'kushat'' (& Mayakovsky)

[David Powelstock]

Apparently so, but the original version had four lines, the last of which
Mayakovsky altered to change the meaning in an oblique way.  Edward Dumanis'
contribution, several messages back in this substrand, may have gotten lost
in the shuffle:

"I do not know this particular version and whether it has anything to do
with Majakovskij but the version that I know shows the similarity in the
meaning:

 Kogda ja jem
 Ja gluh i nem.
 Kogda ja kushaju
 Ja nikogo ne slushaju.

This rhyme was used to teach children not to speak when eating."

Assuming that this version predates VM's version, if it is indeed his, VM
has exploded a "bourgeois" moralism, if you'll excuse the phrase, by
igniting a class struggle within it, which takes the form of a stylistic
clash between 'est'' and 'kushat'.'  At least that's how I read it.

David Powelstock
d-powelstock at uchicago.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of Katie Costello

I had always believed that

Kogda ja jem
Ja glux i nem.

was an anonymous Russian proverb to teach children manners at table. Does
anyone know whether this is so or if Mayakovsky did in fact create it? If
not, did Mayakovsky add two lines?
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