Below: Some Russian graffiti on a column on Platform 3. I have no clue what it says; it may well be obscene, or existentialist, or love-lorn, or all three, and probably vodka-fuelled. Any reader care to have a stab at what the Master of Warsaw Central* has scrawled here?
I am reminded of a communist-era joke. A Parisian is heading by train to Moscow. A Muscovite is heading by train to Paris. By mistake both alight in Warsaw. The Muscovite looks around in delight: "Ah! Paris!" The Parisian looks around in disgust: "Urgh! Moscow!"* A reference to The Master of Paddington, whose famous statement "Far away is close at hand in images of elsewhere" was for many years daubed on a brick wall on the approaches to London Paddington station. Now long gone, immortalised by Peter Simple in his Way of the World column in the Daily Telegraph.
3 comments:
My limited knowledge of russian allows me to decipher this graffitti as follows: "I was born as a sucker/boor/moron, I live a boorish life, and so I'll die as a boor. But I'm also a male and a boor/sucker/moron is only happy in his boorish way when the robbers rob his money." Sounds cryptic, but the word "лох" probably has multiple meanings...
For anyone interested, one translation engine I tried out gave me 'wieśniak' for лох (pronounced 'loch' I guess) i.e. a hick.
Thanks guys! Makes a lot of sense (I guess!)
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