Fwd: Teffi puns

[Alina Israeli]

 Big Soviet Radio "BSRadio", Our Ukrainian Transmission "OUTRadio".


On Nov 5, 2013, at 7:33 AM, Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> Am asking this question because a friend has asked me to.  My own view is that her solution is good and unlikely to be improved on.  But if anyone can do better, we would all be delighted!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Robert
> 
>> 
>> Can anyone help with translating some puns from Teffi's 'Que faire?'?
>> 
>> This is Teffi's text:
>> - Да откуда же вы это узнали?
>> - Из радио. Нас обслуживают два радио – советское «Соврадио» и украинское «Украдио». И наше собственное первое европейское – «Переврадио».
>> 
>> Elegant, subtle. You almost don't notice they're puns till you get to the end.
>> 
>> This, I'm afraid, is the best I and some really good translators here could come up with:
>> “Where on earth did you find all this out?” 
>> “On the radio. We get two stations, Bullshevik Broadcasting from Moscow and Radio Phoney from Kiev. And now we’ve got our own pan-European station – Euro-garble News.” 
>> 
>> As well as trying to find equivalent puns I've also tried various ways of expressing the humour otherwise than in a pun, but couldn't find a solution.
>> 
>> It's been delivered to the publisher, and the editor has come back saying, quite correctly, that my version lowers the tone horribly.
>> 
>> I don't have much time left and now I'm even thinking of simply transliterating the radio stations and explaining the joke in a footnote -- but that would leave the story very flat at a point where it should really be getting pretty wild.
>> 
>> Does anyone have any ideas? Even a single pun? Or a different strategy?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
> 
> 
> 
> 
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