Thread: 'Пилат видел, как вздувалась над трубочкой водяная тарелка' meaning?

I would think this might mean 'Pilate saw how (the water) blew up over the tube of the water bowl.

'трубочкой водяная тарелка'; ie the spout in the centre of a fountain. But 'трубочкой' is instrumental, and 'водяная тарелка' is nominative, so there is no 'of' here. These three words don't make any sense in my way of reading them, which must therefore be wrong.

Is my translation incorrect?

Водяная тарелка вздувалась над трубочкой.

Originally Posted by wanja

Водяная тарелка вздувалась над трубочкой.

Thanks. So 'the water dish blew up over the spout'... I don't understand what this means. In my head I picture a dish full of water, but how can that 'blow up over the spout?' Water can do that, but a dish can't...

With more of the text:-

Молчание на балконе некоторое время нарушала только песня воды в фонтане. Пилат видел, как вздувалась над трубочкой водяная тарелка, как отламывались её края, как падали струйками.

Does 'водяная тарелка' not mean 'water dish' here? Does it mean the water itself?

It's not a dish per se, it's just something similar to it in form, in this case it's just what happens when the tip of waterspout, that's directed vertically, crashes down due to gravity. The water at the tip can't fall right down, because there is always a new supply of water coming from down there, so it pushes down on this "new" water and extends in a disk or dish form, then it can finally fall down of the edges of this "accretion disk", hence "как отламывались её края, как падали струйками".

I hope this helps

I think it was written about tulip fountain:





It really forms something like bowl or dish, if you like.
Simple vertical pipe cannot make something similar. Ball of water drops only.

Now that makes sense, thanks both.
I thought I was having a grammar failure, it seems it was an imagination failure...
Tulip fountain sounds like the kind of thing, thanks for the pictures too. I got fixated on the idea that the 'тарелка' was the bowl underneath the spout.
это всё ясно.