Thread: Help me translate this Lenin-era communist alphabet book

I am an undergraduate studying Russian history, however my language skills are poor. I found this poster of a cyrillic alphabet book very fascinating and am dying to have some assistance in translating.

Don't worry about the flash as there is duplication betwen each of the photos. If you don't feel like translating them all, just translate a few, such as the panels you like the most.

Thanks in advance. I hope you find the poster as intriguing as I did.

Do you realize these are rhymes?...

Letters are too small. It's hard to read the text.

Originally Posted by MikeM

Do you realize these are rhymes?...

No I did not. Do they actually reflect what is depicted in the graphic?

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Letters are too small. It's hard to read the text.

Maybe your browser is resizing them down? Please try to maximize your window.

Весёлая азбука про всё на свете

Самуил Маршак

Аист с нами прожил лето,
А зимой гостил он где-то.

Бегемот разинул рот:
Булки просит бегемот.

Воробей просил ворону
Вызвать волка к телефону.

Гриб растет среди дорожки, -
Голова на тонкой ножке.

Дятел жил в дупле пустом,
Дуб долбил, как долотом.

Ель на ёжика похожа:
Ёж в иголках, ёлка - тоже.

Жук упал и встать не может.
Ждет он, кто ему поможет.

Звёзды видели мы днём
За рекою, над Кремлем...

Иней лег на ветви ели,
Иглы за ночь побелели.

Кот ловил мышей и крыс.
Кролик лист капустный грыз.

Лодки по морю плывут,
Люди вёслами гребут.

Мёд в лесу медведь нашёл, -
Мало мёду, много пчёл.

Носорог бодает рогом.
Не шутите с носорогом!

Ослик был сегодня зол:
Он узнал, что он осёл.

Панцирь носит черепаха,
Прячет голову от страха.

Роет землю серый крот -
Разоряет огород.

Спит спокойно старый слон -
Стоя спать умеет он.

Таракан живет за печкой, -
То-то тёплое местечко!

Ученик учил уроки -
У него в чернилах щёки.

Флот плывёт к родной земле.
Флаг на каждом корабле.

Ходит по лесу хорёк,
Хищный маленький зверёк.

Цапля, важная, носатая,
Целый день стоит, как статуя.

Часовщик, прищурив глаз,
Чинит часики для нас.

Школьник, школьник, ты силач:
Шар земной несешь, как мяч!

Щёткой чищу я щенка,
Щекочу ему бока.

Эта кнопка и шнурок -
Электрический звонок.

Юнга - будущий матрос -
Южных рыбок нам привез.

Ягод нет кислее клюквы.
Я на память знаю буквы.

Originally Posted by Red Snapper

Originally Posted by MikeM

Do you realize these are rhymes?...

No I did not. Do they actually reflect what is depicted in the graphic?

Yes, they do, and some of them are not so easy to translate. You are also expected to know some of the history... BTW, I am not sure whether this is an authentic book from as you say Lenin times... Can you zoom on the fine print on the first page?

I put in Lampada's text into Babelfish and got this:

Stork with us lived summer, A it in winter stayed somewhere. Hippopotamus opened the mouth: Hippopotamus requests rolls. Sparrow requested crow to call wolf to the telephone. Fungus grows among the path, head on the thin leg. Woodpecker lived in the hollow empty, oak hollowed as by chisel. Fir tree to the hedgehog is similar: Hedgehog in the needles, fir tree - also. Beetle fell and cannot arise. It awaits, who will help it. Stars we saw in the daytime across the river, above the Kremlin... Hoarfrost lay on the branch of fir tree, needle within the night they became white. Tomcat caught mice and rats rabbit sheet cabbage it gnawed. Boats on the sea will sail, people by oars row. Bear found honey in the scaffolding, it is small honey, there are many bees. Rhinoceros butts by horn. You do not joke with the rhinoceros! Oslik was today the ashes: It learned, that it settled. Tortoise bears armor, it hides head from the fear. Digs the earth gray mole - it ruins vegetable-garden. Will sleep quietly old elephant - costing to sleep it knows how it. Cockroach lives after the stove, how warm place! Student taught lessons - he has in the inks of cheek. Fleet will swim to the native earth. Flag aboard each ship. Walk on the scaffolding polecat, predatory small little beast. The heron, important, big-nosed, the whole day stands as statue. Watchmaker, after squinting eye, makes hours or so for us. Schoolboy, schoolboy, you is the strong person: The sphere of terrestrial you bear as ball! By brush virgin land of 4 puppies, To shchekochu to it side. This button and lace - electric bell. Young - future sailor - southern small fishes to us it brought. There are no berries acid than the cranberry. 4 to the memory I know letters.

