Raskolnikov and his penis
Другие записи: Illegal aliens? | Качала | День 2010.08.18, Точное время 07:15:00 | Автометалл
Keeping myself up to date about homework kids have from school in Russian language and Russian literature, last night from Jass I listened to retelling of a story about "geroi etogo rasskaza medved" and from Salme I got her first impressions on "Crime and punishment" (she reads in Estonian translation, for the literature lessons).
In Estonian we have more than one way to makes things plural - to take a random example, "inside of apples" can be said as õuntes or as õunis. Apparently, the translator - Tammsaare, BTW - has used i-mitmus, when translating how Чувство глубочайшего омерзения мелькнуло на миг в тонких чертах of Raskolnikov. When neither myself nor my sister nor my elder son, who all have read the same translation in high school, have noticed anything funny, the male classmates of Salme did not miss that if one does not read the whole phrase "tema peenis näojoontes"(in his refined features of face), one gets "tema peenis" (his penis).
At the same time, when I think back to high school, I surely noticed the mention of refined features - as while I had read "Crime and punishment" voluntarily, my sister had been given the task by her Russian teacher and later the teacher had asked the students to draw portrait of Raskolnikov. My sister had told me how funny she found that after a while the class was filled with tuk-tuk-tuk sound of pencils hitting the paper - the students were drawing the unshaved cheeks of the hero! Being an arrogant knows-it-all older sister, I found the portrait my sister had drawn unacceptable - she had missed the тонкие черты entirely and her Raskolnikov looked like a common bloated homeless drunk!