Khrustit pod nogami: best translation?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

John Dunn wrote:

> The original image is pretty silly (something you may not want to
> pass on to the supplier of the source text), so I suppose you have
> free rein, but I am not totally sure about your proposed translation.
> The problem is not so much that it is untrue (fibre optic doesn''t
> crunch beneath our feet either, and nor have I ever heard anyone say
> that it does), but that it inverts the spatial relationship between
> us and the cables: if fibre optic grew on trees it wouldn't be
> serving its intended purpose.  It also, rather more subtly, takes
> from the city to the country, unless, of course, you have the good
> fortune to live in the sort of city that has tree-lined streets.
>
> I did wonder about '... where the city streets are paved with fibre
> optic cable', which in some ways is close to the original, since if
> they were so paved, the stuff would crunch beneath our feet, but it
> still sounds odd to me.  If the choice were mine, I would therefore
> go for:  '... where rivers of fibre optic cable run beneath the city
> streets', which, if nothing else, preserves the spatial relationship.
> But you may well have come up with something better in the meantime.

I think you have something here, though I would prune it -- "where the 
streets are paved with fiber" instantly recalls "where the streets are 
paved with gold," a standard cliché for richness/abundance, and has the 
added bonus of referring to urban environments where fiber optic cable 
is prevalent. But I see no need to go out of the way to preserve the 
spatial relationship, which after all is beside the point even if 
accidentally true.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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