April 07, 2021

Trolling Horse People


Trolling Horse People

“For those not familiar with the lyrics of this song, I recommend it. It’s some horse people and absolute drivel. I simply don’t understand what it is. What is it about?... Somehow everything is very strange, mildly speaking.”

– On March 31, Russia’s Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko commented on the lyrics of “Russian Woman,” a song that the Russian-Tajik artist Manizha, who is known for her feminist activism, will soon be performing at Eurovision. Some have protested the song as a “trolling” of Russian women and lashed out with xenophobic comments about Manizha’s nationality. You can view the official video for "Russian Woman" here and read the English translation here. Oddly, there’s no mention of any “horse people” in the lyrics themselves. One could only imagine who Matvienko might be referring to.

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Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.

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