Counterpoint the Surrealism of the underlying metaphor

[elfwhistletree]

I got this request from my very good friend, as follows:

Comments

[shocolate]

Well, I've passed on the request to my flist, in case...

..also, I adore your posts title!!

[elfwhistletree]

Thank you very much - the Vogon connection seemed appropriate ♥

[uk_sef]

With my extremely limited knowledge of Vogon but armed with etymological and calligraphic information for cyrillic and a Russian-English dictionary (which I can only read with a magnifying glass these days!) I make the start of page 2 to be something like:

... суровый {surovioy = severe} и?дiот {iidiot = idiot} я {ya = I} грохнулся {grokhnulsya = fall with a crash}
нА {na = on/to/at/etc} стол {stol = board}
жЕлАя {zhelaya = wish/want} ло?Б/Е {lob/ye = brow/forehead} разбить {razbiit- = break} иль {iil- = or} дрЕво {drevo = ?wooden}

[uk_sef]

I found this online translation page which allows pasting of cyrillic (rather than requiring transliteration or retyping):
http://www.lexilogos.com/english/russian_translation.htm

The promt and systran options seem to do the best job - perhaps partly because the others don't like the mixed case letters (sticking as closely as possible to type from the original badly drawn scribble). If I want to use automatic systems as a double-check, I may have to transform everything from its bizarre blackmail-note-style mixture into modern lower case forms.

p1

[uk_sef]

Backtracking to p1 (title page) for the obsolete letter forms (modern replacement being indicated by underlining - because that doesn't stop it being fed into an auto translator by anyone who wants to check my manual dictionary work), the top line of each pair is a transcription and the bottom line is a word by word simplistic (don't expect me to get tense etc right!) translation:

А. Крученых

A. Kruchenikh

утиное
гнездышко
...
дурныхъ
словъ
...

duck('s) nest ... nasty words ...

рис.
и
раскраска
О.
Розановой

design
and
painting
O.
Rozanovoy

p2(a)

[uk_sef]

суровый
идиот
я
грохнулся
на
стол

severe idiot I fall with crash on board

желая
лоб
разбить
иль
древо

want brow break or wood

и
поднялся
в
рядах
содом

and arose in rank ?sodom

всех
потрясла
дикарская
вера

all shook savage belief

[uk_sef]

A note about the title "duck's nest":

Ducks are notorious for their sloppy nesting habits. So the intended meaning of that title could be "this is the mess in which I've abandoned my oeuvres (ie works)".

For the googlers:

[uk_sef]

The start of p10 in copy-pastable characters is:

я плюнул смело на ретивых

Re: For the googlers:

[elfwhistletree]

I get one, and only one, hit here, which is not auto-translatable

www.akcia-antique.ru/katalog_aukciona_11.09.10.doc

I can download a Russian document which looks like a list of books with prices

The relevant bit translates to this

187. TWISTED ALEXEY. A duck nest... Bad words … - [Spb.: ЕУЫ, 1913]. - [22] l. - 18х12,3 Litografirovannoe the edition (pencil) see. The text is written O.Rozanovoj on one party of sheet. Both covers and a title are absent the title page with the Landscape. The book begins with a poem «the Swill сквернословий.». There is no sheet (15) with a poem «I has spat safely on zealous …». One of the best литографированных (lithograph) books of the founder of "suprematism" of Olga Rozanovoj.

[uk_sef]

The start of p13 isn't seeming translatable in the middle at the moment:

кидая стозубость плевка

[elfwhistletree]

I think this might be "I has spat safely on zealous" - it's something about spitting anyway?