Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging

[Timothy D. Sergay]

Translations of pokazat' (dat' komu znat') Kuz'kinu mat': Lubensky's Random
House R-E Dictionary of Idioms (M-54) does indeed list "X will fix Y's
wagon" (also: "X will make it <things> hot for Y; X will show Y who's boss).
Kvselevich's R-E Phraseological Dictionary (p. 334) has "give smb. hot and
strong; make it hot for smb.; give smb. what-for; show smb. a thing or two."

Can anyone explain the etymology? Dal' relates Kuz'kinu to Kuz'ma (имя
Козьма, в поговорках означает бедного, горького). Flegon's "Za predelami
russkikh slovarei" has an entry for KUZ'KA: "mordovskii bog ?" Is it
possibly anatomical, like "show you where the sun don't shine"?

----- Original Message -----
From: "VANCHU, ANTHONY J. (JSC-AH) (TTI)" <anthony.j.vanchu1 at JSC.NASA.GOV>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging


> 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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