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[Paul B. Gallagher]

Krystyna Steiger wrote:

> Oleg,
> the oldest tenant of a communal apartment goes missing. Some of the 
> other tenants think she may have died in her room. The District 
> Inspector shows up, and on his orders a locksmith jimmies open the
> door to the room; the woman is not inside. Hence, the policeman and
> the rest of the tenants assume she has gone out, no harm no foul. But
> not Belotsvetov, who insists to fellow-tenant Chinarikov that
> something is fishy, at which point the latter utters the phrase in
> question: "В каждый горшок тебе надо плюнуть"
> 
> Thanks Oleg (and Tim)

Reminds me of the waiter/waitress practice of spitting in an unpleasant
customer's food/drink, though of course that's not directly relevant.

Here are some candidate expressions; the Russians will have to say which
is most faithful to the original sense:

You always have to stir the pot/stir up trouble, don't you?

You can't let sleeping dogs lie, can you?

You just can't let well enough alone, can you?

Pick, pick, pick...

Must you spoil everything?


Interesting coincidence that плевать/плюнуть are used in so many
expressions of indifference, but I don't see that it helps us here.

-- 
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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