-His lethargic display of apathy and lack of industry is shameful!
-It is a legitimate response to the harsh and inconsequential nature of being. I celebrate his tenacity!
-His lethargic display of apathy and lack of industry is shameful!
-It is a legitimate response to the harsh and inconsequential nature of being. I celebrate his tenacity!
Always amazing.
I gotta say, the bird on a wire update was a tad disappointing, but this one soooooooooo good. Very funny as always. Keep ‘em coming!
moar!
That polar bear looks like it would punch like a georgian
MOAR
Demitri should be writing dialogue in Hollywood. Where are the talent scouts? I would pay to see ROLcats: the Movie.
If this were “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” I’d have to use a lifeline and phone a Russian friend. Specifically, I’d like to know if сдулся (a word I don’t know) is roughly equivalent to сдох (a word I do know); and also, is харахорился meant to be derived from харакири?
If the answer to both those questions is “no,” then I got nothin’ and am totally on the wrong track. But if the answer is “yes” to both, then my extremely loose translation would be:
Dog A: Listen, Steve — after last night’s partying, ol’ Yogi woke up with a severe case of rigor mortis, and a temperature of “room”!
Dog B: Which just goes to show, bro’ — what’s “good clean fun” for us can be deadly to a foreigner — he hara-kiri’d by vodka!
A couple notes on my translation:
1. “Patapych” was a total mystery to me, but after some Googling, I find that it’s a traditional Russian nickname for bears. So I suggested “Yogi” as an American equivalent, after the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear. And I changed “Semionych” to “Steve” because the obvious cognate of Семён, which is “Simon”, can suggest nerdiness or old-fashionedness, and I don’t think either was intended here. “Steve” is a more “neutral” sounding name, at least to my American-English ears.)
2. Although I didn’t know the word сдулся (sdulsja), I took an educated guess that it meant the same as сдох (sdokh) — which literally means “he has died,” but with crude and disrespectful connotations, especially when applied to a human being, or in this case to an anthropomorphized animal. (Like saying “We buried my grandmother’s CARCASS after she CROAKED” in English). When it’s not outright disrespectful, “sdokh” at the very least has a gallows-humor sound — thus my suggested translation of “he has reached room temperature.”
An even more succinct translation:
“Hey, that guy we were partyin’ with OD’d!”
“Ha-ha, N00b can’t hold his liquor!”
Actual word was probably meant to be “Хорохориться” – to act arrogantly, brag, be puffed-up or something like this.
“Сдулся” is like in “Сдулся как воздушный шарик” – not death but humiliating loss of that sense of superiority and cool looks that is experienced by hot air balloon when it is popped.
Спасибо, ЗлоРус!
In English, one can say “deflated” with the same figurative meaning as сдулся — to express humiliation, defeat, loss of optimism, etc.
Was I correct in guessing that “то, что нашему брату хорошо” is referring to водочку?
Keep up the great work!! I’m always waiting for new rolcats!
“Look, man- the bear is still reeling from last night”
“That which is good for our brothers is poison to a foreigner… especially a show-off.”
There was, I feel, a minor detail missed in the second line, which gives this a certain flavor. The bear is a *polar* bear, which is what makes him the braggart “foreigner,” and thus unable to hold his liquor as well as the stout men (bears?) of our Motherland.
Not that I’m impressed a lot, but this is a lot more than I expected for when I found a link on Delicious telling that the info is quite decent. Thanks.
The English “translation” given at the outset was so overwhelmingly superior and more interesting in every way than any of the other translations given subsequently, I wonder why anyone would do it? Are you saying that the initial translation is simply made up, and not what it says in the Russian text? Or are you saying that that person took great liberties with the translation, and here’s what it really says?
In either case, the original is better. If it’s just made up, then I say, let it be! The writer’s craft is in the words he has chosen, and for us non-Russian speakers, it makes his repurposing of the image a really droll commentary, a welcome piece.
If on the other hand he has taken great liberties with the translation, then once again, let the poetic license reign. I have never read a literal translation of anything that was at all poetic or interesting to read.
Keith G.: The original ‘translation’ is entirely made up – makes no pretense at having anything to do with the original Russian. Commentors are just leaving actual translations for those who were curious about what the original says.
Right on!
the “original” translation with the pic is brilliant… not only is it funny it represents dog 1 and 2 as the communist government and the typical outlook (that of a life filled with hardship against which one constantly struggles) of the stereotypical russian writer respectively.
its my fav rolcat!!
Brilliant…
lala11@satomix.org