'kushat''

[Kenneth Brostrom]

If I may be allowed a small digression, you may enjoy Deming Brown's
translation of this quatrain from Mayakovsky in a NY Times op-ed piece back
in the sixties:

Munch on pineapple,
Dine on grouse.
Your last day is coming,
Bourgeois louse.


> On "kushat'" and poiteness:
>The stylistic destination is certainly correct: "kushat'" is not neutral.
>And, indeed, most  educated Russians  would not use it because of its
>strong  associations with "meshchanstvo" - i,e,. the word is socially
>stigmatized.
>    There is, however, an interesting addition: not only "kushat'" is more
>colloquial, but it also encodes the speaker's Empathy with the addressee.
>Thus, Mayakovsky, who was not particularly polite about "burzhui", wrote:
>
>Esh' ananasy,
>Riabchikov zhui,
>Den' tvoi  poslednij
> Prixodit, burzhui!
>
>"Kushai "would not be appropriate here not only because of its colloquial
>status (M. did not hesitate to use the rude "zhrat'" in other texts), but
>rather  because it would show the author's tender concern with the
>addressee, which is clearly not the case here.
>
>Note Nekrasov's stylization:
>    "Kushai tiuriu, Iasha, molochka-to net!
>    -Gde zh korovka nasha?
>    -Uveli, moi svet!"
>
>And finally, here are som examples from Zemskaia's 'Russkaia razgovornaia
>rech'.TEKSTY ( The text below was recorded in the family of educated urban
>Russians):
>
>R. Baba/ chto ty kupila?
>A. Vot seichas blinok skushaesh'/ i pokazhu//
>A. Kira idi kushat'/ beri Buratinku// (rebenok podxodit) Ty liubish'
>Buratinka blinki? Sprosi ego/ so smetankoi blinki// (kormit) Davai /  sam//
>Nu/ nu// To-o-nen'kii blinok/ na// Kushai// Vo-o-t//
>
>We can't say that this woman was impolite or "meshchanka" ; it was no more
>inappropriate than "sweety pie" as a form of address in itself. Is it rude?
>That would depend on social roles and the place of the speech act.
>
>Best,
>Valentina
>
>>
>
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Kenneth Brostrom
Assoc. Prof. of Russian
Dept. of German and Slavic Studies
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
phone: (313) 577-6238
email: kenneth.brostrom at wayne.edu
fax: (313) 577-3266

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