A few questions

[Randolph J. Herber]

The following header lines retained to affect attribution:
|From: Nancy Novak <nen at u.washington.edu>
|Subject: A few questions
|To: Multiple recipients of list SEELANGS <SEELANGS at CUNYVM.BITNET>
|From:  Nancy Novak <nen at U.WASHINGTON.EDU>

|Hello Seelangers,

|I have 3 related requests that I hope someone can help me with.  First,
|does anyone know of any compilation of Russian poslovitsy, possibly
|including skorogovor'ki, with English translations/equivalents?  I'm
|looking for something somewhat similar to Bartlett's Famous Quotations,
|but where you could just look up an English saying and find the Russian
|equivalent or vice versa.  Or even just a listing of poslovitsy with
|English translations that someone's compiled themselves would be a big help.

If you would not mind a first year student of the Russian language attempting
to help, may I suggest:

        Sophia Lubebsky, Russian-English Dictionary of Idioms,
        Random House, NY, 1995, ISBN 0-679-40580-1.

|Second, what is a good translation for "Pospeshish' lyudej nasmeshish."?
|I've come up with a few -- Hold your horses, keep your shirt on, haste
|makes waste -- but they don't seem quite right.

        Ibid L-165 ... haste makes waste

|Third, what would be a good Russian poslovitsa for having to wait while
|travelling because of delays, bureaucracy, etc. -- perhaps one which
|shows acceptance or resignation to waiting as part of travel?  I have a
|feeling that I've heard one like this, but haven't been able to remember,
|and neither could the Russian friend I asked.  The only one I could think
|of was "V gostyakh khorosho, a dome luchshe" -- which is definitely not it.


        I regret being unable to assist you with this question.
        In English, the phrase `travel is hurry up and wait,'
        comes to mind.  I was not able to any idiom in the
        forementioned book related to `travel', `hurry' or
        `wait' that seemed to meet your needs.

Randolph J. Herber, herber at dcdrjh.fnal.gov, +1 708 840 2966, CD/HQ CDF-PK-149O
(Speaking for myself and not for US, US DOE, FNAL nor URA.)
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