Russian Language Blog

There is a wonderful Russian saying всякому овощу своё время (there’s time for everything). But as it turns out, всякому овощу, фрукту и ягоде – своё красное словцо (to each vegetable, fruit or berry its own witticism).

Картофель (potato) is a relative newcomer to Russia, appearing only in Peter the Great’s reign. Much like in other European countries, it took potato a while to overcome initial fear and accusations of being дьявольский фрукт (devil’s fruit). Yet less than 300 years later potatoes are firmly associated with Russia and have become a staple воспеваемый (rhapsodized) in songs and poems and remembered in many пословицы (proverbs) and поговорки (sayings), including

Любовь не картошка, не выкинешь в окошко – literally, love is not a potato, can’t be thrown out of the window
Картошку копать, не руками махать – literally, to dig potatoes is not the same as to wave arms – this is said when something is easier said, than done.

Let me just say that картошка – это просто, вкусно и архетипно (potato is a simple, delicious and archetypal food). If you are invited to a simple жареная картошка (fried potatoes), you know you’ve reached a new level of friendship, where conversation will be especially open and задушевный (heart-felt, intimate).

Капуста (cabbage) – ah, so many delicious Russian dishes use this simple vegetable, from голубцы (stuffed cabbage leaves) to капустный пирог (cabbage pie). The later is not to be confused with капустник (an informal performance of, typically, amateur actors) that is such a great Russian tradition. Капуста is also slang for “money”.

В чужом огороде капусту садит (lit. planting cabbage in someone else’s garden) was said about a nosy person who liked minding others’ business.
Back when I was in school, teachers would sometimes shame нерадивый ученик (neglectful pupil) by saying that their answers sounded as if they had не голова, а кочан капусты на плечах (not a head, but a head of cabbage on the shoulders).

Репа (turnip) – if картошка is straightforward and earthy, репа is elusive and mysterious. Consider this, все поголовно (all without exception) Russian children know, с младых ногтей (from the youngest age) that репа exists. Репка (Turnip), the classic fairy tale, is drilled so deep into our heads, that even as adults we can recite it to our children дословно (word for word) and without any need to refresh our memory. Yet it is fairly hard to find an adult (or a child) who actually saw репа, much less tasted one. This means a lot of confusion in such a seemingly проще пареной репы (a no brainer) task as identifying this veg at an American grocery store.

Редис (radish) – also known as редиска and редька (winter radish such as daikon) - is not exactly a vegetable that we can’t live without (it’s used mostly in salads), but has some of the most widely used catch phrases of all the veggies.

The first one is the expression хрен редьки не слаще (lit. horseradish is no sweeter than garden radish) meaning “six of one and half a dozen of the other”.

Now, if you are talking about someone or something mind-numbingly dull, you can say that it is хуже горькой редьки (lit. worse than a bitter radish).

Finally, thanks to a wonderful comedy Джентельмены удачи (Gentlemen of Fortune), нехороший ты человек, редиска (you are not a nice person, but a radish) became a popular way of gently rebuking someone.

Свёкла (beetroot) – its вклад (contribution) to the Russian language is a lot more modest than its contribution to the Russian cuisine (i.e. борщ (borsch) or свёкольник (cold beet soup) or салат Винегрет (Russian beet salad), to name a few). It is used a lot as a measure of how red can one’s face get, i.e. на морозе щёки раскраснелись, будто их свёклой натёрли (cheeks got so red in the frosty air, as if they were rubbed with beets).

Хрен (horseradish) – just the opposite of свёкла, as far as its contributions go. While its culinary applications are mostly as приправа (condiment) and something used in pickling, this fast-spreading vegetable is present in so many key phrases (all mildly ненормативные (obscene)) , such as

хрен с тобой! (to the devil with you!)
ни хрена (a nothing) as in тут бесплатно наливали, но пока моя очередь дошла, ни хрена не осталось (they were giving away free drinks here, but by the time it was my turn, there was nothing left)
хреновина (thingamaging, watchamacallit) – подай-ка вон ту хреновину (pass me that watchamacallit)

To be continued…

What’s your favorite or most puzzling Russian expression with fruits or vegetables in it?

