Thanks - and another skazka question

[William Ryan]

  Robert,
Bliny are a traditional part of the funeral feast, and a funeral feast 
for family and friends is considered to be charitable giving; giving 
Shrovetide pancakes is also милостыню давать. The remains of the funeral 
feast are supposed to be given to the poor and needy. Without knowing 
the whole context, the bliny seem to be for her mother's funeral feast, 
so I would guess that your second reading makes better sense, though how 
to convey all this in your translation for an audience unaware of 
Russian customs is problematic. Roughly perhaps: " Here, take it. Give 
it for the wake. Here's the basket - it's full. But mind you don't eat 
any." Emphasizing the fullness of the basket, the religious/charitable 
nature of the contents, and the warning not to eat, would all fit the 
need to conceal the sister (large basket, small sister presumably - 
quite possible in a folk tale). Native speakers please correct if I am 
wrong.
Bliny are generally a symbol of death in dreams and podbliudnye pesni.
Will

On 11/09/2010 20:22, Robert Chandler wrote:
> Many thanks, Sasha, Natasha, and Hugh, for answers about the bull hide.
>
> I have another question.  A girl has married a bear.  She is asking the bear
> to take a basket of pancakes to her parents' home.  (She is, in fact, doing
> this to smuggle her sister, the bear's previous wife, out of the house of
> this murderous Bluebeard-like bear).  She has told the bear that the
> pancakes are in order to "pomyanut' mamu".
>
> Then she says to the bear, 'Ну неси.  Подай милостыню.  Вот она (т.е.
> корзинка) полная.  Да смотри: не ешь.
>
> Мy question is about the words Подай милостыню.  Is she telling the bear to
> give alms to any beggar he happens to meet (unlikely since they are deep in
> the forest).  Or is it that the pancakes are themselves a form of milostynya
> that she is giving to her family back home?
>
> The latter reading, if possible, seems to make much better sense.
>
> Robert
>
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