Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging

[Kirill Sereda]

I hear that the Russian translator, possibly trying to maintain decorum,
opted for the cryptic literal "We will show you Cosmo's mother," which
was later translated by others as "We will bury you."  I wonder if
"We'll fix your wagon!" would have been a good idiomatic equivalent.
Kirill

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of elenka
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 12:55 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging


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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