Translation help

[Timothy D. Sergay]

Dear Natalia,

    For "parasha," the English edition of Jacques Rossi's GULAG HANDBOOK 
(Paragon House, 1989) has simply "latrine bucket" (and notes that it can 
also refer to rumors); for "shmon," just "search" and terms based on 
"search" (searcher, search facility and so on). Where "shmon" and related 
forms refer to a rough police search of a premises, rather than someone's 
person, I like the colloquial "toss": "The cops tossed the apartment, 
looking for drugs." Some "hunch and google" work on the Internet indicates 
that "shit bucket" is the equivalent of "parasha" for English-speaking 
prisoners; the duty of cleaning them is "slopping out" ("slop out the shit 
bucket"). I don't understand the form "shmonaie."

    Yours,

    Tim

 Although I know the meaning of *parasha* and *shmon* / serzhant
> *shmonaie*, I am not
> quite sure how to English them.
> 

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