Translation question

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Tony Anemone wrote:

> Aleksei Balabanov's new film, presently in production, is called 
> GRUZ-200 (Official English translation is CARGO 200). This is 
> apparently a bureaucratic phrase describing the shipment home of 
> military coffins of soldiers killed in action. The movie is set 
> during the late "zastoi" and concerns a soldier killed in
> Afghanistan. I'm hoping that someone on the list will be able to tell
> me more about this term: is it a reference to the weight of the
> coffin and body? 200 kg seems heavy, but Balabanov speaks of "zinc"
> coffins in an on-line interview. . . Does (did?) the Russian army
> commonly use zinc in coffins? is the term used and understood today?

Does he speak of "цинковые" or "оцинкованные"? The former would be 
"zinc," the latter "galvanized." And of course the latter would make 
much more sense -- it's a common treatment applied to steel to prevent 
corrosion. A solid zinc coffin would be prohibitively expensive, but the 
thin film of zinc applied in galvanizing is not, and the process is well 
understood and widely available.

This is a fairly common error among nontechnical translators.

-- 
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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