Richard Coombes
@richtranslator.bsky.social
460 followers 340 following 440 posts
Ukrainian and Russian speaker, translator of verse, lyrics and literary prose. Out now: Disbelief, Dislocation, Someone Else’s Life, The Food Block. https://richardcoombeslanguageservices.com
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richtranslator.bsky.social
A potential war with Russia in which we don’t shoot down Russian fighter jets invading our airspace as long as their intentions are peaceful
richtranslator.bsky.social
This is very like a skit from the post-war UK comedy show “Beyond the Fringe”. “If Armageddon comes, get right out of the area. Right out of the area! You’ll have a four-minute warning. Some of these chaps of ours can run a mile in four minutes!”
richtranslator.bsky.social
Всё идёт по плану
richtranslator.bsky.social
According to two people with access to priceless insider knowledge, they discussed the thing that absolutely everyone else is also talking about
richtranslator.bsky.social
Ми повертаємось додому ('We're on our way back home') by Dzvinka Matiiash is a thought-provoking novel in nice, straightforward Ukrainian whose heroine/narrator is Agata, a girl of ten, tall for her age, a misfit. There's much food for thought here about normality and 'fitting in'.
buff.ly
richtranslator.bsky.social
Kim Jong Un has worked it out, then
richtranslator.bsky.social
I’d rather see Ukraine producing equivalent missiles over which Ukraine itself has control
richtranslator.bsky.social
Meanwhile Europe is so afraid of conflict that when it spots a drone it convenes a meeting to conclude “we believe it was likely a drone and possibly came here by mistake”.
richtranslator.bsky.social
I read ‘Spoof Dick’ at first
richtranslator.bsky.social
I listened to Peskov for years before the 2022 invasion. On Echo of Moscow or wherever. It’s always been clear that he has only two settings: supercilious and gibbering. And the actual words that come out of his mouth have always betrayed him as a man who knows that he’s reading a script.
richtranslator.bsky.social
I’ve been advocating this as other countries’ foreign policy. Don’t call him. Don’t pick up the phone.
richtranslator.bsky.social
As in, if Trump’s gone people come out of their trance?
richtranslator.bsky.social
Exclusive: Europe thinks what everyone else has known for sure from the get-go