I’m sure most of you have already watched the whole film after reading the 1st Part.
After the ludicrous incident on the bus, the drunk man (Fedya) got 15 days of communal service on a construction site where Shurik happens to work part-time.
The two men don’t get on well and they do their best to make each other’s life harder.
Shurik is responsible and hardworking whereas Fedya is lazy and tries to do as little work as possible.
The construction manager arrives to see how they are getting on and sees that Fedya is having a nap.
He will try anything to awaken him from his sleep. He starts dancing a very rhythmical dance of this type.
He then lies down next to him and carries on with uplifting proverbs to encourage him to work.
Let’s watch the video first and then look into the four proverbs of our dialogue.
Приключения Шурика (Part II) – The Video
Приключения Шурика (Part II) – The Analysis
Терпение и труд всё перетрут. – With patience and work you can achieve everything.
The equivalent proverb in English would be “Constant dropping wears a stone away”.
Actually, there is the same proverb in Russian:
Капля камень точит – A drop wears a stone away.
OK, let’s break it down…
терпеть – to endure / to be patient
(терплю , терпишь, терпит, терпим, терпите, терпят)
Надо терпеть. – You need to be patient. (Remember надо + infinitive)
терпение – patience
терпеть боль – to stand the pain
Image from www.photowords.ru
труд – labour, work
трудно – hard
Трудно сказать. – Hard to say.
Это очень трудный вопрос. – This is a very difficult question.
We know already another word for work: работа.
Труд is associated with physical, hard work, i.e labour.
That’s why трудно means hard.
перетереть – to grind
Associate with вернуть – to give back
вернуть деньги – give money back
верну, вернёшь, вернёт, вернём, вернёте, вернут
перетру, перетрёшь, перетрёт, перетрём, перетрёте, перетрут
Кончил дело, гуляй смело. – If you have finished your work you can go for a stroll.
The equivalent proverb in English would be:
When the work is done, have fun.
or…
Business before pleasure!
There is also a variation in Russian:
Сделал дело, гуляй смело. – You’re done with a task, you can walk safely.
Image from http://bridges.edu.yar.ru/
кончить – finish (perfective)
Кончить is conjugated just like учить. (Remember я учу русский. – I learn Russian.)
кончу, кончишь, кончит, кончим, кончите, кончат
учу, учишь, учит, учим, учите, учат
кончать – to finish (imperfective pair of кончить)
Во сколько ты кончаешь работу? – At what time do you finish work?
Кончить - Окончить - Закончить - (to finish)
In the past there was no significant difference among кончить, окончить and закончить.
The verb кончить could be used in the meanings “to finish” and “to graduate” – кончить школу, институт.
But in modern speaking кончить has a strong sexual connotation, so use it carefully 🙂
Talking about graduation, you should rather say окончить. For example:
Ирина окончила школу и поступила в университет. – Irina finished school and got into university.
поступить в университет – to get into university
Закончить is the most general word, and is synonymous to окончить in any usage meaning “to finish”.
кончил – finished (masculine form)
just like…
сделал – finished (masculine form)
гуляй – walk (imperative)
гулять – to walk
Я люблю гулять по вечерам. – I love walking in the evenings.
Cмело – boldly, courageously (adverb)
смелый – brave, courageous
смелый шаг – brave step
смелость – courage
Боюсь, у тебя никогда не хватит смелости.- I am afraid that you will never have the courage.
This phrase is from the popular film Ирония Судьбы – Irony of fate. Listen to the phrase here.
хватит – it’s enough of something! Basta!
You use it when you are fed up with something, or you ask someone to stop something saying or doing something annoying.
Хватит! Больше не могу идти! – It’s enough! I can’t walk more.
смелости – genitive case of смелость
You may initially say that we use genitive case here (смелости) as we have a negation here: не хватит смелости.
However, even if we didn’t have a negation, хватит would still require genitive: хватит смелости.
У нашего государства хватит сил это сделать. – Our government has enough power to do this.
сил – genitive case of силы – powers (сила – power)
нашего государства genitive case of наше государство – our government (Remember У also takes genitive case)
The verb Гулять - Cultural elements
It is very common in the Russian culture for people to go for a walk after work. You will tell me that’s the case for all nationalities – not only for Russians. But with Russians, that is strongly reflected in the language.
Doctors say walking is very good for your health, especially walking in nature. Health education in the Soviet Union was very strong, and most people know and try to follow this advice more or less.
But the word гулять means not only literally to walk or to go for a walk. It also means to be idle, to do no work as we saw in the proverb above; when your work is done, you can do anything you want.
Also, when you meet a girl and you want to ask her out, it’s very common to use the verb гулять:
Пойдем гулять когда-нибудь, если у тебя есть время… – Let’s go for a walk, when you have some free time.
Obviously, when you invite a girl for a walk, it can actually include cafe/concert/whatever, not only walking along the streets.
The verb can also mean to be in a romantic relationship (мы гуляем – we walk..)
There is also a film (прогулка – stroll) with two young people who just met each other and they walk on the streets of St. Petersburg. You can watch it here.
There is an anecdote with a pun:
– Вы знаете, ваш муж гуляет… [he has another woman/women]
– Пусть гуляет, он тепло одет. [he is free to go to walk as he is dressed properly.]
Без труда не вытащишь и рыбку из пруда. – “Without work you can’t pull a fish from the pond.”
So, with no effort you can’t achieve anything! No pain, no gain!
We saw earlier труд – work, labour, effort.
пруд – pond
рыба – fish
рыбка – little fish (diminutive)
Image from myshared.ru
Без takes Genitive case – без труда.
Из also takes Genitive case – из пруда.
Труд and пруд are both masculine nouns ending in a consonant. For the Genitive case, just add –а:
труд → труда
пруд → пруда
Рыба can also mean “fish” in general like in English. The same holds for some fruits and vegetables еtc.:
выращивать, ловить, продавать, готовить рыбу – grow, catch, sell, cook fish
У нас в озере много рыбы. – In our lake there are lots of fish.
выращивать картофель – grow potatoes (not just one!)
вытащить – pull
Вытащить is conjugated just like учить and кончить as we saw earlier.
вытащу, вытащишь, вытащит, вытащим, вытащите, вытащат
учу, учишь, учит, учим, учите, учат
Obviously, all the previous proverbs encourage someone to work hard in order to achieve something in life.
At that point, he is about to carry on with the next one…
Работа – не волк, в лес не убежит. – Work is not a wolf – it will not run away to the forest.
This means, there will always be work for you to do. You should take a break, rest and not worry about the things you have to do.
When looking for a good translation for this proverb I came across a nice quotation by Ronald Reagan:
“They say hard work never killed anyone, but I figured why take the risk?”
Now how can you use this one?
For example, you are busy at work and your friends invite you out to dinner…
– Ребята, не могу сегодня. У меня много дел на работе. – Guys, I can’t do today. I’ve got lots of things to do at work.
– Ты что? Работа – не волк, в лес не убежит. – What’s the matter with you? Work is not a wolf – it won’t run to the forest!
In the video the construction manager doesn’t finish this one but says:
Ermm… this one is not necessary! (Это не надо!)
After all, he is not there to make him more relaxed but to wake him up! Unfortunately, as you saw it didn’t work… 🙂
Sorry, the video is not accesible, …thanks.
María Luisa