Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging

[elenka]

Dear colleagues:

I am trying to find precise information on Khrushchev's show banging in the UN
Assembly. On Wednesday 12 October 1960, all national papers commented on
Nikita Sergeyevich and his famous shoe banging. Apparently, Khrushchev
protested the speech of the head of the Philippine delegation, Senator Lorenzo
Sumulong. In anger, he called the senator "a jerk, a stooge and a lackey of
imperialism." In the Russian version, though, the shoe banging, it seems, was
accompanied by a wonderful idiomatic phrase "ia vam pokazhu kuzkinu mat." I
would very much like to find out the English translation of this phrase. I
mean, the version they used when they had to translate it in the UN. Since
such a phrase is extremely difficult to translate, I wouldn't be surprised if
they used literal translation - sth like "Kuzkin's mother." In this case, it
would be also nice to learn how the phrase can be translated into idiomatic
English. "I'll spit into your eye" is a possible translation but it does not
really capture the comic aspect of the Russian phrase.

Have you ever come across any useful information on this?

Many thanks in advance.


elenka at uvic.ca

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