So it seems like the rhymes are very subtly related to the themes of communism? Possibly, the translations of the rhymes will need an additional text explaining the reference. Personalities like Lenin, the proletariat, the capitalist, the White Russians, etc are not referred to directly but instead as childhood nursery rhyme characters like the stork, bear or rhinoceros. That or this translation is really terrible.



The fine print does say 1921 which is definitely Lenin-era. Also, the art depicts the royals, the clergy and the White generals as enemies of the people which definitely reflects that time period; Stalin-era works would presumably focus more on capitalism.

Originally Posted by Red Snapper

I put in Lampada's text into Babelfish and got this:

So it seems like the rhymes are very subtly related to the themes of communism?

The Lampada's text has nothing to do with your book. She simply posted some great but unrelated ABC rhymes!

Why is there an apostrophe in В'ежают?

Originally Posted by Red Snapper

So it seems like the rhymes are very subtly related to the themes of communism? Possibly, the translations of the rhymes will need an additional text explaining the reference. Personalities like Lenin, the proletariat, the capitalist, the White Russians, etc are not referred to directly but instead as childhood nursery rhyme characters like the stork, bear or rhinoceros. That or this translation is really terrible.

There is NOTHING subtle about these pictures, . You've got a giant snake named "Imperialism" crushing the city, dirty, rotten kulaks wreaking havoc, the capitalist fat cat crawling, begging for mercy, and a guy named Ilich who's "sweeping the riff-raff from the street with an iron broom" (who could that could be? ). I'm sorry I have neither the time nor the expertise to translate the whole thing, but the themes should be pretty obvious to you as a Russian historian.

The fine print does say 1921 which is definitely Lenin-era. Also, the art depicts the royals, the clergy and the White generals as enemies of the people which definitely reflects that time period; Stalin-era works would presumably focus more on capitalism.

Where did you find this -- it seems like you have a poster AND a book of the same thing? It's pretty cool; I'd like to find the poster somewhere. And there certainly isn't a lack of anti-capitalism in this poster, even if it was pre-Stalinist.

Originally Posted by Barmaley

I'm sorry I have neither the time nor the expertise to translate the whole thing, but the themes should be pretty obvious to you as a Russian historian.

Oh yes, quite a few are very obvious but some are less readily apparent like row 2, column 2. Regardless, it'd be nice to have a real translation of what they say. I know translating the whole book is a significant endeavour but hopefully someone will come along and donate their time.

Originally Posted by Barmaley

Where did you find this -- it seems like you have a poster AND a book of the same thing? It's pretty cool; I'd like to find the poster somewhere. And there certainly isn't a lack of anti-capitalism in this poster, even if it was pre-Stalinist.

It is only a poster, I do not have the book. It was given to me by a relative who picked it up in Moscow. The poster says 1993, I assume the book is long out of print. I don't know where one would obtain copies of either.

How about posting your own translation and we will correct it?

Originally Posted by Red Snapper

Oh yes, quite a few are very obvious but some are less readily apparent like row 2, column 2.

For the kulak opposed to the light: he burrows a hole under the Soviet?

Г.
earth globe will be burn,
ignited by worker`s hand
(i don`t know how make it more "poetic" )

Ц.
Czar`s has finished existence,
Now they go in grave to have some rest.

Originally Posted by TATY

Why is there an apostrophe in В'ежают?

Somebody didn't have an Ъ to work with? A quick scan doesn't show any other Ъ's so maybe that's it (hmm, British spy plot? ; before there were rocks, there were children's books... )? There's some other funky shizizel going on there too; check out "чаядон?" -- it looks like it has an audio/speaker icon following it (I know; that makes no sense, but that's what it looks like to me) and then the украинец appears to be accented there as well? I guess you can chalk it up to the fact that this was still a fairly turbulent time and resources were somewhat lacking -- in addition to the printing errors you find anywhere, anytime.

