Teffi - Sobaka -Erunda

[Robert Chandler]

Thank you, Hugh, for your messages!

(Am receiving contradictory replies to both and keep changing my mind!)

R.




> Dear Robert,
> That's a tough one. The first solution seems linguistically more likely,
> the second psychologically. The persona obviously thinks of 30,000
> rubles as a large sum, her entire savings, and is angry with her aunt
> for giving it to him. It sounds large to us, dollars or pounds. So his
> minimizing it seems like bravado (in my league, a mere pittance) or a
> defensive effort to play it down. On the other hand, if this is 1919,
> the economy was in shambles, terrific inflation, civil war, different
> kinds of paper money in circulation. Only gold coins were secure. So
> 30,000 paper rubles might well be "erunda" in real value. On the other
> hand, he has invested the money in an automobile business and might want
> to reassure her that the money is not only intact and safe, but will
> actually prove a lucrative investment.
> 
> Hugh
>> And a second question.
>> 
>> The narrator has just grasped that Harry has been cheating her in regard to
>> money.
>> 
>>  И вдруг я поняла: это он съездил к тетке и представился как мой муж, а
>> старая дура отдала ему мои деньги!
>> — Сколько она дала вам? — спокойно спросила я.
>> — Тысяч около тридцати. Ерунда! Я не хотел, чтобы мы растратили их по
>> мелочам, и вложил их в это автомобильное дело.
>> 
>> Does Harry’s ‘Erunda!’ mean ‘Nothing much!’ (i.e. That 30,000 roubles is
>> only a small sum of money)?  Or could it mean that his having deceived her
>> is nothing serious, since he was doing it for a supposedldy sensible reason?
>> 
>> R.
>> 
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