help with Ukrainian saying

[George Hawrysch]

"Na horodi buzyna, a Kyivi diad'ko."

"Mixing apples and oranges" isn't quite it. That one
refers to a relationship in which a comparison would
not be valid despite some superficial similarity. "Na
horodi..." refers to a situation in which there is no
relationship at all between the items mentioned, a non
sequitur or an inanity. I don't know of an exact English
equivalent.

In his 1997 book, "My Years with Gorbachev and
Shevardnadze: The Memoir of a Soviet Interpreter,"
Pavel Palazchenko describes at length how Gorbachev
sprang this saying on him during a Reagan summit. The
author goes on about how how well he translated it,
but in fact his account shows that he got it wrong.
Unfortunately I don't have the book to hand.

George Hawrysch

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