TGIF! Are you ready for выходные (weekend)? But first, if you are curious, Thanks God It’s Friday translates into Russian as слава богу, уже пятница. (The poster above explains that nighttime is not the reason to stop work)
How was your work week? Are you устал, как собака (dog-tired)? It’s probably because you пахал, как лошадь (lit: plowed like a horse; worked hard) or ишачил (lit: worked hard like ишак (donkey)). It’s now time передохнуть (to take a break) and расслабиться (to chill), maybe even with a bottle of пиво (beer), all the while learning new Russian words.

As they say, люди могут подолгу смотреть на огонь, воду и как другие работают (people can spend a long time looking at fire, water and other people working). Since the subject of work can be so завораживающий (fascinating), let’s talk about work.

What does Russian folk wisdom teaches us about work? To begin with, it encourages you to procrastinate. The most well-known saying is работа не волк, в лес не убежит (work is not a wolf, it won’t run into a forest). It is followed pretty closely by если хочешь поработать, ляг, поспи и всё пройдёт (if you want to do some work, lay down, nap and it will pass). Sure, there is the annoying не оставляй на завтра то, что можно сделать сегодня (don’t leave for tomorrow what can be done today). But even this maxim for паинька (goody two-shoes) has been improved upon – не оставляй на завтра то, что можно сделать послезавтра (don’t leave for tomorrow what can be done the day after tomorrow).

In case you are so целеустремлённый (motivated) to get the job done that you are ready to start, remember не начавши – думай, а начавши – делай (think before you start, but once you get started, get it done). Of course, since дурень думкой богатеет (a fool gets richer just by thinking about it), you are best off jumping right in, don’t you? Except, of course, поспешишь – людей насмешишь (haste makes waste) which would only work out if you work as клоун (a clown) or комик (a comedian).

Ironically, with so much controversial advice, Russians are a hardworking people. After all, every Russian child knows that сделал дело – гуляй смело (lit: when work is done, go have fun; business before pleasure). Besides, as we all know so well птицу узнают в полёте, а человека в работе (a bird is recognized by its flight, a person – by his work). Plus, even though not all work is fun, без труда не выловишь и рыбку из пруда (without work one can’t even get a fish out of a pond).

Of  course, if you do work, you are bound to make mistakes or miss deadlines. If that’s the case, here are some handy phrases to insert at the bottom of your next progress report (in 6pt or smaller, unless you want to быть уволен (get fired)):

About a missed deadline

Скоро сказка сказывается, да не скоро дело делается (lit: tales are quickly spun, deeds are sooner said than done)

About being given too much work

Семь дел в одни руки не берут (can’t hold seven things with one pair of hands)

About a mistake in your previous report

Не боги горшки обжигают (lit: it’s not gods who make pots) and конь о четырёх ногах, да спотыкается (lit: a horse has four legs and still stumbles)

And, in case you are in management, here are a couple of great sayings to add to your electronic signature come Monday morning (use 18pt or larger and bold it).

When reading a progress report

Не говори, что делал, а говори, что сделал (Don’t tell what you have been doing, tell what you have done)

When needing to “crack the whip”

Без дела слабеет сила (without work force weakens) – this sounds vaguely Obi-Wan Kenobi-ish.

When trying to motivate

For corporate setting – Как поработаешь, так и заработаешь (as you work, so you shall be paid)

For a hip start-up – как потопаешь, так и полопаешь (as you sow, so shall you reap) – [hope this answers your question, Jeannie]

In general, if you must work, work, but keep in mind that although труд из обезьяны сделал человека (work transformed a primate into a human being) от работы кони дохнут (horses die from work).

Guess whose birthday is celebrated on April 22? Well, lots of famous and important people were born on this day, for example, Alexander Kerensky and Vladimir Nabokov. And, of course, Владимир Ильич Ульянов (Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov) was born on this day back in 1870. He is usually better known by his alias, Ленин (Lenin).

So let’s talk about Lenin’s influence on Russian history language. After all, his collected works take up 54 printed volumes. The name itself launched way more than a thousand renamings of streets, squares and entire cities.

Speaking of the name, Ленин sounds very much like лень (laziness), but in fact comes from Лена (Lena) which happens to be both a female name and a name of one of Siberia’s three largest rivers. Siberia, of course, was where Vladimir Ulyanov spent a few years in exile.

