Lost in Translation?

The term “голубой” (goluboy) also has an additional cultural meaning combined with its simple (yet not direct) definition of “sky/light blue” in English, that is completely unrelated to the color blue in the English language. Within the English-speaking LGBTQ+ community, each letter of the acronym stands for a different identity within the community. Russian, meanwhile, has various additional slang terms, both derogatory and benign, for different identities, and that is exactly where the word for “sky blue” falls in. It is a [Cf], whereas the English community, while definitely having more derogatory and negative meanings for various slang referring to gay men, does not have a more benign way of referring to the general male gay community other than simply the word “gay”.

This term comes from the derivative of the word, as a lot of the meaning is attached to the fact that gay men are stereotypically seen as flamboyant and feminine, creating the association between a dove’s plumage and the way in which gay men are stereotyped. Ultimately, this can result in a loss of meaning when translating Russian texts, especially if a translator is not up to date on Russian slang. Seeing the word for sky blue in a vague context may not result in the translation holding as much weight in English as it would in Russian.

And this is exactly where the cultural aspect of untranslatable words appears. While the slang meaning of the term is rather easy to translate from Russian to English, the context does not necessarily translate. The Russian term holds within it the cultural myth of flamboyance and brightness as a result of the root of the word. In contrast, the English term “gay” may have a similar myth in some contexts, but has mostly been reduced to the simple meaning of homosexuality in attempts to preserve political correctness in many spheres. However, this could be a reflection of the overarching culture as well. Russia has been far less accepting of homosexuality than modern Western nations, and as a result, political correctness currently hardly has any place in the cultural discourse surrounding sexuality or gender.

Due to this difference in language, both culturally and on a more basic linguistic level, a study was conducted by the National Academy of Sciences of America to test the manner in which this difference affects perception, and whether or not Russians really were better at distinguishing between different shades of blue due to the use of multiple terms in their language. By the end of the study, it was found that Russian speakers were up to 10% faster in determining which shades were the outliers in a comparison.

This is fascinating from a personal standpoint as a Russian speaker. In situations as simple as determining the color to paint a room, or the color of a shirt to match the rest of an outfit, misunderstandings can arise as English speakers classify shades of blue in an entirely different manner from Russian speakers, and the same situation could be applied to Van Gogh’s painting.