Thread: Crime fiction readers, I need your help

I am translating a text from Russian into English and need some help with Anglo-American criminal slang.

What I am specifically looking for is insults (from mild to really bad ones) and expressions that a gangster could use to tell another person he dosen't agree with this other person's ideas and suggestions and doesn't think much of him.


Here is a sample of the Russian text:

"В каком тебе пополаме, чинарь зеленый, кошелка?! Сышишь – криво дышишь, неровно ходишь и не по сезону шелестишь! А коль не в кипишь, канай профура"

It isn't actually authentic criminal slang. The person just tries to sound like a hardcore criminal, so he uses (not always correctly) some slang words he heard somewhere and mixes them up with similarly sounding expressions he has just made up. And while it is not authentic, the listeners will have no doubts that it is criminal lingo that he is trying to imitate -- his speech has this criminal "feel".

I'd like my English translation to sound the same way -- it doesn't have to be the real present-day criminal slang, but it must sound like one. In other word, the character is supposed to talk like a hero in a hardcore crime novel or movie, but not necessarily like a real-life criminal.

Any help will be appreciated.

Oh, and if someone has any links to short stories or novels where the heros talk like that, it would help too.

Here are a couple of links that have a little crime fiction slang in them.

http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html
http://www.suspense-movies.com/articles/quotes/

It's a tricky one. You should specify a region, maybe a time (modern day?) and ... I dunno. I certainly can't help, because you doubtless need American slang.

Thanks for replies, guys.

DDT, I had found the first link before even posting here (did my own research), but thanks for trying.

I think I found a solution, kind of.

Do you want white gangster slang or black gangsta slang ?
I can help you with black gangsta slang, as it's on the radio all day and night. White mob slang is another language altogether.

Jeff, I'm done with that translation already. But thanks anyway