Subject
Re: chuckrick/xuxrik/shchogol'/shchegol (fwd)
Date
Body
From: "Peter A. Kartsev" <petr@glas.apc.org>
Earl Sampson in the message below may be confusing two Russian words,
shchegol (accent on the last syllable), meaning goldfinch, and
shchyogol' (accent in the first), meaning fop or dandy. So it seems
that Mandelshtam uses the latter in the third line, then in all
other cases the "bird word".
And "hvostik lodkoi" is precisely that, "boat-shaped (little) tail".
--
Peter A. Kartsev
Moscow, Russia
Phone: (095) 471-5457
E-mail: petr@glas.apc.org
En cada instante puede revelarte su amor Helena de Troya. -- JLB
>
> Don's information on xuxrik = schegolek brings to mind a Mandel'shtam poem
> I have always liked. The 1967 Mandel'shtam Collected Works has three
> variants of the poem, written in winter 1936,in Voronezh. I quote the
> second variant, as the most apposite to Don's note:
>
> Detskii rot zhuet svoiu miakinu,
> Ulybaetsia, zhuia,
> Slovno shchogol' golovu zakinu
> I shchegla uvizhu ia.
>
> Khvostik lodkoi, per'ia chorno-zholty,
> I nagrudnik krasnym shit.
> Chorno-zholtyi, do chego shchegol ty,
> Do chego ty shcheglovit!
>
> A childish mouth chews its chaff,
> Smiles while chewing,
> Like a dandy* I toss back my head
> And I see a goldfinch.
>
> Its tail is like a boat (?)**, its plumage black and red,
> And its bib is sewn with red.
> Black and red, how much of a goldfinch you are,
> How dandified you are!
>
> *My dictionaries give only the "dandy" meaning for shchogol' (of which
> DBJ's/Dal's shchegolek is of course the diminutive), not the bird name. I
> assume M. intended the "dandy" meaning. Or both at once: like a dandy and
> like a bird? The adjective in the last line is also problematic, apparently
> M's neologism, since all my dictionaries have "shcheglov_a_t" for "foppish,
> dandified." Maybe the connatation of the last line is "How
> dandified/goldfinch-like/redshank-like you are." I'm not being entirely
> facetious here; M's poetry is packed with multiple (possible) meanings.
>
> **Literal translation. Am I missing a metphorical or colloquial usage of
> "boat" here?
>
> Earl Sampson (esampson@cu.campus.mci.net)
Earl Sampson in the message below may be confusing two Russian words,
shchegol (accent on the last syllable), meaning goldfinch, and
shchyogol' (accent in the first), meaning fop or dandy. So it seems
that Mandelshtam uses the latter in the third line, then in all
other cases the "bird word".
And "hvostik lodkoi" is precisely that, "boat-shaped (little) tail".
--
Peter A. Kartsev
Moscow, Russia
Phone: (095) 471-5457
E-mail: petr@glas.apc.org
En cada instante puede revelarte su amor Helena de Troya. -- JLB
>
> Don's information on xuxrik = schegolek brings to mind a Mandel'shtam poem
> I have always liked. The 1967 Mandel'shtam Collected Works has three
> variants of the poem, written in winter 1936,in Voronezh. I quote the
> second variant, as the most apposite to Don's note:
>
> Detskii rot zhuet svoiu miakinu,
> Ulybaetsia, zhuia,
> Slovno shchogol' golovu zakinu
> I shchegla uvizhu ia.
>
> Khvostik lodkoi, per'ia chorno-zholty,
> I nagrudnik krasnym shit.
> Chorno-zholtyi, do chego shchegol ty,
> Do chego ty shcheglovit!
>
> A childish mouth chews its chaff,
> Smiles while chewing,
> Like a dandy* I toss back my head
> And I see a goldfinch.
>
> Its tail is like a boat (?)**, its plumage black and red,
> And its bib is sewn with red.
> Black and red, how much of a goldfinch you are,
> How dandified you are!
>
> *My dictionaries give only the "dandy" meaning for shchogol' (of which
> DBJ's/Dal's shchegolek is of course the diminutive), not the bird name. I
> assume M. intended the "dandy" meaning. Or both at once: like a dandy and
> like a bird? The adjective in the last line is also problematic, apparently
> M's neologism, since all my dictionaries have "shcheglov_a_t" for "foppish,
> dandified." Maybe the connatation of the last line is "How
> dandified/goldfinch-like/redshank-like you are." I'm not being entirely
> facetious here; M's poetry is packed with multiple (possible) meanings.
>
> **Literal translation. Am I missing a metphorical or colloquial usage of
> "boat" here?
>
> Earl Sampson (esampson@cu.campus.mci.net)