While teper' ostensibly directs attention at what is going on at the present time, more often it sounds the alert that an abrupt change has taken place in the recent past.
This common usage of teper' is illustrated by the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in "Yevgeny Onegin: " U nas teper' ne to v predmete/My pospeshim s toboi na bal (But that isn't worth talking about anymore/ We're off to the ball).
The vice president provided a more ominous example of this interpretation of teper' during an interview Sunday on the television news review program "Itogi".
After a week-long siege of the Ostankino television studio by Communists calling for airtime to express their views, "Itogi's" host, Yevgeny Kisilev, asked Rutskoi whether Ostankino workers could count on the protection of the Russian government.
Rutskoi answered "Teper', da, "and without further commentary, Kisilev changed the subject.
What did the vice president mean? "Now they can", indicating that before, they couldn't. What had changed?
The prolonged protest; at Ostankino was one of a series of blows against Yeltsin's authority at home in a week when the president was far away, bowing to standing ovations in North America. The hardline Russian National Assembly predicted that it would take power by the end of the year. Parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov made some very presidential remarks about the possible use of Russian troops in the war in Ossetia. and Rutskoi has not exactly distinguished himself with his support for the president. Is it possible that, during the Ostankino seige, the vice president looked the other way and let the right-wing mice play while the Yeltsin cat was away? His "teper', da", viewed in that context, would mean "You couldnt count on us last week, but now that the president is back, you can".
The ambiguity ot seychas, the other Russian word found in a English-Russian dictionary under "now", may have its explanation its etymology. A combined form of sey, old Russian for "this", and chas, Russian for "hour", seychas has a more exact literal translation: "within the hour".
That seems to correspond with the meaning of a sign observed in an Odessa kiosk, whose attendant had stepped out: Budu seychas, or "I'll be back sometime soon".
In my experience, the phrase on seychas pridyot ("he'll be here any minute"), when used in reference to someone you need to speak immediately, usually means at least an hour long wait. This interpretation would explain the seeming contradiction in the Russian saying seychas - eto cherez chas ("'now' means 'in an hour'").
So what does a Russian say when he needs something this very minut When combined with the adverb, pryamo ("straight"), seychas takes on the added urgency of "right now". Of course, in conversational usage, with the proper intonation, seychas can also mean "never".
Confused? The following conversation should make it all fall into place:
Kogda tebe eto nado?
-Seychas. Seychas?
-Pryamo seychas.
Seychas!
When do you need it?
-Now.
Within the hour?
-Right now. No way!
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