beu00d1u0080u00d1u0091u00d0u00bb ("eagle"), u00d0u00bfu00d0u00b0u00d0u00b2u00d0u00bbu00d0u00b8u00d0u00bd ("peacock"), u00d1u0081u00d0u00beu00d0u00b2u00d0u00b0 ("owl"), u00d0u00b8u00d0u00bdu00d0u00b4u00d0u00b5u00d0u00b9u00d0u00bau00d0u00b0 ("turkey"), or some other type of bird?

In short (I was thinking) what characteristic of the crow are the other sparrows attributing to her? Obviously not the crow's blackness, since they'd call her a crow even if her feathers were white. Well, she wanted to be stronger than she is, and crows are certainly large and strong in comparison with a sparrow -- so could it be the other sparrows intended "you're a crow!" as a compliment?

And then I thought, "Maybe the key is to understand what crows signify not from a sparrow's point of view, but from a Russian point of view?" So I started trying to remember if there were any well-known proverbs or fairytales or jokes about the crow in Russian -- all I could think of, however, was "The Fox and the Crow" and the expression "to count crows," but neither seemed to fit the photo. But maybe there was some Russian proverb about "The Sparrow and the Crow" that I'd never heard of?

So at that point I just said "Fuck this shit, I'll admit I'm confused, and go watch _South Park_ while I wait for one of the native speakers to post something..."

put me in the 'loving the translations' boat!

yup, love the real translations too. They are quite beautiful some of them..!

*loving the real translations.*

Haters to the left, please!

I like seeing the real translations. Quit ragging on people who are trying to do something nice for others who might be wondering what it really means!

>but the fake translations are way funnier<

Please let us know what you are expecting to see when you read the comments. Some absurd nonsense? Substantive discussion about another topic? What would be least annoying to you? Because, you know, I really just want to make you happy! I'm just trying to make this work, and your attitude about it really isn't helping...

I swear people are translating the Russian into English in the comments JUST TO ANNOY ME.

Stop it already.

The conjugations indicate that this is spoken by a female in first person:

"
How desirable [it is] among [those] similar to me
A different one to be - beautiful, strong, brave!
Such [individuals], in the sparrow's world - not welcome...
[In fact,] Then, a CROW they'll call [me]! Even if [they admit I'm] a white [one].
"

The last "Zato" should be translated as "In such a situation" or "Then" (i.e. literally, "after that", or "behind that"), not as "Although." It's also possible that the original author wanted to write "Za eto," but that seems unlikely. The point is that the other sparrows will be so jealous that they'll call you a crow, and even if this makes no sense because you're white, they'll still insist that you're just a white crow.

ROLcats rocks.
One of the most enjoyable places to visit on the web.

I think it says "Oh how among those similar to oneself one wants to be different - beautiful, strong, brave! Such, in the world of sparrows, are inconvenient... Although, they will call one a CROW! Although a white one."

I don't get it...

How do you say "HALLELUJAH! At last! You're back!" in Russian?

::celebrating new Rolcat::

Please, Demitri (et al), don't ever scare me like that again.

...

Throbert, throw out the words one by one and let's see what it sounds like. Even if we don't "get it," we might still have fun trying!

Huh. This is one of those times where I understand every single word of the Russian, yet somehow I'm not quite "getting" the overall point, so I don't know how to translate it. In particular, I think I might not be understanding the significance of u00d0u00b2u00d0u00beu00d1u0080u00d0u00beu00d0u00bdu00d0u00b0 ("crow") in the last line.

Gregor was a fool and a coward. The Great Red Soviet Heart spits on his grave. Good Riddance, Gregor, but fear not Death's solitude. Your family will join you soon.

Poignant!

Yay, a new ROLcat!

I'm a bastard!

poor Grigor. tonight I raise a glass of wodka in his memory.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhh! Relief.

Finally! I've been dying here.

At last! In these uncertain times, a new ROLcats to cheer even the heaviest heart.