Translation help: shmon

[Kevin Windle]

For 'shmonaie' (Russ. shmonaet), you can often use 'frisk' (depending on
context).

Kevin Windle

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Timothy D. Sergay
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 11:24 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Translation help

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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