Читать «Несистематический словарь. Русско-английский, англо-русский» онлайн - страница 526

I‘m currently writing a book in Russian about interpretation and about the differences and 

similarities of the two languages, Russian and English. So that is a book that will probably be 

published next year. It‘s not yet a very serious book, so I would probably want to continue that 

kind of research and to write about those things because I do think that they are fascinating. 

Brian Lamb — Pavel Palazchenko is our author‘s name. And here is what the cover of the book 

looks like.  My Years With Gorbachev and Shevardnadze.  Thank you very much for joining us. 

Pavel Palazchenko — Thank you. 

 

 

523 

 

 

BACK PAGE — WEEKEND FT: Words of wisdom in translation 

Financial Times; Aug 25, 2001 

By John Lloyd 

For years, he was the bald guy with the big moustache beside Mikhail Gorbachev. Now, Pavel 

Palazchenko, the former Soviet leader's most frequent interpreter in his latter years in power, is a 

voice in his own right.  

He became so close to Gorbachev that he acted as much as adviser as translator, and is with him 

still — translator, aide and friend, at the Gorbachev Foundation, in Leningrad Avenue, Moscow.  

It was Palazchenko's interpretation at the summits that prompted him, he says, to reflect deeply 

on the English language and he has published the fruits of that reflection in a little book (in 

Russian) called Everything is Relative, or the "Unsystematic Dictionary" — a textbook for the 

translator aspiring to reach Palazchenko's peaks.  

He is a discreet man: the book is sparing in anecdotes. He explains that in any case, the Russian 

word anekdot is best translated into the English "joke" — though Palazchenko adds that the word scarcely conveys the wealth of association which the word anekdot carries in Russian. Soviet 

citizens used anekdot as a shield against their rulers — telling thousands of sly jokes about their 

follies, their pretensions, their impositions.  

The few anecdotes Palazchenko does include are revealing, though. In a discussion on "vogue 

words" , he cites "Been there, done that" , and says: "You often met that phrase in the speech of former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright (who was, in general, a fan of trendy slang)." 

He translates it into Russian as: "We've already stepped on that rake."  

He is also revealing about Gorbachev. In the context of an extended discussion on the centrality 

of the Bible to English speech, he recalls that, in his first meeting with Ronald Reagan in Geneva in 1985, Gorbachev quoted "the words of unusual beauty and grace" from Ecclesiastes — "to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven".  

In spite, Palazchenko writes, of the prevalence of new translations ("many simply awful, in my 

view"), the King James version remains verbally dominant.  

Not morally dominant, though: his ear is delicately tuned enough for him to note that "filthy 

lucre"  is "now used in the main ironically: at the end of the 20th century there are not too many people who are disgusted by money".