Enough With The Pickles Already, Chewbacca

July 5, 2006 7:02 PM

Andrey Kuznetsov makes delightful lubki (sing. lubok), a form of Russian folk art, out of some well-known modern movies. Some information (in English) about the medium and its origins with many examples can be seen here (warning: Java). Shamelessly ganked from AskMe. Thanks jonson!
posted by Gator (15 comments total)

On Ask today.
posted by dobbs at 7:26 PM on July 5, 2006

Grr. Hit stop when I saw your small text but was too late. :(
posted by dobbs at 7:27 PM on July 5, 2006

i really like these--thanks! : >
posted by amberglow at 7:50 PM on July 5, 2006

If you translate this page via babelfish to english you get some interesting results. (Meaning phonetic translations of some of the names). via
posted by blue_beetle at 9:24 PM on July 5, 2006

[this is good]
posted by dhruva at 9:49 PM on July 5, 2006

I'd never heard of these. This is why I enjoy Metafilter -- I always learn something new. Thanks for the post.
posted by Toecutter at 6:16 AM on July 6, 2006

Somebody is pulling my leg. I refuse to believe that "Lord of the Rings" can be translated into Russian and back into English and come out as "Plasticine of the Sheep." I'm sorry, but I just can't accept it.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:28 AM on July 6, 2006

Faint of butt: your leg is not being pulled. What happened is that the title was the artist's pun (in Russian) on the actual movie name.

"Lord of the rings" in russian reads as "Vlastelin kolets"

"Vlastelin colets" is phonetically similar to "Plastilin ovets"

"Plastilin ovets" is indeed "Plasticine of the sheep" when translated into English, although "Sheep silly putty" might be a more appropriate, if freer, translation.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 9:51 AM on July 6, 2006

Ah, thank you, blindcarboncopy. That's much better. I was afraid Babelfish had exploded.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:40 AM on July 6, 2006

I don't suppose you could provide some translations of the text in the pictures, blindcarboncopy? Based on comments in the AskMe thread, they appear to be using an archaic alphabet...
posted by Gator at 10:55 AM on July 6, 2006

It is indeed written in an archaic form of Russian - if I were to take a guess, I'd say it is emulating the style of 1500's Russian bibles. As a native Russian speaker without much recent practice, I can understand the meaning of the text at a glance, if not always the individual words (many of them have persist in modern Russian with rather different spelling). There are quite a few puns and references in the text that are not really translatable. Anyway, here is a sample translation of the "lords of the rings" plate:

(above the hobbit, written in traditional fairy tale rhyme):
I am a hobbit animal called Frodo
I have a prickly face and my legs are crooked and furry
I have a ring of magical forge
When I put it on I disappear from the view
And get quite sick from it

(above Gollum, same verse structure)
This creature is called Gollum
[something I can't quite translate...]
[He] catches fishes and eats them raw
And then suffers from stomach swelling

(above the cup)
Have a beer so you feel better (from disease)

(below the cup)
I should put on the ring so nobody can see my [shame?]
posted by blindcarboncopy at 2:07 PM on July 6, 2006

I'd never heard of these. This is why I enjoy Metafilter -- I always learn something new.

Me too--every day. : >
posted by amberglow at 5:44 PM on July 6, 2006

[something I can't quite translate...]

It looks like
бельмесъ водяной съ сипатымъ горломъ
but that doesn't make much sense: бельмес [bel'mes] means '(not) at all,' водяной [vodyanoi] means 'water' (adj.), с сипатым горлом [s sipatym gorlom] means 'with hoarse throat.' Put them all together, you get... 'not at all watery with a hoarse throat'???
posted by languagehat at 6:38 PM on July 6, 2006

Happiness is lubok in my rear-view mirror.
posted by kcds at 6:52 PM on July 6, 2006

I have a ring of magical forge
When I put it on I disappear from the view
And get quite sick from it

Bwahahaha.

As much as I enjoyed those movies, I definitely recall thinking at the time that Frodo had a fairly limited range of expressions:

• Constipation
• Terror
• Nausea
• Constipated terror
• Constipated nausea
• Terrified constipation
• Terrified nausea
• Nauseated constipation
• Nauseated terror

posted by Gator at 7:39 PM on July 6, 2006