Teffi - Sobaka -Erunda

[Hugh McLean]

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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