TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

Not Russian, but 35 years ago there was a widely repeated translation joke: The slogan "come alive with the Pepsi generation" was translated into Chinese, but it literally meant "Pepsi revives your dead ancestors."

That example may be apocryphal, but translations are interesting. It's something to be mindful of when talking with otherwise fluent ESL people.

I had a very intelligent and fluent coworker who knew the English phrase "to shag" from the Austin Powers movies. She completely misinterpreted the meaning of "a shag carpet," though. It was so funny (and came up so infrequently) that no one ever corrected her.

I know that in general, proverbs are difficult to translate because they assume a lot of cultural knowledge to convey their idea.

Like if I say to you "bird in the hand", you'll understand that I'm referencing the notion that there's value to a sure thing that can outweigh the value of potentially having more.

If you ever watch a UN speech, the translators sometimes pause for a bit to figure out how to convey not just the literal words, but also the meaning and the meaning in context.

• onion sorrow
• the horse did not roll
• There are elderberries in the kitchen garden, and your uncle in Kiev

Not OP but I got curious and found a whole section on Wikiquote devoted to Russian proverbs. Here's one example:

Transliteration: Artelnyi gorshok gusche kipit.

Translation: Artisanal pots boil (things) more thickly

English Equivalent: Many hands make light work.

It's kind of hurting my brain.

In last season of "The Boy" one of the characters used a russian proverb "Trust but verify" and I learned that it was popularized in USA by Ronald Reagan.

Not Russian but.

Stick in the eye to the one who remembers the old.

Spring of pussies.

Not all the Moomins are in the valley.

I didn't say "untranslatable". Please don't put words in my mouth.

Though there are sayings that are virtually untranslatable between cultures because their conceptions of the world are so different.

It's often very difficult to translate sayings across cultures, because there's no one-to-one mapping of words, let alone ideas/concepts.

Take a look even at the difference between French and English, where how you count isn't even close to the same. Then read some Moliere and Shakespeare, seeing how their wordplay is different because of language differences. And these are two countries with a long relationship, with French spoken by the upper classes in Shakespeare's time.

I have several books of sayings/proverbs collections, and it's fascinating to read things translated by people with extensive understanding and knowledge. Even then, sometimes the best translations are just incomprehensible to me, since I grew up in a culture that's vastly different from the origin.

Very old sayings are especially interesting (e.g. Things written in something like Sanskrit). It can be so difficult to connect to a culture that hasn't existed in so long (or has an existing great-great-great grandchild that's quite different).

Again, even from US English to British English can be surprisingly opaque, sharing a common language but unique environs.