Act A Fool: Proverbs With Дурак In Russian Posted by Maria on Jan 25, 2016 in language
As the famous saying goes, «В Росси́и две пробле́мы: дураки́ и доро́ги» (“Russia has two problems – fools and bad roads”). There is a wealth of proverbs for a variety of occasions talking about fools.
Дурака́м зако́н не пи́сан
This literally means “There’s no law written for fools.” What’s implied is that the person you are criticizing is acting like rules don’t apply to them. What I like about this saying is that there is a continuation:
Е́сли пи́сан, то не чи́тан,
Если чи́тан, то не по́нят,
Если по́нят, то не так.
(If there’s a law written, it hasn’t been read; and if it’s been read, it wasn’t understood; and if it was understood, it was misinterpreted.)
Бы́вший председа́тель ЦБ Ви́ктор Гера́щенко к созда́нию мегарегуля́тора отне́сся скепти́чески: «Е́сли для них о́пыт зарубе́жных стран не приме́р, то пусть де́лают, что хотя́т. Дурака́м зако́н не пи́сан». (Former President of the Central Bank /of Russia/ Viktor Gerashenko was skeptical about creating a top regulatory body. “If they cannot learn from other countries’ experience, let them do as they please. There’s no rule for fools.” [Наталья Старостина. Минфин загоняет рынок в мегарегулятор // РБК Дейли, 2012.09.13]
Заста́вь дурака́ Б́огу моли́ться
The full saying goes Заста́вь дурака́ Бо́гу моли́ться, он лоб расшибе́т (Make a fool pray to God, and he will split his forehead open). This refers to the tradition of repeatedly bowing your head down while praying. The saying is used to describe a person who has newly resolved to do something and has overdone it.
Па́па всегда́ говори́л, что я сли́шком бы́стро увлека́юсь. А ма́ма повторя́ла ру́сскую посло́вицу: заста́вь дурака́ Бо́гу моли́ться, он и лоб расшибе́т. (My dad always said I got carried away too quickly. And my mom repeated the Russian proverb that an overzealous fool will break his forehead praying.) [Герман Садулаев. Шалинский рейд (2009) // «Знамя», 2010]
Дурна́я голова́ нога́м поко́я не дае́т
This proverb, meaning “A silly head gives legs no rest,” describes the situation when a person needs to make a second trip because they failed to complete some task the first time.
В посло́вице «Дурна́я голова́ нога́м поко́я не дае́т» име́ются в виду́ голова́ и но́ги, принадлежа́щие одному́ органи́зму. И э́то не так оби́дно. Но оби́дно о́чень, когда́ но́ги иста́птываешь свои́, а кома́нду «на старт» да́ли соверше́нно посторо́нние лю́ди. (The proverb “A silly head gives your legs no rest” presupposes that the head and legs belong to the same body. That’s not as bad. But it is bad when you are doing the legwork when someone else told you to run.) [Ольга БАКУШИНСКАЯ. Влияние головы на ноги // Комсомольская правда, 2004.12.10]
If you have Russian friends or relatives, have you heard them say any of these? These sayings are quite popular, and people will often resort to proverbs to describe a situation. Any other “foolish” proverbs you can think of?
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About the Author: Maria
Maria is a Russian-born translator from Western New York. She is excited to share her fascination with all things Russian on this blog. Maria's professional updates are available in English on her website and Twitter and in Russian on Telegram.
Comments:
Thomas Maholski:
Maria, my father’s favorite saying was. “Дурак и его деньги были скоро разделены.”
Maria:
@Thomas Maholski Thomas, interesting — I’ve never heard this one in Russian, but I can certainly see an application for it. Wikiquote also suggests “Дурак — кошельку враг” as the Russian equivalent, which I haven’t heard either, but really appreciate.
David Roberts:
Very interesting post! I also found it quite interesting from a grammatical perspective: Дурака́м зако́н не пи́сан, Е́сли пи́сан, то не чи́тан,Если чи́тан, то не по́нят. The words пи́сан and чи́тан are past passive participles (short form) derived from imperfective verbs, contradicting many (but not all) textbooks that say that past passive participles can only be formed from perfective verbs.However, по́нят is not a participle but present 3rd person plural, used without a subject noun or pronoun so with a present passive form.
English has exactly the same saying as Thomas quotes “A fool and his money are soon parted”
English point – we don’t act A fool (unless playing the part of a fool in a play or film), we “act the fool” or we “play the fool”. Not logical, but that’s idioms for you!
Maria:
@David Roberts Thank you, David. I see why some textbooks would only list perfective passive participles. I suppose the logic is, either something was done (completely), or it was not. What they are leaving out is that quirky use of the imperfective in Russian where it talks about a past action where we don’t care about the completion, but only about whether or not it happened.
For instance: Ты читал “Войну и мир”? (Have you read War and Peace?) – we only care about the result and not the degree or time of completion, which ironically is normally conveyed by perfect tenses in English, especially outside the US.
“Понят” does seem to be the short version of “понятый,” in which case it is a participle. The present 3rd person plural would be “понимают.”
Thank you for the idiom tip. “Act A Fool” refers to the 2003 Ludacris song that was featured in the 2 Fast 2 Furious movie. We can’t be mad at a hip-hop song for being creative with the language. 🙂
Pavel Gromnic:
I very much appreciate these insights into the Russian mind. The culture of Russia is rich and beautiful. I’m American but feel as if I’m in the process of converting to Russian. I feel free and happy about it. Maybe I’m romanticizing the whole thing. But I think not . Even Russian squirrels look interesting. I’m (kein ayin hara) sixty-seven years old
now but have felt the attraction to Russia since I was a small boy in a
Catholic school sixty years ago. Slava Rossia!
Mike:
I’m not sure why some (not all) grammar books state that only perfective verbs can have past passive participles. In fact at least two grammars i own that were printed in Russia give читать as an example of past passive participle formation. When I’m not sure if a verb should get one,I look it up in викисловарь https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/писать, which lists all the legal forms of a verb.
An interesting note, the simple past tense in Russian is the remnant of an old participle form where л ла ло ли were the participial endings. It was a compound past like the present perfect in some languages and similar to modern Russian’s compound future. What is missing now is the auxiliary verb, the present tense of быть: он [есть] читал