(no subject)

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

I'm reading a novel and came across

ковало "чего-то железного"

is the phrase a reference to something? lots of variations when I search for it online

thanks,
t.

Comments

[ceiteach.livejournal.com]

Give the full sentece, please. From what you gave it's "forge something made of iron" but in a very strange case (it's ковать что not ковать чего).

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

context --

...Оно ехало мимо нас в автобусах и самолетах, развозило из Москвы в сетках апельсины и колбасу, сражалось на спортивных площадках за преимущество социализма, огромными хорами исполняло оратории и звенело медью и ковало, ковало, ковало "чего-то железного" и ехало по Средней Европе ... и т.д.



thanks

[ceiteach.livejournal.com]

Что-то знакомое... (sounds familiar) Where is it from?
"чего-то железного" can really be a refrence but I don't remember to what.

[lady-spring.livejournal.com]

Василий Аксенов, "Ожог"..

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

It's a reference to Odessa dialect, most likely, to Isaac Babel.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Vasily Aksyonov quotes a comedy sketch "Куём чего-то железного", performed by the Leningrad Theatre Institute students' comedy group at a kapustnik (inner-circle theatre people's community celebration) in Leningrad in 1966. The performers included Alexander "Sandro" Tovstonogov, who later became Leningrad's most famous theatre director. The sketch included this verse:
Куём чего-то железного,
На вид как будто полезного,
А если в нутро заглянуть -
Жуть!
(We're forging something iron,
Seemingly useful,
Unless you look inside it -
It's horror!)
The sketch mocked the typical feature of Soviet-times geovenment-controlled economy - which was to create large, menacingly looking objects of unclear, but undoubtedly militaristic value.

The sketch became soon famous among the intelligentsia, though it was never filmed, aired or published officially (which was the case with many semi-underground cultural works or events.)

The sketch itself, in its turn, imitates the Odessa dialect, most likely in the form popularized by writer Isaac Babel in 1920s; thus the irregular case form, very typical for Odessa dialect but totally wrong for normative Russian.

[just1user.livejournal.com]

citing http://www.pokrovkino.com/scenario.html -
...У Ильфа и Петрова есть рассказик-пародия на сценарии Межрабпомфильма "Птичка певчая". Там есть такое: "Батрачка Ганна кует чего-то железного"...

Original text seems to be offline-only.

[oryx_and_crake]

It's a direct quote from one of Ilf and Petrov's feuilleton about clichees of Soviet Cinema: "Пролетарии куют чего-то железного."

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. I have it in the Ilf and Petrov's Collected works - if you are interested, I can look it up sometime later.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

There you go, Odessa dialect anyway.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I think I have their collected works. Haven't re-read it for ages, though. That's why I mistook them for Babel. Well, anyway, it's Odessa Mama :)

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

thank you very much

this would be in the collected works?

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

thank you very much for your thorough answer

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

thank you

[oryx_and_crake]

I am 100% sure I read it there (it's the 5-volume edition with the orange cover, published around 1961). It might also be in lib.ru. If you don't find it anywhere and you need it, let me know, I'll just post it for you (it's not too big).