My late grandfather Andrii Lavryk, who was a blacksmith, had a favorite rebuke: FLIES BE EATING IT! The gustatory preferences of flies are well-known, and the substance they enjoy sitting on we have aplenty. That’s Ukrainian obscene language in a nutshell—while being civilized, it also ages well and stays witty forever.
Should you want more, don’t be shy to borrow from our brilliant Vira Meleshko.
Let its mother get the kovin’ka (a kovin’ka is a kind of cane)
A hundred ponds of imps into your liver!
May someone thresh millet with your face!
Let you be luckless forever!
Let you be lifted and dropped!
May a booger jump out of your nose!
Let a fly kick you!
Let the gripes gripe you out!
Let a hen step on your foot!
Let a duck kick you!
Vasyl’s mother!
Yosyp in the nude!
If you aren’t a plucked rooster!
The boar of Ethiopia!
May imps have you!
If you aren’t a pig’s snout!
You! A turd untrampled!
Let thine teeth all fall out, except one to bother you for the rest of your life.
Get a three-finger figure!
Give (someone) a bumblebee.
Not worth a button.
To the grave with it.
...Even though you mostly want to send the invader straight to hell, without mincing words.
February 28, 2:18 p.m.
Ukrainian Text by Rayisa Plotnykova, translated into English by Ukrainianvancouver team – Mar 04, 2022