Moscow Times article

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The Naked Truth to God's Truth

By Michele A. Berdy

Истинная правда: The God's honest truth; the absolute truth (literally "true truth").

In Russian, there's truth (правда) and then there's truth (истина). Правда is one of the group of words from a root meaning "true" or "right," like правильный (correct) or право (right). It means both "true," or "correct," as well as "just" and "fair." Он говорил правду (he told the truth); он искал правду (he sought justice). It's nice that in Russian, "justice" (правосудие, literally "judgment of right") is perceived as the process by which the truth is sought and found. It doesn't always work out that way, of course, but the intent is there, if only in a linguistic echo.

In Russian, you can stand up and fight for justice (стоять за правду) or, as has often been the case, suffer for it: Он страдал за правду -- он сидел в ГУЛаге как узник совести (he suffered in the name of justice -- he was a prisoner of conscience/political prisoner in the gulag).

You often hear and use правда as a particle. Он, правда, предупреждал, что опоздает, но всё равно -- перед гостями было очень неудобно. (True, he warned us that he'd be late, but still, it was embarrassing in front of our guests.) "Он женился." "Правда? Я думала, что он вечный холостяк." ("He got married." "Really? I thought he was a confirmed bachelor.") Он построил хорошую баню, не правда ли? (He did a good job building the bathhouse, didn't he?)

You can say, по правде говоря or правду говоря (to tell the truth) when you want to admit something you might not wish to own up to: по правде говоря, его пьеса мне не понравилась (to tell the truth, I didn't like his play).

Or, if you want to be tough with yourself or others, you can say смотреть правде в глаза (to face the truth, literally, "to look truth in the eye"). Мне понравились её мемуары. Она не боится смотреть правде в глаза. (I liked her memoirs. She isn't afraid to face the truth.) Harder still, you can: говорить правду в глаза (to speak truth to someone's face, to call a spade a spade). Я всегда говорю ему правду в глаза. Он уже к этому привык и не обижается. (I always tell him the truth right to his face. He's used to it, and doesn't get offended.)

I also like the phrase всеми правдами и неправдами (by hook or by crook, literally "by truth and lies"): Ему хотелось всеми правдами и неправдами выиграть это соревнование (he wanted to win the contest by hook or by crook).

Истина is Truth with a capital T, without the meaning of "justice" that правда has. It seems to be both higher in tone and higher up in the pantheon of veracity than правда -- you can say, for example, истинная правда (the God's honest truth, the absolute truth) without it being redundant, but you can't say the reverse -- правдивая истина -- which sounds silly in Russian.

Linguists argue about the etymology of the word, but the consensus seems to be that it originally meant "the one," "the real thing." It's the word you use in a lot of set expressions, like старая истина (an age-old truth); голая истина (the naked truth); избитая истина (a truism, literally "a truth that has been knocked around"); святая истина (God's truth).

And it's the "truth that shall set you free," which is somewhat flatter in Russian: истина сделает вас свободными. There does seem to be a choir of angels that hover around this word. It's what you say on Easter, when someone greets you with Христос воскресе (Christ is risen): Воистину воскресе (verily he is risen). And an old expression for "being wrong" hammers this home: Он погрешил против истины (he was wrong, literally, "he sinned against the truth"). This isn't the kind of Truth you can play around with.

After all, Russian has it that everyone has their version of the truth(правда): У всякого Павла своя правда (literally, "every Paul has his own truth"). But: Истина глаголет устами младенца (Truth comes from the mouths of babes).

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.