"stroinyi kak topol'" and other arboreal epithetry

[Vladimir Shatsev]

A v Luvre,okeana doch,
stoit prekrasnaya,kak topol'.
Chtob mramor saharnii toloch'
vzletayet belkoi na Akropol'
     O.Mandelshtam, "Americanka".


>From: Francoise Rosset <frosset at WHEATONMA.EDU>
>Reply-To: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list              
><SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
>To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] "stroinyi kak topol'" and other arboreal epithetry
>Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:42:43 -0400
>
>>To go with the most common
>>folk idiom, a man would be described as "stroinyi kak topol' (poplar),"
>>whereas a woman is "stroinaia kak berezka (birch)." I tend to use
>>"slender" for women, and "lean" for men when translating "stroinaia/yi"
>>into English.
>>
>>It seems the visual comparison of people to trees is a Slavic thing, and
>>not really found in English. Or am I mistaken? Is there an English
>>equivalent to "moguchii kak dub," or "gibkaia kak iva"?
>
>Well, there's "willowy," apparently used for men as well as women
>(I've only heard it applied to impossibly proportioned model types).
>I'm never sure what it means -- most likely tall and slender and 
>flexible-looking.
>One online definition even used the term "pliant" ... no comment.
>-FR
>
>
>--
>
>Francoise Rosset
>Russian and Russian Studies
>Interim Coordinator, Women's Studies
>Wheaton College                         Norton, Massachusetts 02766
>        phone: 	(508) 286-3696
>fax #:   	(508) 286-3640
>e-mail: FRosset at wheatonma.edu
>
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