carpet bar

08:38 Oct 10, 2013 

When I first decided to render the item concerned by what I thought should be the English equivalent, the response from an authority (a major UK literary agents) was 'There have not been such things in England since about 1920, so you may need to substantiate...'
I found this was a very good point and actually I don't want anything that was unclear as there is no good reason to stick to a rug beating rug or whatever.
I am truly indebted to all of you who cared to take part in this discussion.
At this point I am inclined to use coal shed or similar rather than anything else. This seems to be the simplest, most straightforward, universal and works well both in war-time Warsaw and any war-time English city.
I wish the person who suggested it posted it as a regular suggestion, so that I could choose it as the best answer.
Funny to see how simple items can be difficult to render in another language. Especially if these are not the ubiquitous, homogeneous gadgets. But that's the fun of translation, isn't it?
Thanks a lot everyone. This has been a good discussion :)

08:06 Oct 10, 2013 

I don't understand why the asker is looking for an "equivalent" for a traditional meeting place for youth. The book is set in a specific period and place, and the children are playing around dustbins and a carpet-beating rail, which apparently was a common if not universal feature of house or apartment building back yards in that context. To replace it with bike shed, for example, you'd have to research whether bike sheds were common backyard features in wartime Warsaw.

18:48 Oct 9, 2013 

I would go with Tony's idea about the washing line in his first remark.... though not exactly a place to hang out, they can/could be communal places -where different families all hung out their washing.

13:37 Oct 9, 2013 

There is a Proz reference for Polish to English: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/polish_to_english/architecture/363...
I think you could choose rack, stand or frame.
However the image I have is that the boy is hiding behind a carpet and lobbing things over it. So how about "from behind a carpet hung out to beat".

10:34 Oct 9, 2013 

from PS Boys'
"Remember when you were so easily led // Behind the cricket pavillion or a bicycle shed"

09:13 Oct 9, 2013 

Tony's right
examples he offers would work as well as BDF's "behind the bike shed" (some literary examples here:) http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bike-she...

07:35 Oct 9, 2013 

I don't know if this is a specifically European thing, or if indeed it existed in the UK too, but it sounds like some kind of communal carpet-beating rail — perhaps more solid than any individual household could afford.

I think you just need to choose whether the children meet in the street, or in someone's back yard — or maybe on a bomb site, for example (was Warsaw bombed a lot?) If it was some kind of disused industrial site, then there might be plenty of things for him to have hidden behind etc.

07:24 Oct 9, 2013 

Thank you Tony. I've been thinking about a similar solution.
I relied on the explanation provided in Wikipedia, which may be misleading. This used to be a traditional meeting place in this part of the world.
I'm just wondering, if there is a distinct place, which used to be a meeting place for children when they used to play outside with one another rather than playstations. xboxes etc.
If there is no such place/item it may make little difference what I really use. This is not a major issue and will not impact the book.

07:10 Oct 9, 2013 

These days, beating carpets is pretty much out of fashion, and carpet beaters are probably more for decoration than actual use. In the UK at least, most people would hang their carpets over the washing line.
A common meeting place (not specifically for young people) would in the olden days have been the village pump; as you are not in a 'village' situation, it may be hard to find a solution that will be immediately recognizable to all readers.

In fact, there seems to be some confusion in your question: this is celarly not some public palce to meet, as you have said they are in the back yard. So maybe you could say something like 'from behind the coal-shed' or 'behind the outhouse / privy' — 'under the washing-line' might be more accurate, but perhaps less evocative.