Friday, July 21, 2006

Russian Lesson from "Idoru"

Indispensable lesson of the rich Russian language from William Gibson:
"Yob tvoyu mat," said the Russian, soft syllables of surprise.
Personally I would have written "Yab". To clarify, the Russian is part of the Russian communist mafia called Kombinat.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear "O",
I would like to learn these Russian lessons, but need my translation. Please advise.

O said...

Ha, I was debating whether or not to provide a translation. More or less, it's a vulgar equivalent to "your mom". With emphasis on vulgar... I was just caught of guard by this one and only Russian phrase in the book.

Anonymous said...

Well, now isn't that just about the most PC way of translating that Russian phrase I've ever seen. Let's just say it's meaning isn't all too close to "your mom", but it's a very crude and offensive comment that does involve someone's mother.

O said...

Haha, it's all in the timing anonymous.

I couldn't bring myself to translate more than the meaning of the last two words.

Anonymous said...

Hey,the censorship ( in my youth time) would prohibit such "strong"language in any publications!