Vasily Grossman - 'The Town of Berdichev' - katsapka

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

The word ‘katsapka’ is, I believe, a mildly derogatory word used by
Ukrainians to refer to Russians.  Here the Ukrainian Jewish Beila uses it of
Vavilova, the commissar who is lodging with them and who has just given
birth.

--  Ты бы посмотрел, - говорила Бэйла  мужу, -эта кацапка  с ума сошла.
Три раза она уже бегала с ним (i.e. her new-born baby) к доктору. В доме
нельзя дверь открыть: то оно
простудится, то его  разбудят,  то у него жар. Как  хорошая еврейская  мать,
одним словом.

‘You wouldn’t believe it,’ Beyla said to her husband.  ‘That goy (??Moscow)
woman’s gone off her head. She’s already rushed to the doctor with him three
times.  I can’t so much as open a door in the house: he (it?!) might catch a
cold, or he’s got a fever, or we might wake him up.  In a word, she’s turned
into a good Jewish mother.’

I can think of only 3 possible translations for ‘katsapka’.

1.  Transliteration + note.  This seems to me a very deadening solution.  It
might be ok if the word ‘katsapka’ recurred a lot of times and the reader
had a chance to get used to it – but the word only occurs this once.
2. ‘That Moscow woman’.  This is not a bad translation, and it does somehow
sound at least faintly derogatory.  But it is, nevertheless, stiff compared
with the original.
3. ‘that goy woman’.  This is clearly inaccurate.  It means translating a
term used by Jews of non-Jews by means of a term used by Ukrainians of
Russians.  One reader finds this deeply upsetting.  On the other hand, it
conveys the tone.  And, in the context of the speech as a whole, it seems to
me to work well.  The ‘good Jewish mother’ at the end makes it entirely
clear that Beila is actually quite approving of Vavilova and certainly not
condemning her for being non-Jewish.

I would be very grateful for your thoughts about this!

Vsego dobrogo,

Robert

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