Vasily Grossman - 'The Town of Berdichev' - katsapka

[Elena Ostrovskaya]

Dear Robert,
I would definitely choose "it' for the child as it is "ono" in the original.
As for 'katsapka", I would not mix Ukranian slang with the Jewish (though I
am not from Ukraine, so I can miss some nuances). I guess, I would stay with
transliteration (it's always nice to get some original flavour) or may
 be just with derogative Russian, and change the whole construction of
sentence for something like:
'You should see this crazy Russian woman!". I am definitely not up to the
actual translation, but this derogatory 'woman', as in 'this Johnson woman'
might work as compensation.
My two pence.
Elena Ostrovskaya

2010/4/9 Robert Chandler <kcf19 at dial.pipex.com>

> 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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