# Forum Learning Russian Language Resources for Studying Russian Videos  "New Year's Limericks" in Russian with Russ. subtitles!

## Throbert McGee

From the Russian computer-animated comedy show _Мульт Личности_, caricatures of Putin and Medvedev sing "Новогодние Частушки" -- and this version has subtitles in Russian, so that non-native speakers can understand the words better. Whatever one agrees with the political humor or not, as a learner of Russian I found it to be quite an enjoyable translation exercise:  Новогодние Частушки 
P.S. Technically speaking, of course, частушки are not "limericks" in their concrete form -- a _chastushka_ is a four-line verse in trochaic tetrameter (TA-ta, TA-ta, TA-ta, TA-ta), while a limerick has five lines and is based on the anapestic foot (ta-ta-TA, ta-ta-TA, ta-ta-TA). But one can made a good argument that they are very much the same in spirit, although not in structure.

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## Throbert McGee

On the other hand, the closest English equivalents to the частушка in *form* are the genre of humorous poems called "Little Willies" -- these have the same type of sadistic humor as the *Маленький мальчик* verses in Russian, although "Little Willies" are trochaic, while the Маленький мальчик is dactylic (TA-ta-ta, TA-ta-ta, TA-ta-ta...).   

> Willy found some dynamite
> Couldn't understand it quite
> Curiosity never pays
> It rained Willy seven days. 
> Willy split the baby's head
> To see if brains are gray or red.
> Mother sighed and said to Father:
> "Children can be _such_ a bother."

 А самый известный пример этого "жанра" не касается фиктивного мальчика, а настоящего преступления из американской истории:   

> Lizzie Borden took an axe, and
> Gave her mother forty whacks.
> When he saw what she had done, she
> Gave her father forty-one.

 Finally, as an example of English verse that's similar to the Маленький мальчик genre in its content AND rhythm, I would point to Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a morbidly humorous азбука in dactylic couplets:   

> *A* is for *Amy* who fell down the stairs *B* is for *Basil*, assaulted by bears *C* is for *Clara*, who wasted away *D* is for *Desmond*, thrown out of a sleigh
> (etc.)

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