Dictionary of 1000 Russian Proverbs: With English Equivalents

by Peter Mertvago, Peter Mertuago

Release Date: December, 1997

Edition: Paperback

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Not Great But Available

This may be the best book of Russian proverbs available in English, but that's not saying much, because, as far as I can tell, it's the Only such book currently in print. This is sad, because many superior such books exist; in particular, I would mention Kuzmin and Shadrin's Russian-English Dictionary of Proverbs and Sayings (Russky Yazyk, Moscow, 1989). For a student of the language, a book of this kind would ideally include, as does Kuzmin and Shadrin, a literal translation of each proverb, as well as any appropriate lexically equivalent or semantically similar corresponding English sayings, and, importantly, at least one example of the use of each saying in its characteristic context(s). Mertvago includes literal translations only in the cases where he deems lexically equivalent sayings not to exist; this can present problems for anyone who wants to understand the many and various colloquial and regional words that show up in these sayings even when the overall sense is given. Furthermore, no examples of usage are included. Finally, the Introduction claims that an English key word index has been provided, but in fact it has not, nor has the promised Russian key word index, although this is less important because the proverbs are themselves indexed alphabetically by Russian key word. Despite these omissions, the publishers found space for ten pages of advertisements (after 171 pages of proverbs averaging six proverbs a page).