Looking for the right word...

[alexpgp]

It occurs to me that translating "Встретили по одежке" isn't as straightforward as it might seem.

The entry for the idiom in my dictionary provides a starting point, suggesting that "по одежке встречают," when used by itself, means "people judge you by appearances."

That's well and good, except "Judged on their appearance" doesn't convey what is meant, I think. Other tries that incorporate встречать (being met, received, etc.) sound awkward and unwieldy.

Returning to the dictionary, I begin to suspect the key lies in the reiteration of the word "first" ("first time," "first impression," "first meeting"). Who is it that you meet for the first time? About whom do you form a first impression?

I am seriously leaning toward translating the heading as "Greeted as strangers."

And now, I have really spent an inordinate amount of time on three words, and I haven't even gotten through half of today's modest goal for this assignment (900 words).

Cheers...

Comments

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

Hello,

I've accidentally found your LJ here - http://www.trworkshop.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33130 - and have really enjoyed reading your posts. I'm also a Russian <> English translator or, more correctly, becoming one. I've added you to my friends list, I hope you don't mind?

Re: по одежке встречают - depending on the context of the text, I might also read an extra "snobbish" layer meaning into this. It's not just the case of the person who is meeting you judging you on your appearance (as in a job interview), but also changing their treatment of you on the basis of it. (ie. sucking up to you if you are dressed well or ignoring you if you look poor.)

I think I've read too much Gogol lately ;)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words.

Your comment about the snobbish aspect of по одежке встречают makes me want to do a facepalm, because that was central to the meaning that was being suggested.

I'm still working to a deadline, so there's no time, really, to dwell on this, but it'll be worth revisiting this point to try and cobble something equally pithy in English to convey the same aspect.

Cheers...

P.S. Gogol? or Google?

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

The closest I can think of in English is "to judge the book by it's cover". It also has the "snobbish" meaning as well as the other one, and to be judged like that would also imply to be treated differently depending on how you present yourself (clothing etc). There might be an even better one, but I don't have access to an idioms dictionary at work right now.

That was Gogol (though the spelling is uncannily close). Gogol of snobby, pretentious petty nobility and dismissive, judgemental government clerks. :)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I was, um, joking. :^)

(My favorite non-engineering course in college was taught by Philippe Radley - who is now a lawyer (go figure) - on Gogol's Мертвые души.)

Cheers...

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

There I go again, just met you and already disgracing myself. And I am not even drunk ;)

I tried to read "Dead souls" when I was little, thought it was a dry and boring book. Re-read it a few months back and couldn't put it down. His language was so light and expressive, it was really enjoyable!