FW: [SEELANGS] How to translate "ochered'" (not the kind for toil et paper)?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Loren A. Billings wrote:

> On 6/22/06 12:51 AM, "Paul B. Gallagher"
> <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM> wrote:
> 
>> If memory serves, the original post had полоснул (polosnul).
>> 
>> I do like "mowed them down," but like you, I don't find "automatic 
>> burst" very felicitous -- it sounds like the burst was initiated 
>> automatically. Since a burst is inherently automatic, we might
>> leave "automatic" out entirely. But if you want to include it, how
>> about "mowed them down with a burst of automatic (weapon) fire"?
> 
> I keep frowning at _burst_ because it can mean the limited set of
> bullets from the newer weapons.

Mm-hm. From what I hear, one of the first things the troops in the field 
do when they get their weapons is defeat the restriction.

> I've searched through an English thesaurus trying to find a word like
> row, array, ribbon, stripe, or even string of beads to refer to the
> rather uniform set of holes made by automatic fire. None of them
> works for me. Maybe there's some kind of street/gangster slang to
> describe this sort of thing. --Loren Billings

As far as uniformity goes, I think it's the least of our worries. As 
long as we convey the sense of many bullets providing continuous 
coverage of the target area, I think we've accomplished the mission.

But if a burst sounds too limited (and to my mind "spray" doesn't suffer 
that deficiency), here's something off the wall: how about "hosed them 
down with a spray of bullets"?

;-)

But seriously, I think the place to look is in gangster fiction -- maybe 
something about the Valentine's Day massacre, etc.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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