Word’s worth

Published: July 25, 2008 (Issue # 1393)

English-speaking readers of Kommersant might have been disconcerted to learn that the new U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation is a bird. In fact, he’s two birds. According to a guest at the Spasso House’s Independence Day bash, he appeared “such duck of a fellow, but he is the hawk harsher than William Burns.”

Such duck? The hawk? Get the translator hook! Sentence the English-language editor to three whacks with the American Heritage Dictionary! And get the newspaper’s legal counsel on the cell phone. It’s retraction time.

It turns out that Ambassador John Beyrle is not a duck at all. In Russian, the quoted opinion of the guest reads: Ýòî îí ñ âèäó òàêîé äóøêà, à íà ñàìîì äåëå ÿñòðåá ïîêðó÷å Óèëüÿìà Á¸ðíñà (It only seems like he’s a sweetheart. In reality, he’s much more of a hawk than [former U.S. Ambassador] William Burns).

Äóøêà (from äóøà, or soul) is a lovely word to describe a kind and congenial person. The translator must have been thinking of the British “duck” (or “ducks,” “duckie”) used as an affectionate direct form of address. Too bad the translator didn’t consult a more reliable source on usage.

But all this got me thinking about ducks. Óòêà (duck) can mean a quacking, waddling water bird or the elongated bedpan used by male patients. It is also slang for a false report in the press. Here both English and Russian borrowed from the French, who presumably were the first Europeans to come up with this devilish form of slanderous misinformation. Russian borrowed it as a calque (a loan translation), whereas English stole the practice and the word: canard. Èçâåñòèå îêàçàëîñü óòêîé (The news turned out to be a canard).

Russians also appropriated the phrase õðîìàÿ óòêà (lame duck), from the original English usage to mean a person who has defaulted on his or her debts or has gone bankrupt. In Russian it is defined differently: êîìïàíèÿ â òÿæ¸ëîì ôèíàíñîâîì ïîëîæåíèè, èñïðàâèòü êîòîðîå ìîæåò ñàíàöèÿ è ãîñóäàðñòâåííàÿ ïîääåðæêà (a company in dire financial straits which can only be fixed by reorganization and state support).

It doesn’t seem that Russian has appropriated the term lame duck in the political sense. Before assuming office, Dmitry Medvedev was officially called âíîâü èçáðàííûé è íå âñòóïèâøèé â äîëæíîñòü ïðåçèäåíòà (literally, the newly-elected-but not-yet-in-office president). What a mouthful. Laconic English just calls this person “the president-elect.”

Russians have also borrowed the American political distinction between hawks (ÿñòðåáû) and doves (ãîëóáè) that appeared in the early 1960s. But judging by the media, these words today also have a special Russian meaning. As far as I can tell, ÿñòðåá is a politician we don’t get along with and whom we want to call a war-mongerer for domestic political reasons. Ãîëóáü is a politician who opposes the hawk, but who may be just as bad.

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.