TIME quoting Putin

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Upside the head" has become so frequent in US English over the last forty
years (only) that "over the head," even if literally correct, is starting to
sound almost archaic to me.

JL

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 9:53 PM, imwitty <imwitty at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Poster:       imwitty <imwitty at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: TIME quoting Putin
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>
> Paul,
>
> You are right: I just found the original interview in the Russian newspaper
> "Kommersant". I don't know Chinese, but German and Spanish translations are
> almost correct comparing to the translation provided by "Time" in its
> "Verbatim" section -- which definitely isn't verbatim.
>
> I said "almost", because all three translations use the word "head" (Kopf,
> cabeza). Putin actually used "bashka" (the stress on the second "a") like
> you would use "mug" instead of "face." It is the common parlance equivalent
> of the Russian word "golova" -- "head" -- (the stress on "a".)
>
> Probably in this case "head" might be replaced with "bean"?
>
> Also, I personally would use instead of "truncheon" something like "club",
> "bat", or "billy club", but I don't work for "Time"... (;'-)))
>
> Lora
>
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> On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 10:14 AM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> >wro=
> te:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: TIME quoting Putin
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
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> >
> > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 6:55 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > > Sender: =C3=82  =C3=82  =C3=82  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSER
> =
> V.UGA.EDU <http://v.uga.edu/>>
> > > Poster: =C3=82  =C3=82  =C3=82  Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject: =C3=82  =C3=82  =C3=82 TIME quoting Putin
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> > >
> > > "You will be beaten _upside the head_ with a truncheon."
> > >
> > >
> > > I wonder how that was expressed in the Russian original! ;-)
> > >
> > > --
> > > -Wilson
> >
> > I don't speak Russian but this sounds like a bad translation for
> > "you'll beaten over the head with a truncheon." The German press is
> > reporting "you'll be beaten over the head with a truncheon" ("Sie
> > werden mit einem Kn=C3=83=C2=BCppel auf den Kopf geschlagen werden").
> And=
>  so is
> > the Spanish press ("recibir=C3=83=C2=A1n en la cabeza un golpe con una
> po=
> rra").
> > And the Chinese-language press ("=C3=A5
> =C2=AF=C3=A8=C6=92=C2=BD=C3=A5=C2=
> =B0=E2=80=A1=C3=A8=C2=A2=C2=AB=C3=A8=C2=AD=C2=A6=C3=A6=C2=A3 =C3=A6=E2=80=
> =B0=E2=80=9C=C3=A5=CB=86=C2=B0=C3=A9 =C2=AD"). Newspapers
>  > publish all
> > sorts of bad translations.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> > Paul Frank
> > Translator
> > German, French, Italian > English
> > paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> > paul.frank at bfs.admin.ch
> >
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