Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма

English translation: if being learned counts, how come the unlearned are countless.

18:35 Feb 13, 2006

Russian to English translations [PRO]
Idioms / Maxims / Sayings / Conferencing

Russian term or phrase: Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма

A Managing Director is being asked in an interview whether he has any favourite sayings or quotations. He replies that he does not, but thinks up something new each day, such as today's, which is: Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма. Can anyone come up with an equally short translation that will retain the pun on the meanings of тьма? Any bright ideas? (Sorry, I couldn't resist... d:))

John Sowerby KudoZ activity Questions: 301 (none open) (3 closed without grading) Answers: 43 United Kingdom
Local time: 23:33

English translation:if being learned counts, how come the unlearned are countless.

Explanation:
.

Selected response from:

sergey (X)
Local time: 23:33

Grading comment

Thank you very much.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +5

If "knowledge is power", why do we still get power outages?

Victor Potapov

5 +1

Knowledge is power, but the powerless are legion.

Deborah Hoffman

3 +3

if being learned counts, how come the unlearned are countless.

sergey (X)

3 +2

learning is the eye of the mind - but lots of people get behind

Andrew Vdovin

education is the daylight, but there's a darkness of childs of ignorance

Vladimir Spiridonov

1 +2

learning make some people shine, but the majority need their lightbulbs changed

Mikhail Kropotov

knowledge is light, the ignorant are dark mass

Alexander Demyanov

Education illuminates hordes of unenlighted

Crio

Learning gives man light, still rare is bright

Crio

Knowledge is the light, yet ignorance is bliss... for some

Yuri Geifman

Learning generates light, but too many people are generating darkness

Dylan Edwards

Knowledge illuminates but the illumination covers too few people

Kirill Semenov

Discussion entries: 5

Answers

10 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма learning is the eye of the mind - but lots of people get behind

Explanation:
"Learning is the eye of the mind" is a well known saying, so I thought adding something to it might help.

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Note added at 16 mins (2006-02-13 18:52:05 GMT)
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Probably 'drop behind' would be better.

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Note added at 21 mins (2006-02-13 18:57:08 GMT)
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THIS ONE IS EVEN BETTER:
learning is the eye of the mind - but lots of people are just blind

Andrew Vdovin
Local time: 05:33
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Russian
PRO pts in category: 16

16 mins confidence:

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма Knowledge illuminates but the illumination covers too few people

Explanation:
Knowledge is light, but surrounded by a dark cloud of profanes

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Note added at 20 mins (2006-02-13 18:55:20 GMT)
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Knowledge is a little light among the darkness of profanes

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Note added at 21 mins (2006-02-13 18:56:15 GMT)
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Knowledgable are a tiny light among the vast darkness of profanes

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 26 mins (2006-02-13 19:01:26 GMT)
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Knowlegde illuminates but cannot dispel the darkness of ignorance

Knowledge illuminates but the dark veil of ignorance is still thicker.

Kirill Semenov
Ukraine
Local time: 01:33
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Russian
PRO pts in category: 79

7 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма learning make some people shine, but the majority need their lightbulbs changed

Explanation:
My humble attempt

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Note added at -33 min (2006-02-13 14:02:11 GMT)
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Another wild guess:

Learning makes people wise, but we haven't learned to make people do it.

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Note added at -29 min (2006-02-13 14:07:04 GMT)
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Or here's another one:
Some people learn and see the light, others stumble in the darkness forever.

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Note added at -27 min (2006-02-13 14:08:48 GMT)
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Also, I think Confucius said this:

Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.

Perhaps you could adapt the adage for your purposes.

Mikhail Kropotov
Germany
Local time: 00:33
Works in field
Native speaker of: Russian
PRO pts in category: 63

1 hr confidence:

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма knowledge is light, the ignorant are dark mass

Explanation:
or: knowledge is light, ignorants are dark mass

Alexander Demyanov
Local time: 18:33
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Russian

1 hr confidence:

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма Knowledge is the light, yet ignorance is bliss... for some

Explanation:
Can't seem to come up with a similar pun.... maybe this will spark some ideas :)

Yuri Geifman
Canada
Local time: 18:33
Native speaker of:

Russian,

English

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма Knowledge is power, but the powerless are legion.

Explanation:
Ещё вариант.

