Babel

[Janneke van de Stadt]

  Dear colleagues,

Can anyone enlighten me on how best to translate this sentence in  
Babel's "Odessa"?

"Ia dazhe vizhy malen'kikh, sovsem malen'kikh zmeek,  
predveshchaiushchikh griadushchee--odesskikh pevits"

I'm interested in how to render "zmeek," which has been translated by  
Constantine and Hayward as "signs" and "girls."

Many thanks!

Janneke

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