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The context for this week?€™s lesson was this: Before his trip to Moscow, U.S. President Barack Obama said that he thought ?€?Putin had one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.?€? Putin responded with his ?€?nonliterary?€? (read: not quite fit to print) phrase: ???‹ ???€?°???????€???‡???? ???µ ?????µ?µ?? ???‚?????‚??.?€?
Some news agencies apparently didn?€™t know what to make of this phrase and seemed to follow the principle: When in doubt, leave it out. But other English-language media gave it a go, translating it variously as: ?€?We don?€™t stand bow-legged,?€? ?€?Russians don?€™t know how to stand so awkwardly with their legs apart,?€? and ?€?We do not assume strange postures.?€? So which is right?
Well, all of them — more or less.
The word ?€?°???????€???‡???° is derived from a root that means ?€?to be crooked?€? or ?€?to bend over.?€? It can be used alone to refer to someone who is bow-legged. The phrase ???‚?????‚?? ?? ?€?°???????€???‡???? describes an awkward stance in which a person is in a half-crouch and his legs are splayed at odd angles ?€” as if he just got off a horse after riding for four days through uneven terrain. Hence the ?€?strange posture, bow-legged, awkward stance with legs apart.?€?
?????????‚?? ???€?°???????€???‡???? would be to walk in a bow-legged gait. I also learned from my dictionaries that ???€?°???????€???‡???? can be combined with two other verbs: ???????µ?‚??¸ (to sit) and ?»?µ?¶?°?‚??¸ (to lie). I asked a group of Russian friends to demonstrate and got something that looked like a game of Twister played after a couple of bottles of vodka. As far as I could tell ?€” after I stopped howling with laughter ?€” we might say in English: ?€?He sat with his legs splayed awkwardly?€? or ?€?He was lying with his legs stuck out at odd angles.?€?
In any case, ???‚?????‚?? ???€?°???????€???‡???? is an unsteady, half-crouching, awkward stance. In Putin?€™s comments, this contrasted nicely with his assertion of the way Russians do stand: ?€????‹ ?‚???µ?€???? ???‚?????? ???° ???????°?… ?? ?????µ?????° ???????‚?€???? ?? ?±???????‰?µ?µ?€? (We stand solidly on our feet and always look to the future).
So far, so good. What I couldn?€™t figure out, however, was all the winking and smirking over this phrase. One publication teased: ???µ?€?µ???????‡?????°?? ???±?°???‹ ?±?????µ?‚ ?‚?€???????? ?‚???‡???? ???µ?€?µ???µ???‚?? ???‚?? ?„?€?°?·?? (Obama?€™s translators are going to have a hard time translating this phrase exactly). In a comment in The Moscow Times, columnist Yevgeny Kiselyov wrote, ?€?Even the best English translation cannot capture the familiarity of Putin?€™s remark ?€¦ this is an inappropriate vocabulary for a prime minister.?€?
Bow-legged ?€” inappropriate? Gosh. Kiselyov seems to have mighty high standards for his leaders?€™ public announcements. Puzzled, I asked around, but my cultured and educated informants were no help.
So then I took the low road: the Internet. After about five pages of Putin quotes I hit pay dirt. It turns out that there is another usage of the phrase: same stance, only a sexual setting. Got it? Let me put it this way: The phrase ???€?°???????€???‡???? can be combined with other, far more interesting verbs.
If you still don?€™t get it, you?€™ve led an even more sheltered life than I have.
I have got to get out more.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
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