kittydesade | (no subject)

Настоящие дворы исчезли в Москве где-то между Высоцким и Окуджавой.
The genuine old Moscow house yards disappeared sometime between the two popular bards Vystosky and Okudzhava.
The real/proper courtyards of Moscow disappeared somewhere between Vysotsky and Okudzhava.
[Adjective] [plural noun subject] [verb past tense] [prepositional phrase (preposition: in/of, noun object of preposition)] [indefinite adverb?] [prepositional phrase? (preposition: between, noun object of preposition, conjunction, noun object of preposition)]

Странное дело. Даже после революции, когда в целях борьбы с кухонным рабством в домах ликвидировались кухни, на дворы никто не покушался.
A strange business. Even after the revolution, when for purposes of the struggle against "the slavery of the kitchen" they actually did away with kitchens in housing, nobody tried to get rid of the yards.
A strange business. Even after the revolution, when for the purpose of the struggle against "the slavery of the kitchen" they [lit. liquidated] eliminated kitchens in houses, no one took away the courtyards.
[implied copula] [adjective] [noun]. [Ad..verb?] [prepositional phrase(preposition, noun object of preposition)] [prepositional phrase: (preposition, prepositional noun?, object of preposition)] [prepositional phrase (preposition, noun object of preposition)] [noun genitive] [prepositional phrase (preposition, plural noun object of preposition] [implied subject] [verb past tense plural] [direct object], [negating particle] [noun] [negative subject] [negating particle] [verb past tense].

Notes:
after - после - takes genitive
between - между - takes instrumental
in/of - в - takes prepositional in this case
for the purpose(s) of - в целях - takes genitive
against - с - takes instrumental

Fuck it, I'm starting the Watch books. I didn't get a chance to do Russian on Tuesday because of fuckmuppetry, I'm doing the Watch books to make up for it.

... And now that I've done the first sentence holy shit it is so much easier. Oh my god you guys, the only thing I needed was a damn dictionary. And the rest of it just happened. Holy shit I can read Russian. Give me some writing practice and I can write Russian and you guys I am so excited about this I can't even tell you. This is fucking awesome.

Ahem. So, yeah, I'm a language dork, what of it?

I think at this point I really, really need to make some time (HAH) in my schedule, maybe an hour or two on weekend evenings, to write rosetta drabbles. Maybe not 100 words in every language particularly since translating the spirit of the thing to 100 words would take a whole lot more than an hour, but translating 100 word drabbles into other languages. Or short stories. I could slowly translate some of my short stories, come to think of it. Yeah, I can make that a project. Into French, Spanish, and Russian, and that way I maintain all of those and don't completely fuck myself over by just replacing one language with another. Although it'd be harder to lose my Spanish now that I'm actually using it regularly. Fluent in four languages. What the fuck. Conversant in, um. Three others. Yeah, fear my linguistic might.

And at this point I really, really... need to get organized, partly, because I can't remember what I was going to say. There's probably a lot of things I could do but until Old Hotness becomes a more definite thing, probably best just to concentrate on knitting and writing. I need to finish the stupid armwarmers and get those off needles, and I need to do the red earflaps and then that'll be entirely finished. And then I can start filling my hope chest. Because for all that I'm woman who embodies all kinds of non-traditionally-womanly virtues like suitably timed aggressiveness, strength of purpose, sense of self and independence and saying 'fuck' a lot, I am filling a fucking hope chest. Because it's a hilariawesome idea. And useful.

And tomorrow there will be bank stuff, and all the house stuff is collected in one binder so I have that already done and don't have to worry about it. And I think that's it for outside-my-routine obligations for the rest of the week. Apart from, you know, work stuff. Which happens.