Deborah Hoffman
Local time: 18:33
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 16

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма

if being learned counts, how come the unlearned are countless.

Explanation:
.

sergey (X)
Local time: 23:33
PRO pts in category: 8

Grading comment

Thank you very much.

6 hrs confidence:

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма education is the daylight, but there's a darkness of childs of ignorance

Explanation:
in making fun (or pan) of "...the education is a daylight, and the barbaric ignorance is a child of darkness"
вариант такой:
education is the daylight, but there's a darkness of childs of ignorance
проблема в том, что татаро-русское тьма -тысяча- в английском не реализуется.

Vladimir Spiridonov
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:33
Native speaker of: Russian

12 hrs confidence:

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма Education illuminates hordes of unenlighted

Explanation:
Свободные вариации =)

или
Education sheds light just to show that peoples are unenlighted

Crio
Russian Federation
Local time: 01:33
Native speaker of:

Russian

13 hrs confidence:

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма Learning gives man light, still rare is bright

Explanation:
Learning gives man light, still rare is bright

Sorry, no "тьма" mentioned

Crio
Russian Federation
Local time: 01:33
Native speaker of:

Russian

14 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма If "knowledge is power", why do we still get power outages?

Explanation:
This was an attempt to do a wrong thing - to do a "pun-for-pun" translation, but with a twist:

you can either use the same idea beneath the original pun (but you cannot do it in this case, as "тьма" means "legion" or 10,000 (or 100,000?) in Church Slavic language. So there's a wordplay involved. Cannot do :0)

Or you can try to reinvent the pun in the target language - like I tried in the heading of my answer.

Option #3 is to explain the pun - usually works poorly and rarely draws any laughs/cheers from the audience :-)

You can play around this by also saying something like:

- Scientists believe there's a constant amount of knowledge in the world. However, population of the Earth is steadily increasing...

- If "knowledge is the guiding light of life" - how come the night still falls every evening?

That would be the direction I would be moving in myself (in a written translation). If this was my interpreting "luck" to try this one for size, I would probably use the first one (in the title line of my answer). Do I have to remind you I like Woody Allen & his type of humor? :-))

By the way, at minus 50 minutes (negative fifty) that's my fastest answer so far :-)))

Good luck!

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Note added at -43 min (2006-02-13 13:53:06 GMT)
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My screen still reads -45 (and that's not the temperature outside - it's the time since the question was posted, negative forty five minutes...)

Strange...

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Note added at 1 day13 hrs (2006-02-15 08:03:50 GMT)
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Here's yet another idea:

if knowledge is a gift that keeps on giving...

and pull a pun based on that (potential topics: shortage, scarcity, etc.)

My point is - it is impossible to convey the original wordplay + the original idea (education is useful, but the ranks of the uneducated are swelling) in the same (brief) sentence or even in a one-liner stand-up type of saying - and the Russian original is just that, a Russian proverb mutilated for use in stand-up comedy. Ask anyone who lived in Rusia in mid- to late 90s about "Fomenko jokes" or "Jokes from the Russian Radio" - and you'll get the idea of how popular one-liners are in Russia.

Good luck!

Victor Potapov
Russian Federation
Local time: 01:33
Native speaker of:

Russian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Mikhail Kropotov: If "knowledge is the guiding light of life" - how come the night still falls every evening?

9 mins

-> Или так... Спасибо!

agree

Aleksandr Okunev (X): or even sudden blackouts...

1 hr

-> Very good - and makes the whole phrase shorter. Thanks!

agree

Irene N: Ай, молодца!

1 hr

-> Ай, рад стараться! Если бы Вы знали, какие перлы иногда прут во время синхрона... расшифровываешь запись - и прямо диву даёшься... :-) Спасибо!

agree

trum-purum (X)

9 hrs

-> Мерси.

agree

Svetlana Chekunova: красиво))

18 hrs

-> Фигню не пишем-с... и не предлагаем-с! :-))

16 hrs confidence:

Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма Learning generates light, but too many people are generating darkness

Explanation:
shame about all the people generating darkness!

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Note added at 6 days (2006-02-19 23:19:52 GMT)
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Learning is light, but many are in the dark.

Dylan Edwards
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:33
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 20

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Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма

English translation: if being learned counts, how come the unlearned are countless.

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Ученье свет, а не ученых тьма

English translation: if being learned counts, how come the unlearned are countless.

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