ON RUSSIAN CURSES The word “Dolboeb” Russian(“долбаеб”) is a (very) rude curse w

ON RUSSIAN CURSES

The word “Dolboeb” Russian(“долбаеб”) is a (very) rude curse word for reckless “idiot” or “crazy idiot”. Russian curses are hard to translate because they are more poetic. But the closest is possibly ‘f-ckhead’ and ‘f-ckwit’.

But, just as English curses include the intimation of irony, stupidity, incompetence, foolishness, and folly-pride, to understand the Russian versions, you have to add the sense of ‘drunkenness’ to the anglo conception of any insult: a sort of overconfidence, or certainty in your stupidity – plus something else… it’s … that Russians are strong people and curses very often imply someone is strong but stupid – so they don’t have the connotation many of our english words do of feebleness of one kind or another. They don’t think farce or folly, or childishness is funny – just stupid. Humor has to include this overconfidence and pride attribution in order for something to be funny.

I mean, I remember an early morning, watching a drunk moron try to steal a piece of fruit from the back of a delivery truck, while they men working in the market and the various trucks just laughed and teased him, let him get away with it, then take it from him, and repeat this process for a good half an hour. I mean, there must have been thirty people watching this comedy and everyone was rolling with it. And all with an undercurrent of sympathy. We don’t do that kind of thing in protestant christianity. Which is unfortunate. It’s more civil.

Russian culture isn’t so much legal as *reasonable*. There is more of the latin ‘reasonableness’, than the absolutism of protestant law. And I prefer our government but their civility.

It’s why I love them so much.