???‡?µ?»?°: florilegium
Ah, nature … the last halcyon — er, cold and stormy — days of summer, when nature is still at its peak — er, starting to fade — and you can enjoy a carefree afternoon tramping across a field with your dog.
Until you stumble on a hive of bees, that is, and they get really angry about their home invasion and attack you and your dog. Your face blows up like a balloon, and your dog won't leave the house because it's finally dawned on her that it's a jungle out there.
A batch of beestings isn't fun, but it does have a linguistic silver lining. It's been an excellent opportunity to brush up my sting vocabulary.
There are three main nasties that sting out here in the Moscow boondocks: ?????° (wasp), ???µ?€???µ???? (hornet) and ???‡?µ?»?° (bee). What they do is ?¶?°?»???‚?? (to sting), and what they sting with is ?¶?°?»?? (stinger). But for some reason, their sting is called ???????? (a bite). ?•???»?? ???°?? ???¶?°?»???»?° ???‡?µ?»?° ???»?? ?????°, ?????¶???? ?‚?‰?°?‚?µ?»?????? ???€?????‹?‚?? ???µ???‚?? ?????????° ?? ?°???????€?°?‚???? ???‹?‚?°?‰???‚?? ?¶?°?»?? (If you are stung by a bee or wasp, you need to thoroughly wash the bite and carefully pull out the stinger).
This, in my experience, is very hard to do when you are stung in the face and jumping around like a lunatic. Later you will be urged to use various folk remedies, like ???°???‚?° ???· ?????‰?µ?????? ???????‹ ?? ???????‹ (a paste of baking soda and water) or ?·???±???°?? ???°???‚?° (toothpaste) to stop the pain.
It's nice to know that Russian speakers and English speakers share many of the same images and expressions for these stinging creatures. You might point out that a shapely neighbor has ?????????°?? ?‚?°?»???? (wasp waist). The other neighbor — the mean one — can simply be called ?????° (a wasp).
The proverbial hornet's nest in Russian is ???????????µ ?????µ?·???? (wasp's nest), although the metaphor is the same. ???µ ???°???? ?‚?€?µ?????¶???‚?? ???????????µ ?????µ?·????! (Don't disturb a hornet's nest!)
???‡?µ?»?°, even though it packs a nasty sting, is really not in the same metaphorical category as ?????° and ???µ?€???µ????. In the Russian world view, ???‡?µ?»?° is a wonderful creature — in fact, called ?‘???¶???? ?????????????†?° (saint, beloved by God) because it produces the wax used for church candles. On the earthy plane, they pollinate crops and produce honey, a staple in the Russian diet.
???‡?µ?»?°, or the diminutive ???‡?‘?»???°, is what you call a hard-working person. This is less snarky than the English busy bee. ?’ ?????‘ ???‚?????‚???‚?????µ ???‡?‘?»???? ???????€?°?????»?? ???µ???? ?????? (While I was gone, the worker bees painted the whole house).
???‡?µ?»?° can also be used to describe someone who works in a highly regimented organization. ? ?µ?????»???†???????µ?€?‹ — ???°?? ???‡?‘?»????, ?????‚???€?‹?? ?????¶???? ???±?????°?‚?????? ?? ?€???? ?? ?¶???‚?? ???? ???€?°?????»?°?? (Revolutionaries are like bees that need to gather in a swarm and live by rules).
And then there's an odd meaning of ???‡?µ?»?°. A century or so ago, learned Europeans put together what they called in Latin florilegium (a "gathering of flowers") that was a compilation of edifying texts. Russians followed the custom but changed the name to ???‡?µ?»?°, which carried the more culturally apt image of bees gathering up the nectar. This may be the derivation of the name of the famous 19th-century literary journal ???µ???µ?€???°?? ???‡?µ?»?° (usually translated as Northern Bee), which always struck me as a whimsical name for a serious journal.
And as soon as I can open my eye, I'll check it out.
Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of "The Russian Word's Worth" (Glas), a collection of her columns.