Dong court translation in mid-90-s I’ve got hit by the defendant’s “муж объелся груш”.
It took me a couple of seconds to create an equivalent, (remember, it is always a meaning, not the words!), but my translation put a mile-long smile on Judges’s face, and we won the case.
Here is the story:
Lets’ get something funny and “slangish” first on the matter, if we translate the slang.
In NY city it is a prefix “schm-“. The “schm-” comes from Yiddish words such as schmaltz or schmuck (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schm- )
To express negativism, skepticism and irony, people repeat the word, and repeat it again with the prefix “schm-“.
Here we go!
A broken car: “Car-schmacar”
A bad weather: “weather-schweather”
A runaway husband: “husband-schmusband”
You’ve get an idea…
Replying to the question about “bad” husband, instead of saying “My ex-husband is really a smack” (“My husband is really a smack”), the lady can say: “Husband? – Schmusband!” or silmply “Husband schmusband”.
It also has a meaning – “I do not want to talk about it, it is so bad!”
The Russian “муж объелся груш” is a negative, but funny expression to describe the runaway husband, or the one who forgets his duties.
Back than, in Denton, TX outhouse, hearing “муж объелся груш”. I delivered with the smile (violation of court ethics!) “husband-schmusband!”
… we won the case.
😉