baconmeteor ([info]baconmeteor) wrote,
@ 2006-10-16 13:39:00
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мелкая птичья сволочь
Right at the beginning of Chapter 7: В травах кричала мелкая птичья сволочь.

Right now I have "little bird swine were yelling in the grass" for this but I am open to suggestions.

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[info]oryx_and_crake
2006-10-16 05:48 am UTC (link)
Definitely not "swine". Try "rabble" or "vermin".

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[info]oryx_and_crake
2006-10-16 06:00 am UTC (link)
Please note that this is a collective noun (meaning not one single bird but a group of small, annoying, good-for-nothing birds). I would also use something like "call" (as in birdcall), "cawk" or "chitter" instead of "yell". I have never heard of birds yelling.

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[info]oryx_and_crake
2006-10-16 06:01 am UTC (link)
p.s. screeching maybe? and "winged vermin" might do the trick

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[info]phd_paul_lector
2006-10-16 11:04 am UTC (link)
twittering and screeching

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[info]seminarist
2006-10-17 01:23 am UTC (link)
По-моему, вы увлекаетесь. В оригинале-то они просто кричали - crying. Это "мелкая сволочь" эмоционально окрашена, а не "кричала"

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[info]edricson
2006-10-16 06:00 am UTC (link)
Well, I think it's actually a use that is somewhat outdated: мелкая сволочь could be used to mean "the bits and pieces, the unimportant leftover". So what it actually says is that there were some small birds, but it is quite irrelevant and unimportant to know which ones. "Rabble" might indeed be good, though it has its overtones.

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[info]g0blin
2006-10-16 06:22 am UTC (link)
While сволочь is currently used mostly as offensive word, an outdated meaning of it is also "small animals, often young small animals".

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[info]baconmeteor
2006-10-16 06:23 am UTC (link)
ah, see, this is what I pay you guys for

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[info]seminarist
2006-10-17 01:25 am UTC (link)
What? Where did you get that? У Даля нет.

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[info]g0blin
2006-10-18 04:41 pm UTC (link)
Quoting, source below.

Свóлочь, и, ж. 1. Устар. Мелкие существа или предметы; мелкота. Нападения на павлина становились сильнее с каждой минутой. Ворóн и всякой сволочи прибавлялось более и более. Кокор. Сборн. воскресенье.

2. Собир. Устар. Люди низкого звания или незначительные, мелкие люди [...]

3. Собир. Грубо простореч. Дурные, подлые люди; сброд подонки. [...]

4. Грубо простореч. Бранно Дряной, подлый человек, негодяй [...]

— Нордстет. Слов. 1782 свóлочь

Источник: Словарь современного русского литературного языка. Изд. АН СССР, Москва-Ленинград, 1962. т. 13, с. 446.

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[info]phd_paul_lector
2006-10-16 11:09 am UTC (link)
that's good - rephrase to the grass (or perhaps the grassland? it's травы) or motley grass? or even the meadow/field? - ringed with racket of bird rabble.

hm, a bit too long

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Rabble is exactly it, but
[info]seminarist
2006-10-17 01:26 am UTC (link)
Birdie - can you use it as an adjective?

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[info]seminarist
2006-10-17 01:29 am UTC (link)
Avian rabble? Avian riff-raff?

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