Thread: Easy to understand song about Russian superstitions

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

So, if someone walks past you with an empty bucket, and greets you, does the bad luck come from staying silent, or from speaking to him?

I mean, does the imperative промолчи have a conditional "if" meaning in this context, or is it a "normal" imperative?

It's a normal imperative.

So my question for Russians is this -- are you familiar with the variant in which воробьи are the "villains" and ласточки are the "good guys"

No, I'm not familiar, but I think there might be something like it in Russia. I don't exactly know the origin of the word "воробей", but the birds are kind of a bad guys - "воробей" sounds very semiliar to "вора бей" or the same "бей вора" (beat the thief). The bird is probably inclined to steal, but, I suppose, you may have known it without me.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

So, if someone walks past you with an empty bucket, and greets you, does the bad luck come from staying silent, or from speaking to him?

The bad luck has already come to you if you had met somebody with an empty bucket. The idea with greetings seems to be used for lyrics only.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

ещё о суеверии, якобы русском
or
о ещё одном суеверии, ...

Originally Posted by kib

No, I'm not familiar, but I think there might be something like it in Russia. I don't exactly know the origin of the word "воробей", but the birds are kind of a bad guys - "воробей" sounds very semiliar to "вора бей" or the same "бей вора" (beat the thief). The bird is probably inclined to steal, but, I suppose, you may have known it without me.

I've never heard of such a version of the word "воробей" etymplogy . Sometimes people tend to find (or rather to stuff) a sense where there is actually no any. If one can split a word in to two that does not mean that the meaning of the original one and the two splits are identical. For an example if use this word splitting idea we can come to the word "ворожить" meaning "let a thief to live" .