And now that the name is taken care of, it’s time to learn some крылатые фразы (popular quotations) uttered by or believed to be uttered by the man. Why? Because, as with many other catch phrases, you must know them if you want to truly владеть лексиконом  (command a vocabulary) like a native speaker.

The updated poster says “Comrade users! To study, to study and once again to study!”

Учиться, учиться и учиться (To study, to study and to study) – later on, after the cult of Lenin was destroyed, some smarty-pants expanded on this quote, turning it into учиться, учиться и учиться, особенно если не хочется работать, работать и работать (to study, to study and to study, especially if one doesn’t want to work, to work and to work)

Лучше меньше, да лучше - it means “it’s best to have less, but of higher quality”. Originally, this was a title of an article about strengthening government administration. Interestingly, he also said that the quality must be не отстающим от западноевропейских образцов (not lagging behind Western examples). Several decades after he wrote these words, the country was still struggling with the quantity v quality issues and was still trying to догнать и перегнать Америку (to catch up with and overtake the USA).

Nowadays the phrase is frequently used in retail sector and in product reviews in the sense of “less is more”.

Есть такая партия! (There is such a party!) – was something Lenin exclaimed in the heat of the debate. He asserted that Bolshevik Party was ready to take over governing Russia. Later on, in the Soviet Union, this became one of those phrases that would be crammed down your throat in history courses.

Fortunately, the word партия (party) has a few other meanings, such as

A play-off in a sports game as in шахматная партия (a chess game)

A team or a crew as in геолого-разведочная партия (a team of geologists) in this article.

A batch or a shipment as in партия товара (a shipment of goods)

This led to quite a few jokes, such as this one from the movie На Дерибасовской хорошая погода, или на Брайтон-Бич опять идут дожди (Weather is good on Deribasovskaya or It rains again on Brighton Beach). In this comedy, a mafia boss disguised as Lenin exclaims «Есть такая партия! Замечательная партия наркотиков из Таиланда!» (There is such a party! A great shipment of narcotics from Thailand!)

Из всех искусств для нас важнейшим является кино (Of all the arts, cinema is of the outmost importance to us) – this was, of course, before TV. Otherwise, this phrase can be changed to suit your needs by replacing кино (cinema) with whatever strikes your fancy - цирк (circus), ток-шоу (talk-show), телевидение (TV), Фотошоп (Photoshop), бета-тестирование (beta testing), образование (education), etc. For example, the article about a ballet festival in Novosibirsk says «Три весенних недели важнейшим из искусств в городе являлся балет» (For three weeks in the spring ballet remained of the outmost importance in the city). Caution – this phrase is sometimes used sarcastically, usually to show that something is being neglected or made a big deal out of without producing results.

On this old poster Lenin reassures his followers “Comrades, you are on the right path”.

Мы пойдём другим путём (We will choose another way) – this phrase приписывается Ленину (is attributed to Lenin), but in fact is детище (a brainchild) of another famous Vladimir, Владимир Маяковский (Vladimir Mayakovsky). In Mayakovsky’s poem “Vladimir Lenin”, a seventeen-year-old Lenin promises his oldest brother Alexander to pick up the fight against capitalists and win it, but “to choose another way” of going about it.

This is Leon Trotsky, widely (but incorrectly) believed to be called by Lenin “political prostitute”.

Политическая проститутка (Political prostitute) - reportedly Lenin loved to describe his political opponents as проститутки (prostitutes). Nowadays it is used to describe an unprincipled politician who will do just about anything to get elected. In the US the term, I believe, is a flip-flopper.

An old Soviet poster that calls on women to learn to read and write.

Любая кухарка способна управлять государством (Any kitchen maid can run a country) – this is the most misquoted phrase. In fact, what Lenin did say was «мы знаем, что любая кухарка не способна сейчас же вступить в управление государством…» (we know that any kitchen maid cannot right away start running a country…). He continued by saying that it was time to move away from a false belief that only rich people were capable of doing the daily work of maintaining a functioning government.

Взять почту, телеграф, телефон (To take over post, telegraph and telephone services) – this was part of Lenin’s carefully outlined plan for taking over the country in an armed uprising. Nowadays it is used ironically or figuratively to describe first necessary steps in an important undertaking.