Look! It's Father Winter!

[lwood]

doc_beowulf? anthony_arndt? lilmissnever? Any translations on the probably-Russian there?

[Edited to Add:] dr_beowulf has come through with the goods. Roughly translated, "Friendship is friendship, but business is business." See his comment for, well, commentary.

Courtesty of utu_eros with e_falki as an intermediary, I bring you yet another modern interpretation of the Oskerei Russian commentary on the commercialisation of Christmas...







-- Lorrie

Comments

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

I know no Russian, but I'm guessing that this poster has to do with the traditional depictions of St. Nicholas being replaced by the specifically American Santa Claus. I came across something else on LJ about a Welsh artist or something returning to the traditional Father Christmas in green.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

*snork* This reminds me of nothing so much as Hrafnar's Yule Feast, humorously subtitled "Will The Real Father Christmas Please Stand Up?"--we honor Odin, Thor, and Freyr at this one...

-- Lorrie

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

Which is funny, 'cause after thinking about it for a while, several of us have concluded that Njordh is the most Santa-like in personality and tendancies.

*laughs*

--Ember--

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I've heard that from a couple of the VC crew, yeah, but there's more lore-based stuff backing Freyr.

-- Lorrie

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

Well, there is that, which is one of the reasons I find it funny. Like it's hereditary or something. ;)

*shakes head* Nevermind my sense of humor.

--Ember--

[witchchild]

Oh, I LIKE it though... :)

[lwood.livejournal.com]

*eeeevyl grin*

-- Lorrie

[witchchild]

I posted a link to this in my lj too, couldn't resist.

[digitalsidhe.livejournal.com]

My Russian is really rusty. The stuff in the caption is, indeed, Russian; it should be pronounced "Droozhba droozhboi, a sloozhba sloozhboi...", where "zh" is the sound in the middle of leisure and pleasure.

As near as I can make out (with much help from various Web references), it means "friendship with friendship, and/but service with service". the "with" here is the instrumental "with", as in "by means of". (Think of Clue: "It was Col. Mustard, in the conservatory, with the dagger.")

I can only guess that this is some Russian proverb whose meaning would be clearer with a little more context.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Hunh. Sounds reminiscent of a couple lines of the Havamal, actually, but that's Icelandic--"A gift demands a gift again" springs immediately to mind, for instance.

-- Lorrie

[dr-beowulf.livejournal.com]

The picture seemingly shows Ded-Moroz, "Grandfather Frost", the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. Ded-Moroz has evidently just gunned down Santa, and also taken out four of the reindeer (presumably, Rudolph and four others managed to get away). Ded-Moroz's assistant Snegurochka ("Snow Maiden") is also nowhere to be seen. Possibly she's back in the crackhouse with Ded-Moroz's other bitches. It's hard to tell.

The caption reads "Druzhba druzhboi, a sluzhba sluzhboi" -- a Russian proverb (and oh, Russian has a million proverbs). Literally this is "Friendship with friendship, but service with service", but I believe a more idiomatic rendering would be "Friendship is friendship, but business is business". Ded-Moroz may have liked Santa just fine, but the demands of the free-market economy may simply have forced him to bust a cap in Santa's fat ass.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Ah, so it's the Russian Mafia's Father Winter or summat?

-- L

[dr-beowulf.livejournal.com]

Well, Ded-Moroz isn't specifically a Mafia icon; he's a general Russian icon. . . I suspect there's some nationalistic subtext behind the artwork -- native Russian customs standing up to Americanization, something like that. Might even tie in with politics; Russia's making it clear that it's still a Superpower and is not going to put up with the US telling it what to do.

Or it could just be what the Russians call chjornyj jumor -- black humor. I dunno.

--
Ben

[dasubergeek.livejournal.com]

Дед мороз, мороз
Не морозь меня
Не морозь меня
Моего коня

(Grandfather Frost
Don't freeze me
Don't freeze me
Don't freeze my horse.)

Мы не хотим любое получить повреждение... we don't want nobody should get hurt or nothin'...