I am sick and tired of Russian verbosity. Here are just a few examples of what they say and what they really mean. Recently heard on the radio and television news and sportcasts, where one would expect maximum brevity, conciseness and minimum vagueness:
| 1 | Внешнеполитическое ведомство – External Policy Agency |
| 2 | Северная столица – Northern Capital |
| 3 | Зеленый континент – Green Continent |
| 4 | Административный центр Баварии – Administrative Center of Bavaria |
| 5 | Главная площадь страны – The Main Square of the Country |
| 6 | Стоимость углеводородов / Цена на углеводороды – Hydrocarbons price |
| 7 | В качестве главы кабинета Ее Величества – In the capacity of the Head of Cabinet of Her Majesty) |
| 8 | Венценосные особы – Crown-wearing persons |
| 9 | Туманный Альбион – The Foggy Albion |
| 10 | Страна кленового листа – The Maple Leaf Country |
| 11 | Страна утренней свежести – The Country of Morning freshness |
| 12 | Страна восходящего солнца – The Country of the Rising Sun |
| 13 | Поднебесная – The Celestial Empire |
| 14 | Страна тысячи озер или Суоми – The Country of a Thousand Lakes or Suomi |
| 15 | Футбольная столица Англии – Football capital of England |
| 17 | Четвертое (первое) игровое сочетание форвардов – 4th (1st) game combination of forwards |
| 18 | Нападающий команды страны тысячи озер – Forward of the Team of the Country of a Thousand Lakes |
| 19 | Обесшайбил финского спортсмена – ‘De-pucked’ the Finnish sportsman |
| 20 | Положил игровой диск в ворота страны тысячи озер – Put the playing disk into the goal of the country of a thousand of lakes |
Sometimes it sounds plain ridiculous but that is the way they talk these days… Below are the meanings of the above samples of Russian “slovobloudie”. This is what they mean, in human-readable language::
| 1 | МИД – State Department (in US), Foreign Ministry |
| 2 | Санкт Петербург – Saint Petersburg |
| 3 | Австралия – Australia |
| 4 | Мюнхен – Munich |
| 5 | Красная площадь – Red Square |
| 6 | Цена на нефть – Oil price |
| 7 | В качестве премьер-министра – As Prime Minister |
| 8 | Королева и ее муж – The Queen and her husband |
| 9 | Англия – United Kingdom, UK |
| 10 | Канада – Canada |
| 11 | Корея – Korea |
| 12 | Япония – Japan |
| 13 | Китай – China |
| 14 | Финляндия – Finland |
| 15 | Манчестер – Manchester |
| 17 | Нападающее звено – Offensive line |
| 18 | Финский форвард – Finnish forward |
| 19 | Отобрал шайбу у финна – Took the puck away from the Finn |
| 20 | Забил шайбу финнам – [player’s name] scored |
Small wonder Russian translations of English source texts are up to 40% lengthier than the original text. In translation industry we call it “expansion”. I can at least understand the motives of a translator who inflates the number of “target language” words, but why does a sports commentator do it?..
