Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging

[VANCHU, ANTHONY J. (JSC-AH) (TTI)]

Actually, the "We will bury you" quote is from another incident which
occured in Moscow, November 18, 1956.  At that time, Khrushchev was speaking
with Western diplomats.

Clearly, the translation of this phrase in the West was purely literal and
not given its proper cultural context (oversight or a symptom of the Cold
War?).  While not particularly a wish of good tidings, the idea behind "we
will bury you," i.e., "we will outlive you," is a not quite as hostile as
the literal translation .  See below:

Tony Vanchu

Dr. Anthony J. Vanchu
Director, JSC Language Education Center
TechTrans International, Inc.
NASA Johnson Space Center
Houston, TX
Phone:  (281) 483-0644
Fax:  (281) 483-4050



From:  The Columbia World of Quotations.  1996.
http://www.bartleby.com/66/52/32552.html


NUMBER: 32552
QUOTATION: Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury
you.
ATTRIBUTION: Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), Soviet premier. remark, Nov. 18,
1956, to Western diplomats, Kremlin, Moscow. quoted in Times (London, Nov.
19, 1956).

Khrushchev later explained this remark as an idiomatic expression to mean
"we will outlive you" (i.e. communism will triumph). On another occasion,
Aug. 24, 1963, addressing a group of Westerners in Split, Yugoslavia, he
referred to his controversial statement: "Of course we will not bury you
with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you."

-----Original Message-----
From: Kirill Sereda [mailto:kvsereda at WORLDNET.ATT.NET]
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 2:52 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging


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

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