Talk:odds and ends

My Russian-speaking source says this about the translation (it had been garbled in the email; The previous conversation was "How would you translate this from Russian?" answer: "I wouldn't", me: "Is it ill-formed or distasteful?")

Ah. Power of view source. Vsiakaia vsiachina, is it? No, it isn't distasteful, and it isn't ill-formed; it's moderately dismissive. "Various varieties" might be similar, in English, except in Russian the "chiming" on the same root is not awkward, but amusing.

Vsiachina could translate as the (British) "rubbish," said casually/dismissively rather than angrily/dismissively. "Garbage" is too strong in American English; "stuff" works for mainstream. Maybe "odds and ends," for vsiachina alone. Vsiakaia vsiachina (всякая всячина, что ли?) emphasizes that in the direction of persiflage and dismissiveness, more or less.

"What were they selling at MegaDiscountStore?" "Oh, all sorts of rubbish." (British) "Oh, every imaginable odd lot." (American) "Всякая всячина." (Russian)

In other words, the translation is not quite right, both in denotation and connotation. -dmh 19:41, 12 July 2005 (UTC)