5x6 (5x6) wrote in linguaphiles,
2013-03-02 23:52:00

Chekhov translation

Chekhov has a short story (one page, really), called "The Complaints Book". A provincial train station has a book for complaints (sort of a standard feedback vehicle for disgruntled customers), which is filled by bored passengers' silly jokes. It ends with the following exchange (in the best known translation):

- Please refrain from making irrelevant entries in this complaints book ~ B.A.Ivanoff (pp. Station-master).
- B.F.Ivanoff, more like.

This is not a literal translation from Russian, but it would be rather close, if (1) pp means "acting", like, Ivanoff, Stationmaster (acting), and (2) B.F. stands for something like Bloody Fool.

My question: are these abbreviations common? What do the stand for? Are they archaic, or British, or both (I've never seen either in modern America).
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  • 10 comments

lilacsigil

March 3 2013, 07:49:35 UTC 2 months ago

pp stands for "per procurationem", and is used when someone is signing a document on behalf of a senior person or agency. So pp. Station-master means that B.A.Ivanoff is not the Station-master but is authorised or ordered to write this on his behalf. It's definitely old-fashioned but still used by public servants in Australia - I've only seen it because I happen to receive a lot of documents from the Department of Health.

B.F. usually means "boyfriend" now, though in that context I'd assume as you did.

lied_ohne_worte

March 3 2013, 08:17:42 UTC 2 months ago Edited:  March 3 2013, 08:25:52 UTC

Terry Pratchett uses "pp." in Guards! Guards!. But it's a bit of a joke, because the recipients of the letter are somewhat isolated dwarves who take things quite literally, meaning that the badly legible "Lupin Wonse Sec'y pp" [Sec'y being an abbreviation for Secretary] is misinterpreted as "Lupin Squiggle Sec'y pp", which the person the letter is about takes to be the secretary's actual name.

lilacsigil

March 3 2013, 08:29:07 UTC 2 months ago

Yeah, I'd expect to see it in a joke about bureaucracy!

k425

March 3 2013, 21:02:13 UTC 2 months ago

I pp things regularly for my boss and a variety of academics - they'll send me a paragraph, ask me to turn it into a reference for someone or an email about something, and I pp for them.

novy_chitatel

March 3 2013, 07:56:32 UTC 2 months ago

Russian original says literally

- Please refrain from making irrelevant entries in this complaints book ~ deputy stationmaster Ivanov-7th
- You maybe the 7th, but you are still an idiot

anonym_mouse

March 3 2013, 09:24:11 UTC 2 months ago

..which might be much clearer and quite acceptable in English? -- It's common for the nobility (or anyone today aspiring to a similar status, when your "family" is an important social message in itself) to add "Junior" or "Senior" to the names, and even in today's America you can see something like "Dec. 29: Joseph P. Kennedy III Seeks To Forge Own Destiny (The Boston Globe)"

So preserving "the 7th" might be just a much better strategy for a translator, than relying on obscure abbreviations. It would clearly convey the meaning of the original.

5x6

March 3 2013, 13:31:51 UTC 2 months ago

I am not asking to suggest a better translation, I am asking, mainly, about the meaning of BF in this context. However, if I had to translate this now, I would have definitely played off ", Sr.", like for instance:

... A. A. Ivanoff, Sr. Stationmaster (acting)
You might be senior, but you are still an idiot.

klausnick

March 4 2013, 07:41:02 UTC 2 months ago

Much better than in the first translation.

5x6

March 3 2013, 13:35:52 UTC 2 months ago

Thanks, Captain!

lobosolo

March 3 2013, 08:52:45 UTC 2 months ago

BF for bloody fool was common when I was young (Britain, 50-60 years ago), but I have not heard it for a long time. As has already been said, pp (Latin per pro) means on behalf of.