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cкосив глаз

English translation: squinting an eye

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Russian term or phrase:cкосив глаз
English translation:squinting an eye
Entered by: GaryG

15:19 Jun 30, 2005
Russian to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / children's literature
Russian term or phrase: cкосив глаз
Наконец Каррина изловчилась и поймала бабочку. Скосив глаз, она принялась рассматривать ее, но вскоре поняла, что ее, самую мудрую из ворон, просто-напросто надули.


Ворона держит в клюве бабочку (вернее, не совсем бабочку, но это не важно) и, скосив на клюв один глаз, пытается ее рассмотреть.
Несколько не клеится с переводом - please help!
Andrew Vdovin
Local time: 11:47
squinting
Explanation:
Did you find or try this word?
Selected response from:

GaryG
Local time: 00:47
Grading comment
Thanks Gary!
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +2squinting
GaryG
3 +2turning one eye down her beak
Jack Doughty
5screwing up one eye
Deborah Hoffman


  

Answers


7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
squinting


Explanation:
Did you find or try this word?

GaryG
Local time: 00:47
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 132
Grading comment
Thanks Gary!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Dmitry Kozlov: "squinting an eye" is what first comes to my mind, but probably the entire first half of the sentence is needed.
6 mins
  -> Yes, I thought of "...an eye" and I don't know why I rejected it now :-)
agree  Dorene Cornwell
8 hrs
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21 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
cкосив глаз
turning one eye down her beak


Explanation:
Or as Gary suggests, squint, in which case I would say "squinting down her beak with one eye".

You can also cock or cast an eye at or over something, but I don't they fit here.

There is also "to look askance" (in disapproval) at something, but though the crow might well be looking askance at the butterfly after being made a fool of, I doubt if you would want to use it here - still, it's a possibility.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 22 mins (2005-06-30 15:42:08 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Typo: ...I don\'t think they fit here.

Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:47
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 658

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Yuri Geifman: squinting down her beak :)
4 hrs
  -> Thank you. I think "one eye" needs to be conveyed somehow.
neutral  Dorene Cornwell: I agree about the one eye, but that is part of the definition of "squint." But maybe "casting an eye down her beak."
7 hrs
agree  Vlad Pogosyan
22 hrs
  -> Thank you.
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3 days 1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
cкосив глаз
screwing up one eye


Explanation:
From Dickens:
http://www.readprint.com/chapter-3094/Charles-Dickens
'Then,' screwing the weight of his body upon his wooden leg, and screwing his wooden head very much on one side, and screwing up one eye: 'then, I put the question to you, what's this paper worth?'

And H.G. Wells:
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~tdoyle/hgwells/russia.shtml
"Lenin has a pleasant, quick-changing, brownish face, with a lively smile and a habit (due perhaps to some defect in focussing) of screwing up one eye as he pauses in his talk; he is not very like the photographs you see of him because he is one of those people whose change of expression is more important than their features..."

Also used in translations into English of Chekhov, Gorky and Pushkin:

"http://chekhov2.tripod.com/132.htm
The old man took the pipe from his lips and, screwing up one eye, looked into its little opening. "

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/g/gorky/maksim/g66m/cha...
"He swallowed the medicine and continued, for some reason screwing up one eye."

http://home.freeuk.com/russica2/books/pushk/spads/spads.html
"At that moment it seemed to him that the dead woman glanced at him ironically, screwing up one eye."



Deborah Hoffman
Local time: 00:47
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 36
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