6 ms·

I think "exellent" is an excellent choice of the word (beautiful ≈ красиво).

by bushin 10y ago

Frondo 10y ago
Agreed, the English "beautiful" often doesn't seem to capture прекрасно. I always took them to have some overlapping meaning, rather than being a direct translation.
- geoka9 10y ago
  > the English "beautiful" often doesn't seem to capture прекрасно I agree, but I'd say "excellent" is even further away in meaning. Translating between such distant languages is always an exercise in compromise, unless you're willing to take great liberties at interpretation (when translating poetry, for example).
  - kartem 10y ago
    Being Russian I suggest "прекрасно" means "perfect" or "excellent" in this context.
vmarovic 10y ago
I don't know russian, but in croatian which is somewhat similar adding pre to infront of the word makes it stronger, does not change meaning. Like too beautiful or as beautiful as it could get. Though in russian it could be different. (edit or even more beautiful than it is allowed/expected/needed)
- uzoodoo 10y ago
  Well, if you remove "pre" from "прекрасно", you get "red-colored", so it doesn't quite work here. (Actually, it would make the first part of the sentence a bit too literal.)
  - c-smile 10y ago
    "прекрасно" consists of two parts : "пре" ("very" here) and "краса" ("beauty") in Russian so it is pretty close etymologically to English beautiful. Slightly different connotation in this particular case but still close enough.
    - uzoodoo 10y ago
      You have to jump through some mental hoops to somehow get "краса" out of "прекрасно". It's literally "пре" + "красный", where "красный" in modern Russian means "red". I'm not disputing that it originated from a word meaning "beautiful" (which happened to also mean red, as in the archaic "красная девица", which does not actually mean "red girl" as google translate might think). But saying that you could simply split up the word and get "краса" out of it is disingenuous.
geoka9 10y ago
I often translate "красивый" as "nice" or "pretty" or something similar, depending on the context. I think "beautiful" is more subtle (less banal, if you will) than "красивый". And so is "прекрасный".
pvg 10y ago
"excellent" makes it sound like Bill & Ted doing the translation, though. 'first-rate' is a common choice for that quote which is also unsatisfying - without the unwanted English connotations but also without any of the desirable Russian ones.
- caf 10y ago
  Perhaps "superlative".
  - pvg 10y ago
    Yep, that's (roughly) in the same vein as 'first-rate'. What makes the translation tricky (if you speak Russian, apologies for explaining the obvious) is that while the word has uses other than literal 'beautiful' it is composed of a superlative prefix and the root for 'beauty'. The line itself is spoken by character in a play, a high-minded, provincial county doctor as Chekhov himself once was. 'must be excellent¹' is strained and clunky in English to begin with and none of the more natural-sounding replacements evoke the connotations of the original. ¹ Moreover, nobody ever translated the name of the Russian fairy tale Василиса Прекрасная as Vasilisa the Excellent.
- hanoz 10y ago
  It must be a very small subset of English speakers for whom the word "excellent" can only be read in a Bill & Ted accent, so I suggest this is bogus argument.
  - pvg 10y ago
    Yes, it must be and yet 'excellent' is a really poor translation for this.
huhtenberg 10y ago
Not really. Excellent is closer to идеально. Both imply relative comparison (to others). Beautiful is an absolute characteristic, same as красиво, so it's a better fit here.
- pvg 10y ago
  'идеально' suggests perfection, 'excellent' just quality.
c-smile 10y ago
As our workshop teacher in USSR's school said once to us: "всё что технически-совершенно то прекрасно" - "everything that is technically perfect / harmonious is beautiful". I would say that "прекрасно" is "harmonious and so beautiful" in this context.

I think "exellent" is an excellent choice of the word (beautiful ≈ красиво).

by bushin 10y ago

I think "exellent" is an excellent choice of the word (beautiful ≈ красиво).

Agreed, the English "beautiful" often doesn't seem to capture прекрасно. I always took them to have some overlapping meaning, rather than being a direct translation.

geoka9 10y ago
> the English "beautiful" often doesn't seem to capture прекрасно I agree, but I'd say "excellent" is even further away in meaning. Translating between such distant languages is always an exercise in compromise, unless you're willing to take great liberties at interpretation (when translating poetry, for example).
- kartem 10y ago
  Being Russian I suggest "прекрасно" means "perfect" or "excellent" in this context.

vmarovic 10y ago

I don't know russian, but in croatian which is somewhat similar adding pre to infront of the word makes it stronger, does not change meaning. Like too beautiful or as beautiful as it could get. Though in russian it could be different. (edit or even more beautiful than it is allowed/expected/needed)

uzoodoo 10y ago
Well, if you remove "pre" from "прекрасно", you get "red-colored", so it doesn't quite work here. (Actually, it would make the first part of the sentence a bit too literal.)
- c-smile 10y ago
  "прекрасно" consists of two parts : "пре" ("very" here) and "краса" ("beauty") in Russian so it is pretty close etymologically to English beautiful. Slightly different connotation in this particular case but still close enough.
  - uzoodoo 10y ago
    You have to jump through some mental hoops to somehow get "краса" out of "прекрасно". It's literally "пре" + "красный", where "красный" in modern Russian means "red". I'm not disputing that it originated from a word meaning "beautiful" (which happened to also mean red, as in the archaic "красная девица", which does not actually mean "red girl" as google translate might think). But saying that you could simply split up the word and get "краса" out of it is disingenuous.

geoka9 10y ago

I often translate "красивый" as "nice" or "pretty" or something similar, depending on the context. I think "beautiful" is more subtle (less banal, if you will) than "красивый". And so is "прекрасный".

pvg 10y ago

"excellent" makes it sound like Bill & Ted doing the translation, though. 'first-rate' is a common choice for that quote which is also unsatisfying - without the unwanted English connotations but also without any of the desirable Russian ones.

caf 10y ago
Perhaps "superlative".
- pvg 10y ago
  Yep, that's (roughly) in the same vein as 'first-rate'. What makes the translation tricky (if you speak Russian, apologies for explaining the obvious) is that while the word has uses other than literal 'beautiful' it is composed of a superlative prefix and the root for 'beauty'. The line itself is spoken by character in a play, a high-minded, provincial county doctor as Chekhov himself once was. 'must be excellent¹' is strained and clunky in English to begin with and none of the more natural-sounding replacements evoke the connotations of the original. ¹ Moreover, nobody ever translated the name of the Russian fairy tale Василиса Прекрасная as Vasilisa the Excellent.
hanoz 10y ago
It must be a very small subset of English speakers for whom the word "excellent" can only be read in a Bill & Ted accent, so I suggest this is bogus argument.
- pvg 10y ago
  Yes, it must be and yet 'excellent' is a really poor translation for this.

huhtenberg 10y ago

Not really. Excellent is closer to идеально. Both imply relative comparison (to others). Beautiful is an absolute characteristic, same as красиво, so it's a better fit here.

pvg 10y ago
'идеально' suggests perfection, 'excellent' just quality.

c-smile 10y ago

As our workshop teacher in USSR's school said once to us: "всё что технически-совершенно то прекрасно" - "everything that is technically perfect / harmonious is beautiful". I would say that "прекрасно" is "harmonious and so beautiful" in this context.