KOTLOVAN; pisat'sya na pokoi

[pscotto at MTHOLYOKE.EDU]

Tell me, comrade chief, ease my mind. Should I sign up for the 
collective farm, maybe get some rest, or should I wait a bit?

Sign up, of course, otherwise I'll send you off to the ocean.

Peter Scotto

Quoting Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>:

> Dear all,
>
> Does anyone have any brilliant ideas for the following?
>
> - ?? ???, ??????? ???????, ????? ?? ?????: ???????? ??? ? ?????? ?? ?????,
> ??? ?????????  - ?????? ???????, ? ?? ? ????? ?????!
>
> 'Put my mind at rest, comrade chief.  Shall I retire (enroll??) into the
> collective farm, or shall I wait?' (pisat'sya mne v kolkhoz na pokoi, ili
> obozhdat')
>
> 'Enroll, of course, or I'll be sending you off to the ocean.'
>
> The problem  lies in the various meanings of 'pokoi'.
> Uiti v pokoi = to retire
> Pokoi = peace
> Vechnyi pokoi = eternal rest
>
> It would also be good to preserve the way that the activist's 'pishis''
> echoes the peasant's 'pisat'sya'.  But we can't do that if we use 'retire'
> because that word can only be used by the peasant; it is not how the
> activist sees things.
>
> Poka,
>
> Robert
>
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