And lastly, what the heck is "что-й-то?"

Originally Posted by Barmaley

Originally Posted by TATY

Why is there an apostrophe in В'ежают?

Somebody didn't have an Ъ to work with? A quick scan doesn't show any other Ъ's so maybe that's it (hmm, British spy plot? ; before there were rocks, there were children's books... )? There's some other funky shizizel going on there too; check out "чаядон?" -- it looks like it has an audio/speaker icon following it (I know; that makes no sense, but that's what it looks like to me) and then the украинец appears to be accented there as well? I guess you can chalk it up to the fact that this was still a fairly turbulent time and resources were somewhat lacking -- in addition to the printing errors you find anywhere, anytime.

And lastly, what the heck is "что-й-то?"

I thought that, because in Belarusian and Ukrainian they use an apostrophe instead of a Ъ.

Originally Posted by TATY

Why is there an apostrophe in В'ежают?

AFAIK because communists tried to abolish "ъ" from the alphabet and replace it with apostrophe. In soviet times (even in late 80's) you could often see writings like "об'явление", "под'eзд" and so on. Nowadays apostrophe is still valid in place of "ъ" (that's how they told us at school) but virtually never used.

Originally Posted by pisces

Originally Posted by TATY

Why is there an apostrophe in В'ежают?

AFAIK because communists tried to abolish "ъ" from the alphabet and replace it with apostrophe. In soviet times (even in late 80's) you could often see writings like "об'явление", "под'eзд" and so on. Nowadays apostrophe is still valid in place of "ъ" (that's how they told us at school) but virtually never used.

Weird. You learn something new everyday. Why did they do that, though, in the first place -- what's wrong with ъ -- and why wouldn't they toss ь at the same time? Incidentally, I know people in english transliteration DO use the apostrophe sometimes as a ъ/ь; I just never would have thought that they'd consider adopting that.

Originally Posted by Barmaley

Weird. You learn something new everyday. Why did they do that, though, in the first place -- what's wrong with ъ -- and why wouldn't they toss ь at the same time? Incidentally, I know people in english transliteration DO use the apostrophe sometimes as a ъ/ь; I just never would have thought that they'd consider adopting that.

I have searched the Internet and found that that was a side effect of 1918 spelling reform, as part of which the use of "ъ" at the end of the word was abolished. Communist viewed the reform as a way to further separate from the monarchic past of Russia. But some publishers refused to follow the reform (which was indeed quite abrupt) and continued to use "ъ" at the end of the word. Of course communists were very annoyed by that. So they just forcibly removed all type blocks for "ъ" from publishers. After that they could no longer use "ъ" even where it was not prohibited by the reform.
By the way, the similar thing happened to one of Microsoft Office fonts which used to contain swastika symbols. Microsoft was forced to remove the symbols and they made a patch which does that. Everything is suitable for political fight, even fonts!

Originally Posted by pisces

Originally Posted by Barmaley

Weird. You learn something new everyday. Why did they do that, though, in the first place -- what's wrong with ъ -- and why wouldn't they toss ь at the same time? Incidentally, I know people in english transliteration DO use the apostrophe sometimes as a ъ/ь; I just never would have thought that they'd consider adopting that.

I have searched the Internet and found that that was a side effect of 1918 spelling reform, as part of which the use of "ъ" at the end of the word was abolished. Communist viewed the reform as a way to further separate from the monarchic past of Russia. But some publishers refused to follow the reform (which was indeed quite abrupt) and continued to use "ъ" at the end of the word. Of course communists were very annoyed by that. So they just forcibly removed all type blocks for "ъ" from publishers. After that they could no longer use "ъ" even where it was not prohibited by the reform.
By the way, the similar thing happened to one of Microsoft Office fonts which used to contain swastika symbols. Microsoft was forced to remove the symbols and they made a patch which does that. Everything is suitable for political fight, even fonts!

Very interesting. Do you have a link for that pisces? Obviously, this didn't last -- either they were allowed to make new ones or they made them in secret; I wonder what the approximate dates for this were?