Re: [SEELANGS] "Мочить в сортире"

[Timothy D. Sergay]

Dear Alex and SEELANGers,

    >About translating "мочить в сортире" (literally - "to kill in the
bathroom").

Here is part of an entry I have for замачивать/замочить in the
Russian-English translator's dictionary of media language that I've been
slowly compiling.
(1) Underworld and special-services slang verb meaning "to kill, blow away,
whack, waste, take out, rub out, clip, cap." Used notoriously by Putin on
Sept. 24, 1999, in Astana: «Если найдем их [чеченских боевиков] в туалете,
замочим и в сортире»; "If we find them on the john, we’ll whack ’em [waste ’em]
right in their shithouses."

I've seen variants of this in the English-language press; there's no single
consensus version, and there doesn't need to be: "take them out, rub them
out, clip 'em, cap 'em" -- these all seem acceptable to me. The most
outlying variant I've seen was in the New York Review of Books (repeated on
PBS's Nightline): "we will bury them in their own crap," which suggests
misunderstanding of the verb.

A few nights ago I caught a French TV news broadcast featuring a clip of
Putin's delivery of this phrase, in which he is heard prefacing it with
"Извините".

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