Sunday, November 7, 2010
A Proper Russian Send-off, Pt. 2
Idi v zhopu - lit. "go into an ass". Equivalent to "go to hell". Soviet society enjoyed state-enforced secularity, so normal ways of telling people off - "may demons take you" or "go you to the devil" - were not exactly in vogue. Hence, a non-religious, non-superstitious bad place to send people to. Whose ass is never specified. Hence, when translating the expression into English, the idea of the Collective Ass, appropriate to a collectivized society, is introduced. "Go burrow in the asshole of mankind" would make a pretty sweet neologism.
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