baconmeteor ([info]baconmeteor) wrote,
@ 2006-10-16 13:36:00
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терпите бедствие?
Ostap asks this question of the American motorists in Chapter 7. I'm not sure whether I'm missing an allusion here, and I don't quite know how to match the tone. Can anyone shed light or suggest a good equivalent?

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[info]tyrex
2006-10-16 05:46 am UTC (link)
the only allusion i can see here is "r u gonna sink?" because "терпеть бедствие" mostly means an accident with а ship.

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[info]oryx_and_crake
2006-10-16 05:46 am UTC (link)
try some naval term, as "терпите бедствие" is definitely borrowed from that field.

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[info]edricson
2006-10-16 06:02 am UTC (link)
Yes, it's mostly about ships; for me, the thing that springs to mind is the Arctic expeditions like the Chelyuskin: these are probably the only kind of prolonged disaster (and obviously the Americans were adrift much in the same way); it was also important for the 30s, witness the Sevryugov character later in the book.

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[info]made_of_honor
2006-10-16 06:20 am UTC (link)
I take it, "having a (little) disaster" is wide enough.

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[info]edricson
2006-10-16 06:23 am UTC (link)
Yeah, pretty good. Or some pun on "shipwreck"?

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[info]made_of_honor
2006-10-16 06:40 am UTC (link)
Oh, that's even better.

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[info]mtyukanov
2006-10-16 06:30 am UTC (link)
Stranded, aren't you?

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[info]kalaus
2006-10-16 07:02 am UTC (link)
You may want to try something with "distress" (as in "ship in distress").

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[info]kalaus
2006-10-16 07:03 am UTC (link)
Car in distress?

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[info]made_of_honor
2006-10-16 07:27 am UTC (link)
A broad choice here – a more polysemantic DISASTER, the more timespanallusive SHIPWRECK, and even DISTRESS may be OK.

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[info]phd_paul_lector
2006-10-16 11:03 am UTC (link)
Please note that the whole Antelope expedition bears - mostly under Ostap's influence - lots of allusions of sailing: thus, Ostap nominates himself a командор (in Russia, the only командорs except navy commanders like Ryazanov are the one from Don Juan and characters from history novels); Balaganov and a матросский костюмчкик for him - on one hand, this stresses his infantile features (матросский костюмчик was a typical boys' dress for decades), and on the other one, brings in marine notes, etc. Bender is a romantic (even his quest for the Golden Fleece which (the Order of) is by the way the only things which is nor stolen by Romanian border-guards shows this), so for him those "sea adventure" overtones are natural.

Therefore, I am inclined to suggest a "shipwreck" (a little shipwreck), or something else from the maritime terms, or even seamen's argo.

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[info]baconmeteor
2006-10-17 04:35 am UTC (link)
Thinking of "have you run aground?" which is nautical without being too outlandish a thing to say.

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[info]made_of_honor
2006-10-17 05:27 am UTC (link)
Fine, but maybe sounds a bit more unexplicably nautical (to me, terra firma).

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[info]wackyslav
2006-10-17 06:25 pm UTC (link)
Something involving foundering?

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[info]wackyslav
2006-10-18 03:11 am UTC (link)
Has your vessel foundered?

...nah, "vessel" sounds too odd. And "ship" would be likewise, I feel.

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[info]filin
2006-10-21 09:56 am UTC (link)
"A sort of Mayday?", i suppose.

"терпим бедствие" is a standart message to transmit from sinking ship and so on.

The naval allusions for Antilopa crew are really obvious.

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