A website I don’t visit often enough is Подслушано в России [Overheard in Russia]. A number of such “Overheard in …” sites exist, actually. They remind me of the Metropolitan Diary in the New York Times, where readers share conversations, exclamations, exhortations, or other utterances they happened to experience by chance in New York City (and sometimes even mute encounters or wordless acts, which can be even more eloquent). Maybe that’s where the idea for these websites came from.
Part of the attraction of Подслушано for me is the unvarnished colloquial quality of most of the entries. But I also enjoy catching a glimpse of a life that is foreign yet familiar, firmly rooted in time yet timeless.
Like this little exchange:
Natural selection of tomatoes
18 September 2007, 11:03 am, Moscow
Customer: How much for the tomatoes?
Seller (phlegmatically): Thirty and ten.
Customer: Which are “thirty” and which are “ten”?
Seller (nodding toward customers rummaging in one of the bins): The ones they take are thirty. The rest are ten.
[Overheard at the market on Signal Street]
Естественный отбор помидоров
18 сентября 2007 в 11:03, Москва
Покупательница: А почем помидоры?
Продавец (флегматично): Тридцать и десять.
Покупательница: А какие “тридцать” и какие “десять”?
Продавец (кивая на покупателей, копающихся в одном из лотков): А вот какие берут, те тридцать. Остальные – десять.
Где подслушано: рынок на Сигнальном проезде
Here are two others I picked out a while back and never posted.
And because of this they erected a statue of him at every McDonald’s
21 March 2007, 8:50 pm, Moscow
Old lady with checkered bag (nodding): Yes, St. Patrick’s Day!
Another old lady (nodding in response): Aaah, right! American. Everyone puts on scary clothes, the scarier the better.*
Old lady with checkered bag: Aha! So that’s how St. Patrick made everyone laugh.
[Overheard in the Belorusskaya metro station]
__________
*This is tricky. Страшно literally means “frightening,” leading one to think the women are talking about Halloween. But it could also mean “awful” or “terrible” (though it seems to me ужасно would be more idiomatic), hence the reference by the person posting to Ronald McDonald. (Or is it the “wearin’ o’ the green” that’s awful? Help!) I wish I could straddle the fence, but sometimes a translator just has to commit. I rather like the mash-up of American secular holy days as it stands above.
И за это его статуи устанавливают у каждого Макдональдса
21 марта 2007 в 20:50, Москва
Бабушка с клетчатой сумкой (кивая): Да, день Святого Патрика!
Вторая бабушка (кивая в ответ): А-а, вот-вот, точно! Американский! Поэтому все и страшно одеваются, чем страшнее, тем лучше!
Бабушка с клетчатой сумкой: Ага, вот Святой Патрик так всех и смешил!
Где подслушано: ст.метро “Белорусская”
In the morning the teacher read “Tales of Power” [Castaneda] to us and after that I don’t remember anything
22 March 2007, 10:20 am, Samara
Mother to a child of about six (tired): So were you able to eat supper?
Kid (aloof, looking to the side): What?
Mother (mildly irritated): Did you have something to eat?
Kid (in the same tone): When?
Mother (irritated): Well, did Galina Petrovna come by?
Kid: (in the same tone): Who?
Mother (losing it): So where were you all day? At the nursery school?
Kid: (heaving a deep sigh): That’s what I’d like to know.
[Overheard on the No. 24 bus]
Утром воспитательница рассказала нам “Сказку о силе”, и больше я ничего не помню
22 марта 2007 в 10:20, Самара
Мама мальчугану лет шести (устало): Ты хоть поужинать успел?
Мальчуган (отрешенно, глядя в сторону): Что?
Мама (с легким раздражением): Ну поесть успел?
Мальчуган (не меняя тона): Когда?
Мама (раздраженно): А Галина Петровна к вам заходила хоть?
Мальчуган (не меняя тона): Кто?
Мама (теряя терпение): Ты вообще где сегодня целый день был? В саду?
Мальчуган (глубоко вздыхая, сокрушенно): Вот и я хотел бы знать.
Где подслушано: маршрутка №24
