Oleg Zabluda's blog
Monday, May 14, 2012
 
The living will envy the dead.
The living will envy the dead.

Where did that phrase come from? Opinions differ. Most of the Russians think that it's from Treasure Island's Long John Silver.

In the cartoon he said: "...через час те из вас, кто останется в живых будут завидовать мёртвым!"
Остров сокровищ (Сокровища капитана Флинта) (Серия 2) (27:27 mark)

Translation by Chukovky: "Через час вы будете смеяться по-иному. А те из вас, кто останется в живых, позавидуют мертвым!"

Original by Stevenson: "Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side. Them that die'll be the lucky ones."

Americans think its Khrushchev, speaking of nuclear war, quoted by The Washington Post, Mar 20, 1981, p. A23.
http://www.bartleby.com/73/1257.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=2Tu3bScwKKAC&pg=PT264
No form of this quotation has been verified in the speeches or writings of Khrushchev, so could be yet another made up story.

in Apocalypse/Revelation of John (Откровение) 9:6
"During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them."
"В те дни люди будут искать смерти, но не найдут ее; пожелают умереть, но смерть убежит от них"
http://bible.cc/revelation/9-6.htm

And then there was along tradition in Russia to use this phrase going back to at least Karamzin's "Марфа-посадница, или покорение Новагорода" (1803): "...тогда живые позавидуют мертвым!"
http://az.lib.ru/k/karamzin_n_m/text_0080.shtml

I the book "On Thermonuclear War" by Herman Kahn (1960), which I own and read, chapter 2 is called "Will the Survivors Envy The Dead"
http://books.google.com/books?id=EN2gtPTjFd8C&pg=PA40

In "The Jewish War" ("Иудейская война") by Flavius Josephus (Иосиф Флавий) (ca. AD 75) we read about the Jews complaining about Herod:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/history/flavius-josephus/war-of-the-jews/book-2/chapter-6.html
"...those that were left had endured such miseries, that they called those that were dead happy men"
"но участь тех, которых он оставил в живых, была такова, что они завидовали погибавшим"

http://lib.ru/POEEAST/FLAWIJ/flavii_voina.txt
I don't know which translation this is. See http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Иудейская_война for the list of translations to Russian, the earliest being 1713.

Later, in the same book:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/history/flavius-josephus/war-of-the-jews/book-6/chapter-3.html?p=2 "So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries."
"Голодавшие отныне жаждали только смерти и завидовали счастливой доле ушедших уже в вечность"

A lot taken from http://www.chitaem-vmeste.ru/pages/material.php?article=89&journal=54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiAlDKyedJc#t=27m27s

Labels:


- posted by Oleg Zabluda @ 11:03 PM | permalink | | | technorati | bloglines | feedster
| |

Home

Powered by Blogger